Flight School Retrojournal

About This Blog

2012-07-03T15:02:00.000-07:00

(This post is future dated to appear near the top of my posts - today's actual date is 12/21/11.)

This blog is a journal (of sorts) about learning to fly. It started as a retro-journal (writing years after the fact of my original 1997-2001 lessons, from notes I had kept for myself, which are not yet completely converted to this blog - there are gaps). I did a little flying in 2004 (only one post here so far). Then in summer 2011, I started flying again (tail wheel lessons), and it became a current flight lesson journal.

Flying seems to be such a sporadic thing for me (except as an airline passenger, which is pretty regular). I flew a lot in July and August 2011, flying with Ed Urbanowski in his wonderful Citabria, finally learning to land a tail dragger. Then I stopped. Why? Business travel, general work-load at work, family stuff. The usual suspects. I really wanted to get the tail wheel endorsement this year but I just didn't make it, and here it is winter already.

As of this writing, my last non-airline flight was on September 26, 2011. It was in a B-24 Liberator bomber, and I was not at the controls (but it was a VERY cool flight). I was briefly at the Norden bombsite (shown above). Real flying to resume in 2012 (I sure hope).

Posting has resumed (somewhat)...

2012-07-01T23:34:00.000-07:00

(This post is future dated to appear near the top of my blog entries - actual date 12/21/11.)

After an initial burst of enthusiasm , I've slowed down in moving my notes from Word to this blog. I have notes on many lessons and solo flights between first solo in late July 2000 and passing the check ride in May 2001. To be continued...

UPDATE: Apparently to be very slowly continued. My apologies to the handful of people who noticed this blog and commented or asked questions back in November or December 2006. I've been busy with other things and haven't even looked at this blog for a few months! If you still have a question or anything, please email me (bruceirvingmusic at pobox.com).

One general comment: If you're thinking about taking flying lessons, DO IT.

In the meantime, it's a snowy Saint Patrick's Day, and I was thinking about flying for some reason. I do miss flying and I hope I'll be able to get back to it this summer. Today I've added a few of my post-solo flight notes, from August to early September 2000, including my first (dual) cross country flight.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Now it's a rather nice day in May 2008 in Brussels where I am teaching a class this week. I added a post on my May 2001 check ride and may try to fill in a few more lesson notes in the weeks to come. The mostly regular writing is all in Music of the Spheres.

YET ANOTHER UPDATE: Now it's a rainy night in Tokyo in November 2009 and for some reason I decided to add a couple of posts to this sadly neglected historical blog. I added posts on a couple of interesting lessons in fall 2000 (and one non-lesson that would have been cool if it had happened, a P-51 flight). It's also sad that I'm not flying any more these days (except for many hours on international commercial flights), but that's life. Maybe someday.

UPDATED UPDATE (July 5, 2011): I've finally started to fly again, so there are actually NEW entries in this blog - check for posts from June 2011 and forward. Since I'm actually trying to get current again, this is also motivating me to review some of my old flight lesson notes, and as I do so, I will add them here. I already added a few entries from winter-spring 2001, the final months before my May 2001 check ride. So this is now a RETRO and CURRENT flying blog.

More Consistent Landings

2011-08-31T08:30:00.000-07:00

This morning was beautiful with clear skies and nearly calm winds. I did five landings, the first four of which were good landings (according to Ed), though of course there were things that could have been a little better on each one. A couple of times I got down to 60 mph before I was over the runway. We like to have 65-70 coming over the trees because when the Citabria gets down to 60, you start to sink faster and if there's some wind shear, you are closer to a stall than you would like to be at 60 or 80 feet up. I used a slip on a couple of final approaches where I felt I was high and/or fast, noticing this myself before Ed said anything (except on the first landing where he said "we're pretty high" right after I turned final).

The fifth landing was good right down to the runway, but I didn't hold it off quite long enough and was late adding power, so it was a pretty hard landing with a slight bounce, but OK.

I've made a lot of progress in the last few flights with Ed. Takeoffs are good, though we refined those a bit this morning. When I work the tail up on the takeoff roll, I've been holding a level flight attitude. It's better to keep it slightly nose up (slightly tail down, video here) so when you reach flying speed (about 60 mph), it practically flies itself off without a distinct "rotate" back-stick motion (maybe slight back pressure). Less chance to get slow this way. Patterns are good, and I'm doing better holding the best climb sight picture (around 75 mph) and keeping the ball centered. I'm noticing problems sooner - keeping up with the airplane if not "ahead of the airplane" as Ed always urges me to always stay. All of this contributes to better landings - consistency avoids problems, and when problems occur, fixing them sooner (like line-up with the runway center line) means you can focus more on the landing itself.

One of my biggest problems still seems to be getting the stick ALL the way back as I touch down. I've got to get that under control so Ed never has to mention it again.

Here's a video of Ed landing the Citabria this morning (HD, not hat cam VGA). Doesn't LOOK that hard, does it?

0.9 hours dual in Citabria (8/31/11, 3B3)

See How It Flies

2011-08-29T12:04:00.000-07:00

See How It Flies is an excellent on-line book by John Denker. The subtitle is “a new spin on the perceptions, procedures, and principles of flight,” and I think it is quite unique in the way that it integrates practical flying techniques with the physics of flight. Denker is both a physicist and a flight instructor, so I guess such integration makes a certain amount of sense. It’s really a book on how to fly airplanes, with a lot of background material on why things work the way they do. It’s been around since 1996, and since it’s an on-line book (and free, by the way), Denker has updated it over the years based on reader feedback. Copyright date indicates 1996-2008.

Denker seems to be the kind of guy who knows a lot about everything. He wanted simulated wind tunnel graphics for the book, so he wrote a wind tunnel simulator program. He’s done extensive flight instruction, so he knows the kinds of questions and confusions inexperienced pilots are apt to have (though I'm sure most experienced pilots could also learn a lot from this book). He’s a physicist, so he’s not afraid to put a few mathematical expressions in his book (though not a lot – there are many more diagrams and charts than equations). But he’s also a pilot, so he’s not afraid to provide simple, intuitive rules of thumb when they can help (some of them quite literally rules of thumb, like “a thumb at arm’s length subtends 4 degrees,” which is a nice glide slope angle, see figure).

If you want to print the book or have it available off-line, it’s a bit tricky because it is spread across many separate web pages. Saving it correctly with all its graphics and links intact is not easy (at least for me). I was able to find a couple of PDF links to the complete book, but none of the most recent version (this one is from 2001).

Ups and Downs on Landings

2011-08-26T10:00:00.000-07:00

Still staying in the pattern at Sterling, trying to get my tail wheel landings under better control. On Tuesday Ed suggested I land on the paved runway rather than the grass, which I tend to prefer because the line-up isn’t quite so critical on the wide grass runway, giving me a chance to concentrate on other things (like getting the stick all the way back – at just the right time, of course). At first the runway seemed just a bit narrow (though it's 40 feet wide), and I added “poor line-up” to my usual woes (high and fast on final). Various combinations of these issues resulted in 3 go-arounds before I made a successful landing. And that one wasn’t the greatest. So much for Tuesday.

I reviewed my hat cam video and realized that my turn to base is not very consistent – so I usually end up high, or very rarely low, on final approach. I resolved to really try to make this better on the next flight, which was Friday morning. I told Ed about my theories and asked if he would fly one pattern as a demo, which he did (for some reason seeing a demo always helps me to do better). I don’t like to use ground landmarks in the pattern (since these only work for one runway), but Ed mentioned that he starts his turn just after a small pond that I had also noticed when flying runway 34. Fair enough, and that landmark helped me to be more consistent. I did four pretty decent landings, one go-around, and one bouncer (saved with power), unfortunately on the last one. I did slips without prompting on two of the landings (pilot in command!), which is good. Still seeking the elusive goal of "consistency," but I still felt pretty good about this session. I posted one hat cam landing video on Flickr.

Typical pattern for 34 at Sterling

Monday morning at 8 am is doubtful due to possible after-effects of Hurricane Irene (no damage at my house, and I hope the airport and Ed’s planes are OK). But I have a Wednesday morning flight booked, and weather is supposed to be good all week.

0.8 hours dual Citabria (3B3, 8/23/11)
1.2 hours dual Citabria (3B3, 8/26/11)

Online Flight Simulators!?!

2011-08-22T18:34:00.000-07:00

This is something really cool that I will have to return to when I have some spare time and brain cells. Luizmonteiro.com is a Florida based company whose mission is "To provide quality online aviation education products accessible to anyone with Internet access." They have a number of online aviation calculators, but more impressively, a set of Flash-based online flight simulators to support instrument flight training. There are no out-the-window visuals here, just the instruments and simple horizontal and vertical navigation views (a simple map and a side view of your path in altitude). There is simplified aircraft control from the keyboard (pitch, bank, and airspeed), and many controls for the instruments, panel layout, etc. Did I mention that the online versions are all free? Yes, free!

What this has showed me so far is that I have forgotten pretty much everything about VOR navigation! I used to know that stuff pretty well, but it's been years since I've used it. I'm sure this will be a useful and fun tool for reviewing VOR and other aspects of basic instrument flight and navigation that I hope to have use for in coming months and years. Meanwhile I'm still going in circles trying to get my landings up to par so I can do some of this other stuff! Patience, Grasshopper, patience!

Crabby Crosswind Blues

2011-08-21T13:34:00.000-07:00

Although conditions were pretty good at Sterling this morning, the weather at Spencer was bad and Ed couldn't fly out in time for our 8 am flight. So we rescheduled for 1 pm. When I got to the airport, a storm was on the way, winds were a bit gusty and variable, and Ed said "it's not going to be an easy day up there." He was right. We also had the less familiar (for me) runway 16 in use rather than the typical 34. Plus there were a few gliders around, so the gliders and the Piper Pawnee tow plane would be in the pattern with me. None of this should be a big deal, but I especially wasn't ready for the crosswind aspect, and I was a bit apprehensive. In retrospect I should have asked Ed to review and brief me on the situation, talk through what we would be seeing, and maybe even fly the first pattern and landing as a demo. I hadn't seen gusty crosswinds in a long time (maybe 2004!), but the weather was coming in, and if we waited, we wouldn't have much time to fly. So we flew.

I tried to use proper stick technique when taxiing out (no taxiway for 16 so you have to back taxi on the runway), stick forward when taxiing with a tailwind, plus some left or right stick into the wind as needed. Crosswind seemed to mostly be coming from the right on the approaches (maybe from due south) but the runway windsocks were variable and mostly down the runway. Takeoffs were mostly normal and mostly OK, though I was never really quite sure what I should be doing with the stick since the crosswind wasn't steady. The correct answer is "make corrections based on what you see and feel," so on the initial climb, I established a crab to the right, but I don't think I held the runway heading too well, and I didn't consciously adjust for it again until final. I should have been thinking about this both for the timing and the angles of my turns (e.g., when you turn left "crosswind leg" with a right crosswind with respect to runway heading, you have a tailwind on that leg and need to start your turn to downwind sooner). So without proper wind correction, my patterns ended up very wide and not very square.

With a (mostly) tailwind on the downwind leg, I should have started the turn for base earlier than usual, so I ended up quite far from the runway when I turned final (which I tried three different ways on the three landings, none of them lined up too well). But I finally got established on a crabbed final approach as shown in the hat cam video frame above (75 mph, 760 feet, 300 feet AGL). Due to the gusts, I probably should have flown the final a bit faster than the normal 65-70 mph, and I probably did since I tend to be fast on final. But the gusts were still a problem (aka "wind shear") and on the first approach, the right wing dropped pretty hard, and I was not quick enough to respond ("behind the airplane") and Ed added power and made the correction.

Once we were over the trees and coming down on the grass, we should have transitioned from the crab to a slip with the right wing low, and I think I did, though the crosswind was not very strong at the surface and it seems like the wings were mostly level on all three touch-downs. On the first landing, Ed said, "that was not bad, but you are still behind the airplane, you have to be quicker with the needed corrections." On the third landing I inexplicably released the back pressure just after touchdown, something you just can't do in a tail wheel airplane. Duh! We quit after three landings.

Overall an anxious but instructive session. Although you can't execute a fixed "crosswind plan" when the winds are changing, you do need to notice the trends, see what the airplane is doing, and proactively correct for it, and at least have in mind things like "hmm, from this drift it seems we have a crosswind from the right," and with this info in mind, make appropriate corrections on the rest of the pattern. On the first pattern, I should have figured out why I was so far from the runway compared to what I usually do - wind effects! Plan for them on the next one! The novelty of runway 16 meant that I didn't have familiar horizon and ground references for my pattern, though of course you shouldn't rely on such things since every runway is different. Crosswinds are always tough and I haven't really worked on this in years, but I really do need to get back to the "pilot in command" attitude and make the airplane do what I need it to do (which means noticing when it's not!).

Ed also commented post-flight that he has seen professional pilots (that ain't me) do more than one go-around on a windy, gusty day, not even attempting the landing until they have figured out what's going on and are satisfied they can make the landing safely. At least one of my three landings should have been a go-around. Aeronautical decision making!

0.7 hours dual in Citabria (8/21/11)

Vicarious Helicopterism

2011-08-20T18:11:00.000-07:00

Today my wife and I attended a wonderful open house at Marlboro Airport (9B1), sponsored by North Andover Flight Academy, a helicopter flight school based at Lawrence Airport, with a satellite operation at Marlboro. There was an FAA safety seminar on helicopter topics, a free barbecue, various pilots and students to talk with, and $99 helicopter intro rides. All great fun for an aviation geek like me, but this was really not about me - it was actually for my wife! Although she has never had much interest in small airplanes, our recent Grand Canyon helicopter tour awakened a previously unknown passion for rotary wing flight. Who knew?

So she took a 30 minute intro flight in a Robinson R22, and she absolutely loved it. She got to control the helicopter in straight and level flight (hovering and other more tricky maneuvers will all come in due time, but usually not on a 30 minute intro lesson). Her instructor (Anthony) was wonderful. She will definitely be taking more lessons. Since my feet and hands are still trying to master tail wheel landings this summer, I won't be doing any helo flights myself, but I will be encouraging my wife on this new adventure. I'm very proud of her!

NAFA's blog has a more complete report on the open house here. There's also an article by a Metro West Daily News reporter who took an intro flight with Anthony in the R22.

My Presidential Hat Cam

2011-08-19T19:28:00.000-07:00

I decided to ban hand-held cameras from my tail wheel flight lessons this summer - too distracting when I need to focus on learning tricky new skills. But I was also thinking it would nice to have a hands-free way to record video of my flights so I could review them and maybe learn more quickly from my mistakes. I know there are various "action cams" available these days, but I figured they would be really expensive.

Then a couple of weeks ago Amazon had a daily deal on a tiny Kodak Zm1 VGA video camera for $30, so I ordered one, along with an 8 GB MicroSDHC memory card (4 hours of video). The Zm1 doesn't have a tripod mount, so I had to improvise with a small bolt, epoxy, a nut, and a couple of large washers. I drilled a hole in the brim of a baseball cap I rarely (never) wore (sorry Caroline), a Washington, DC souvenir with a large presidential seal on the front. Voila! The camera only weighs 2.6 ounces (maybe 4 ounces with the hardware), so it works pretty well on the brim of the hat. I have to be careful to position the hat so the camera points where I'm looking (and not mess it up when I put on my headset or move my head around the cockpit). The camera shoots upside down as mounted but I can fix that easily in the editing software.

Bottom line: based on one test flight, it works. Samples here and here (and above). The low res VGA video is not very pretty but is adequate for evaluating what went wrong with some of my recent landings. I can get enough of a look at the airspeed indicator and altimeter along with the front and occasional side views. The camera has no image stabilization, but the head motion and airplane vibrations are not a problem.

Unfortunately I saw a sample video that one of Ed's other students shot with a ContourHD mounted with a suction cup on the right door window. Really gorgeous full HD video, and the CountourHD costs less than I thought ($139). I'm sorely tempted but will try to resist and work with the hat cam for at least a few flights.

In the pattern: Consistency and Decision Making

2011-08-18T08:30:00.000-07:00

My last Citabria flight with Ed was on August 3, and although he came back from vacation last Saturday, the two flights we had booked earlier this week were both canceled due to weather. I was making decent progress on landings on August 3, but two weeks off usually results in some backsliding, and that was true this morning. First the good news: takeoffs and basic air work in the pattern were still OK, and I did better in lining up with the extended runway centerline on the turn from base to final, so I wasn’t as distracted by the need to zig-zag the airplane back to the correct (lateral) approach path on final.

The bad news fell into two areas, inconsistency and delayed decision making. The inconsistency comes mostly from the downwind leg to final approach. Starting altitude is generally OK (TPA 1500 feet), but my spacing from runway on downwind tends to vary and sometimes is too close, even without a crosswind to confuse matters. I really need to have the runway above the half-way point on the left wing strut or my base leg will be too short. When this happens, I end up high on final. I can correct this to some extent by extending the downwind leg by a few seconds after I’ve brought the power back to idle. This gives more time to descend (although you really don’t want to be heading away from the runway while descending – bad if the engine quits – better to fly a properly spaced downwind and not have this problem).

OK, so I turn base and then final, and usually I’m high (and sometimes fast too, but there should be time to slow down if I notice soon enough). Here’s where delayed decision making comes in. I’m still relying too much on Ed to say things like “you’re high – how about a slip.” I need to notice and act on this myself, perhaps announcing it first in case I am misjudging. But if I don’t say or do anything, Ed can only assume I don’t see the problem. That’s the first decision point. The second one is the go-around. If Ed leaves it to me to fix up the approach and I don’t, I end up fast and high, and if it’s too late for a slip, or if I blow the landing and bounce high, it’s time for a decisive go-around. I need to show him that I can judge and act on these things without his help.

This was the first flight with my new video “hat cam.” I’ll probably write a separate post about that, but I got the entire flight on video from my own perspective. I have edited out the approach/landing phase (about 2.5 minutes) for each time around the pattern, so I can review these clips to see what went right (and wrong). I won’t do that here (maybe I’ll do some in a separate post with some screen grabs if that seems generally instructive). Of the five landings, one was a bounce, saved with power (Ed’s prompting), and one was a TWO bounce monster, for which Ed initiated a full-power go-around because I was not solving the problem and we were running out of runway. One landing was pretty good and mostly me (my best set up and airspeed control), and two required long slips on final, which Ed prompted and I flew. I am doing better on getting the stick back in the final flare for landing and keeping control on the ground roll-out.

All in all not an impressive performance, and I hope to redeem myself on Sunday if the weather cooperates. I plan to "forget" that Ed is back there and make all the calls and actions myself, even if this means I do a few go-arounds. I have the basic skills to land this airplane, but I need to work on making it do what I want it to do, and that involves making some timely decisions about when to apply those basic skills. It's time to integrate everything as I once was able to do the in the C152 way back in 2001 when I passed my check ride.

1.0 hours dual in Citabria (8/18/11)

No Fly Notes

2011-08-06T14:58:00.000-07:00

No flying until next weekend when Ed comes back from vacation. In the meantime, here are some miscellaneous flight-related notes.

Headset - When I decided to start flying again this summer, I realized that the super-cheapo headset I bought 11 years ago needed to be replaced (it shorted out the intercom on a Cessna 172 flight I took a year or so ago). I probably should have gone straight to the classic David Clark headset that so many professionals use ($350 and up), but I decided to try something a bit cheaper that still had good reviews, the Faro G2 for around $180. So far it's working quite well, comfortable and with decent sound and noise suppression (passive, not active). One marketing gimmick is that it comes in various colors. I went with basic black.

Reading - Although I should be focusing on regulations and other flight review topics, I've been reading a "deep background" book called Understanding Flight (Second Edition) by David Anderson and Scott Eberhardt. Although I'm a pilot and a physics major and have read a lot of stuff about the theory of flight, I still enjoy reading a book like this that focuses on physical and intuitive understanding more than on equations. It does assume that you can read graphs and understand what it means for something to depend on velocity-squared or whatever. Two chapters in, and it's really a good read, maybe even better than the classic The Simple Science of Flight (book) and John Denker's great See How It Flies (web site - though Denker's work is much more of a practical how-to for pilots). I'm reading the Kindle version on my iPod Touch. It's OK, but it's one of the few cases where the small screen is annoying due to figures (which fortunately are zoomable) and side bars (text is cut off and lost if the whole side bar will not fit on a single screen - a bug in the Kindle app I think). Maybe I need a real Kindle (or an iPad?).

Helicopters & Scams - Since our wonderful sightseeing and landing adventure in the Grand Canyon in July, my wife has gotten very interested in helicopters, and she plans to take at least an introductory helicopter flight lesson soon. For preparation, I've gotten her a book and a few articles, and we also have viewed a few helicopter training videos on YouTube. Searching for further materials, I discovered the web site PrivatePilotDVD.com (not a link - I suggest you avoid this site) - not a good discovery. The web site is cheesy, but the materials and testimonials looked promising, so I spent $47 to buy a "complete private pilot course" for helicopters. I should have checked it out first, because of course it's a scam. A small package arrived from Hong Kong with two hand-burned discs. The DVD-R has the same helicopter instruction segments we found on YouTube, and the CDR has a bunch of FAA web sites and PDF documents that anyone can easily download for free. Avoid this web site!

Real Progress

2011-08-03T18:53:00.000-07:00

I flew another 1.1 hours of pattern practice early this morning with Ed in the Citabria, and it went much better than last time (2 days ago - I really like lessons close together!). My landings are actually starting to work, and out of six landings, three were a bit ragged but OK, two were fairly good, and the last one was just "good landing" (according to Ed). Cool! Of course I'm not there yet - I'm still making some mistakes (stick all the way back!) and I need to work on consistency and on judging how the approach is going (especially when I'm too high). But I feel a lot better than Monday morning when every approach was high and/or fast and I had two go-arounds.

Mainly I followed my own advice from my previous blog post (scribbled diagram/notes above) - I pulled the power all the way to idle when abeam the numbers on downwind (rather than 1500 RPM which left me with more altitude and airspeed than I needed), and I made sure that I had 65-70 mph on final rather than 75-80 (a couple of times I got below 65 on final which gives you a lot of "sink" and requires adding some power to allow a gentle round-out on short final). I was still high on one approach and Ed recommended a slip which I did (with some coaching - I still need more practice on integrating slips smoothly into the approach).I'm also not happy with my precision in rolling out from base to final on the extended runway center line - I usually need a fair amount of correction to get lined up on final. Not sure why (no wind again this morning so this should not be that hard to judge).

Takeoffs were all good, and my directional control on the landing roll-out is getting better (at least on the grass - I will need to start doing some runway landings soon as well). Now I will have 10 days off while Ed and family head off on vacation. I'll work on some of my flight review study and pick up with Ed on August 14th.

Update: I've reviewed some of my flight notes from 2004 when I flew about 10 hours with Ed in his Piper Cub. There's quite a sense of deja vu there as far as my reluctant feet and various tail wheel and other mistakes. I've posted the note on lesson #4 (almost exactly 7 years ago!) from that series and may add more when I have time.

1.1 hours dual in Citabria (8/3/11)

I Keep Trying

2011-08-01T18:19:00.000-07:00

Here's a rather long and self-critical note on my recent landing practice. It's all part of the (re)learning process and I'm lucky to have an instructor who is incredibly patient and skilled at keeping us safe even when I make some pretty dumb mistakes. I know that's what CFI's do, among other things, but I'm still grateful for it. One of these days I'll remember my real camera on a morning lesson and take a decent picture of Ed landing the Citabria (camera was in my car this morning but I didn't realize it until after our flight). Wednesday maybe...

I had two sessions of pattern work with Ed in the Citabria, one at 10 am Saturday (1.1 hrs) and one this morning (1.3 hrs). Aside from continuing good luck with weather, the good news is that I’ve got takeoffs pretty well in hand. I can keep it rolling pretty straight down the runway on 3 wheels, get the tail up when I feel the stick response “stiffen” (so to speak!), keep it rolling straight on 2 wheels, pull back a bit to lift off at about 60 mph, and lower the nose a bit to avoid a possible stall while accelerating to 70-75 mph, then establish positive rate of climb. I still drift off the runway heading more than I would like on climb-out (I pick out one horizon reference point, then another, then another). I hold right rudder to keep the ball centered while I’m thinking of it, but then I check traffic or something and partly release it until I notice the ball isn't centered. But I’m aware of all this and I’m gradually getting better.

The bad news is the landings. Ed had been coaching and helping me quite a bit on landings, advising when I’m high or need to add power or whatever. But I’m a big boy with about 9 hours in this airplane. Time to step up to the plate. On these two lessons, he mostly left the approach and landing decisions up to me until I screwed something up and he either added a control input or comment or both. Ed is very good at not panicking. :)

My patterns are generally OK now (I realize this is just basic air work and shouldn’t be tough) – 75-80 mph on the climb out, turning crosswind at about 1100’ while continuing the climb to 1500’ TPA, and turning downwind (and usually making a "Sterling traffic" call there). Trying to keep my turns something like 90 degrees with good coordination. Good offset from the runway (about mid-wing-strut). Once established at 1500 feet, pitch-power-trim for straight and level at about 2300 RPM. Carb heat at mid-field downwind, throttle back to 1500 RPM when abeam the numbers and establish a glide at about 80 mph (pitch-power-trim, but I get a little fixated on this sometimes and the wings wobble a bit – that’s my lazy feet as usual).

This is where the trouble starts. Maybe 1500 RPM is too much power on the glide, and if I start my turn to base where I THINK I should (with runway numbers about 45 degrees behind me), I end up too high and too close to the runway. So sometimes I extend the downwind a bit to give myself more room to get down. Of course getting farther from the airport than you need to be isn’t a good idea – what if the engine quits? You want to be able to glide to a safe landing. I recall doing a number of simulated engine failure landings with Mario in the C152 at ORH. I got to be OK on judging those (in 2000-2001!). You don’t fly an extended downwind or a squared-off turn to base in that case! Today I was so high on two approaches that I had to go around.

Hypothesis 1: Try bringing it down to idle or a bit higher (but less than 1500 RPM) to get that descent going on the end of downwind and turn to base.

OK, now I’m on base, and my next trouble is judging the turn to final in order to be lined up with the runway. Ed says it’s OK to adjust whatever you need, but obviously it’s better to roll out lined up with the center line and not be banking and swerving on final. Barely any wind today so it’s just my mind (and hands and feet). Thinking about this distracts me just a bit, and there goes the airspeed on final to 80 or even 85 or 90 mph! It’s supposed to be 65-70 mph on final, but I’m practically diving for the runway! OK, I’m fast, but don’t try to YANK it back to 70 mph, use the nose position to judge it and not chase the airspeed needle, and work it back to 65-70.

Hypothesis 2: Try REALLY hard to have 70 mph before I get anywhere near the runway. Whatever Ed says, it’s easier to fix it earlier than later.

Of course if you’re too fast and/or too high on short final (and you have no flaps), you can do a slip. I know how to do that, but I still have to think about this simple cross-control maneuver (let’s see, balance left stick and right rudder to keep the ground track along the runway). Usually I don’t (think about it) so I sometimes arrive low over the runway at 80 mph – too much energy to get rid of easily! Level off, keep the stick coming back but not ALL the way back until we are just a foot or so above the runway and ready to stop flying and stall right on the runway.

Now here’s where I sometimes seem really clueless, right at touchdown (or “bounce-down” in some cases). I know I have power I can use to soften the landing if I’m going to hit too hard, but I don’t really know how to judge the timing for that. I also know that the stick has to come all the way back on touchdown, except what if I’m too fast? With a nose-high attitude and 80 mph, I’m ready to fly again, right? Before Wednesday morning, I need to review "Compleat Taildragger and/or "Stick & Rudder" on handling bounced landings. I know it's not literally a bounce - you are flying and have to land again! Here's a pretty good article on landing a Citabria.

In a couple of cases I seemed to push forward on the stick right at touchdown - Ed is like, what was that??? Is this a nose wheel habit? Maybe, but I haven’t flown a nose wheel airplane since maybe 2003! In another case I seemed to let the stick flop around right at touchdown. BAD MOVE! The airplane is not a horse who knows his way back to the barn. You have to exert positive control all the way through the landing roll (and taxi back for that matter).

Ed’s general comments fall in three areas, all true I am sure, and somewhat overlapping:

I’m “behind the airplane” – this means reacting too slowly to events, or more likely, failing to anticipate events so I can react quickly. Or both.
I’m “too gentle” with the airplane – this doesn’t mean he wants me jerking the stick around like a yank-and-bank flight simmer, but more decisive and “just enough” inputs are needed – more range of control travel is needed when the airplane is slow, especially. Not rough, but assertive. For example, when the airplane starts to drift off center on approach, I give it a little rudder and maybe stick but not really enough to stop the drift, so then I end up having to bank to get lined up again. I think part of it is worry about doing the wrong thing, but remember, “not to decide is to decide.” You can’t be tentative. You can’t let the airplane decide!
My feet are too slow. True. I think this is also due to fear of doing the wrong thing with my feet. I am getting better on the ground with them (takeoff roll and landing roll once we are on the three wheels). But in the air, especially when slow, I’m not quick enough and/or “deep” enough with my rudder pedal inputs.

Can I get better? Yes I can. I’ve seen it with air work and takeoffs in this airplane, and in my earlier flight training in Cessna’s. I think I must have had some of this hesitancy thing in the past, because I remember one of Mario’s favorite phrases of encouragement, “pilot in command!” With a CFI in the back seat, he who hesitates is not necessarily lost, but if I intend to solo this airplane (and I do), I have to start making better and more timely evaluations and decisions myself. I am not the quickest person when it comes to body learning, which is why I’m not farther along at 9.1 hours in this airplane. But like I told Ed at the start, whatever it takes is what it takes.

Supplement on Saturday lesson: Gusty wind, mostly down the runway, but some cross wind and wind shear. I dropped it in from a few feet up on one landing when I (or Ed) should have added a quick bit of power. No damage. Lots of gliders and my squirrely approaches/landings raised at least one comment on the radio. I also had to watch out for no-radio gliders (one landing as I was about to take the paved runway, but he was on the grass and I wasn’t so even if I had missed him it would have been OK this time. But it shows how important it is to look for traffic. I was also reminded that I need to not feel rushed when I have the active runway just because someone is waiting or is turning base (except of course landing gliders have the right of way - they can't do a go-around). Feeling rushed can lead to mistakes.

1.1 hours dual in Citabria (7/30/11)
1.3 hours dual in Citabria (8/01/11)

I Love Aviation Charts

2011-07-27T19:09:00.000-07:00

I've always loved aviation charts. Sectional charts, terminal area charts, even helicopter charts (I haven't looked much at the various IFR related charts). They are so densely packed with information, yet are still relatively easy to understand once you know the conventions and symbols. Clever design.You can buy current charts from various sources, and you should always have a current paper sectional chart in the cockpit for the area in which you are flying (even if you have a really nice GPS).

Although you can download a lot of charts from the FAA for free, there are web sites that make them easier to access for browsing or preliminary planning (they have real information but are labeled "not for navigation"). I just discovered a really cool site for browsing all the different charts for the entire country, SkyVector.com (sample above). It has a simple interface for accessing all the charts and airport info as well as some basic flight planning features, though I also have access to AOPA's better on-line flight planning for once I get current and start flying to some different airports for whatever reason (for a legendary $100 hamburger or maybe $120 scrambled eggs).

This FAA page has free PDF downloads of the 9th Edition of the Aeronautical Chart User's Guide, split into six sections for the various types of VFR and IFR charts. Useful for getting a better grasp of the many symbols, colors, and line styles used on charts.

Citabria Panel & GPS/COMM

2011-07-24T13:52:00.000-07:00

Supplemental note: I don't know how soon I will solo the Citabria, but when I do, I will need to be more familiar with the GPS/COMM unit that's installed in case I lose track of where I am (of course I will also carry a current chart and pay attention to landmarks if I plan to fly out of sight of 3B3). It's a relatively simple one (Bendix/King KLX 135A, a mid-90's piece of hardware with a small monochrome LCD display), but there are still procedures you need to follow, and you don't want to be fiddling blindly if you are also trying to fly an airplane (and maybe worried about being lost). So I downloaded a PDF manual for the KLX 135A so I can study up a bit on its operation, especially the "nearest" and "direct to" GPS features.

The panel shot above shows just about everything needed to operate the airplane except for the electrical panel, shown below (mounted at the left wing root within reach of both pilots). In the picture above, you can see the throttle and carb heat on the left side panel; mixture, primer, and starter button on the lower left front panel; and the rudder pedals and control stick below. The trim lever is on the left side behind and below the throttle (not visible in this picture). It's a full-resolution picture, so click on it if you're interested.

Getting Better (Takeoffs & Landings)

2011-07-24T13:33:00.000-07:00

I was away on vacation for a week or so and wasn't able to fly since July 11 (at least not at the controls - but I'll probably write something here about a wonderful helicopter tour we took from Las Vegas to the Grand Canyon, since this blog is generally about flying stuff). But yesterday and today I got back into it with early morning Citabria flights with Ed at Sterling. Both mornings started out looking questionable for weather, but after a bit of rain (a 15 minute downpour yesterday), we had high clouds, no wind, and very few other airplanes flying, perfect for pattern work. So get out the checklist...

Speaking of patterns, I've noticed one about my learning. After a 12 day delay, I was pretty bad yesterday morning. My feet were slow on the takeoff rolls especially, with several large swerves that Ed had to save. I even had one aborted takeoff because I was holding back pressure too long (didn't get the stick forward/tail up early enough for a safe takeoff that would clear the trees). It seems I have a very quick forgetting curve. Sigh. I did some things right, and started to get better on the last one or two landings. But I didn't feel very good about my performance. Luckily I had another flight scheduled for the next morning (today).

This morning was much better, and I sometimes felt like I was actually "getting it" on the foot thing. I noticed when the nose was starting to drift left or right and took prompt and correct action with the pedals, usually without over-correcting. I didn't do everything right on every takeoff and landing, but there was clear improvement. Ed didn't say a word for minutes at a time (I usually preempted his comments by narrating my own actions, which is actually helpful in getting the procedures "burned in" and letting him know that I know them). We also practiced one go-around.

One major problem was staying too fast on final approach, which is easy to do in an airplane with no flaps. I want to get to about 65 mph as I pull up into the three-point landing attitude, and I was arriving at about 80! This gave me a lot of "float" and in a couple of cases, I "bounced" (which is really a high angle of attack, flying speed thing more than a landing gear thing as the word "bounce" might suggest). So next time I need to focus on getting it slowed down on final, and practice doing a forward slip when needed to increase the frontal area presented to the wind (increasing drag as flaps help to do). I'll fly again next weekend (weather permitting) and try to stay on the improvement curve more than the forgetting curve!

1.0 hours dual in Citabria (7/23/11)
1.3 hours dual in Citabria (7/24/11)

"Stick and Rudder" Revisited

2011-07-12T20:09:00.000-07:00

Due to other commitments, I won't have a chance to fly for about 10 days or so. But I will have a bit of free time for reading, so I've decided to re-read Stick and Rudder by Wolfgang Langewiesche. This book was first published over 50 years ago and has been in print ever since because it's one of the most useful practical guides to flying ever written. I read it many years ago when I first started flying (maybe 1997). So I think it's time. While it generally applies to any sort of airplane, it feels especially right for flying a tail-wheel airplane with an actual stick (rather than a control yoke), and of course a rudder too.

Happier Feet (On the Grass)

2011-07-11T20:20:00.000-07:00

I had another flight with Ed this morning. I was a bit early at 3B3 and it was practically deserted. I had my hand-held radio tuned to Sterling's 122.9 MHz traffic frequency, mainly to listen for Ed to call traffic when he was approaching the airport so I could get a picture of the Citabria landing (he was flying in from Spencer, 60M). But a few minutes before that I heard a call to Sterling traffic - helicopter inbound from the north. I had noticed the heli-circle but had never seen a helicopter land there. It was cool to watch. Ed showed up a few minutes later and I got a so-so picture just before his 3-point touchdown on the grass (I should have brought a digital camera with a decent lens and zoom range instead of relying on my BlackBerry's mediocre camera).

The flight itself was much better than the previous afternoon. We stayed in the pattern, and with no traffic, we did four takeoffs and landings in less than an hour. There was no wind to speak of, so we decided to start out on runway 16 (160 degrees, southeast). I asked Ed to fly a full pattern himself, narrating his actions as much as possible so I could have a reference point to compare what I have been doing wrong. I've flown with Ed in the past, and as usual, he flies the pattern like the airplane is on rails. Experience!

I think that demo helped because my three takeoffs and landings (all on the grass) were better than any I had done before (we switched to runway 34 for the rest of the time). I was still a bit slow on the pedals on the takeoff roll, but better than yesterday - not quite happy feet, but happier than they've been recently. My airspeed control and turns in the pattern were pretty good, though Ed had to prompt me to crab for the crosswind on the downwind leg. He also talked me down on final and on the level-off and pull-up into the three-point landing orientation just before touchdown.

Oddly enough my directional control on the landing roll-out was pretty decent, much better than the takeoff roll. Could it be the grass? We tried the last takeoff from the grass to see. I was still a little bit behind the airplane, but better than on the paved runway. Maybe this is psychological - the grass is much wider and without a well defined edge, so maybe I somehow feel less constrained and more relaxed. Anyway, I was getting better, but it was a work morning and I couldn't stick around any longer. At least I came away with a more positive attitude than the day before. I can improve! I can do something right!

Supplemental note: Modern airplane engines are very reliable, but you have to train and plan for engine failure and other emergencies just the same. It can happen. I've never experienced anything but simulated (instructor induced) engine failure, but after I left Sterling yesterday, there was a real one that could have been bad but turned out well. One of the pilots involved was at Sterling this morning and told us about it. His Piper Pawnee was towing a glider as it often does at Sterling. He noticed an odd vibration just after takeoff, but it seemed to be flying OK until 800 feet when the engine quit! He signaled the glider pilot to release the tow line (he had already figured it out). The glider turned around and made the runway safely. The Pawnee pilot said he immediately lowered the nose and established best glide speed. He made a 180 back to the runway and landed safely - pretty impressive from 800 feet.

0.9 hours dual in Citabria at 3B3.

Theory and Practice and Slow Feet

2011-07-10T17:10:00.000-07:00

You know the line "what's the difference between theory and practice? In theory there's no difference." But in practice...

I did another lesson flight with Ed in the Citabria late this afternoon at Sterling (3B3). The plan was to briefly review stalls and then practice takeoffs and landing somewhere. Normally this would be Sterling, but it was such a gorgeous flying day, there was a lot of glider activity and other traffic at Sterling, so we thought we might head over to Worcester (ORH) for pattern work. We did a few stalls at 3000 feet, and I did better on procedures, keeping the wings level with the rudder, and executing better and more prompt recovery than last time. So we listened to ORH's ATIS on the radio and learned that the runway in use would have a strong crosswind. It was close to 5 pm so we figured maybe the Sterling glider folks would be packing up soon.

So I headed back to Sterling - or so I thought. We had flown further west and north than I thought and with the clearing turns and stalls, I got a bit disoriented. We were near Mount Wachusett and I spotted a divided highway I thought was the I-190. In fact it must have been Route 2 up by Fitchburg! So I was flying away from Sterling! Ed turned it into a GPS mini-lesson. The aircraft has a combined COM/NAV/GPS installed, not very fancy but functional. Ed told my how to enter "direct to 3B3" and I did a 180 and followed the GPS back to 3B3.This will be useful if (I mean when) I start flying solo.

Sterling also had a crosswind on 34 but not as bad. It also had a lot of traffic we had to watch for, including a glider turning to final and some other inbound gliders and powered aircraft. I entered the pattern and extended the downwind to allow the glider to land and get clear. My airspeed control and turns were so-so and I was fast and low on final. Ed reminded me that I could trade airspeed for some altitude. He helped quite a bit on the landing since I wasn't quite ready for the crosswind. We taxied back and took off again.

Takeoffs should be fairly easy, but my feet are still slow, and I don't apply rudder fast enough to keep it rolling straight. This is harder in a tail wheel airplane than in a tricycle gear (Cessna 152, etc.) plane, but I did some work with Ed in his Cub in 2004, and I should know the drill. I also spent a lot of time this week reviewing the takeoff and landing sections of The Compleat Taildragger Pilot so all the pointers about the dynamic rolling behavior are the airplane were fresh in my mind (that's the theory part). Ed was able to save us from my swerves and keep us from ground looping ("heading for the weeds" as they say). Although I was trying to be fast, I wasn't "jabbing" at the right times (causing instead of fixing problems). And I was still slow to recognize deviations and correct them. You've only got the width of the landing gear to play with - if you swerve out of that roughly 6-7 foot zone, it's very difficult to recover. These things are VERY touchy, and I really had a lot of trouble with the Cub in 2004. At least with the Citabria, I'm flying from the front seat and I can see very well over the nose even with the tail down in the nose-high stall attitude. We did another takeoff and landing and I wasn't much better.

Oh well. I knew this would take a while. But I'll get there. I've got another flight early tomorrow morning before work. The air will be calmer and we'll probably have the runway to ourselves. I'll focus on teaching my feet the tail wheel dance - trying to keep in time to the music, I mean the airplane.

Citabria 1.1 hours dual at 3B3.

FAA Medical OK

2011-07-05T09:52:00.000-07:00

If you haven't been flying for a while and you want to get current so you can again fly solo, your FAA medical certification is a critical step. You can't fly as "pilot in command" without both a current flight review (sign-off by an instructor) and a current FAA medical. For private pilot, you need a third class medical certification, which is good for five years if you are under 40, or two years if you are older than 40 as I am. Commercial, instructor, and ATP ratings require higher level medical exams and certificates (more extensive and/or more frequent).

I passed my third-class medical this morning, so medically I'm good for two years of flying. The doctor was amazed and happy that I had found and used the FAA's MedXPress web site to complete the required medical history form on-line. Seemed like a no-brainer to me to check online for the latest requirements and comply with them, but I guess the MedXPress thing is fairly new and many pilots don't know about it. Apparently it makes it easier for the AME (aviation medical examiner) to check and submit your information to the FAA.

Takeoff, Slow Flight, Stalls, Landing

2011-07-04T10:00:00.000-07:00

This was the second flight with Ed in the Citabria, and I handled pretty much the entire flight, though with a lot of verbal coaching from Ed. After the pre-flight inspection, I taxied out to runway 34 at Sterling and made the radio call to Sterling traffic. On the takeoff roll, my feet were a bit slow and I didn't use enough right rudder, so we had a bit of swerving (Ed may have kicked in some corrections there). You have to use large, jabbing inputs at the start of the takeoff roll, then smaller inputs when the tail comes up and the rudder starts to be responsive. I was also a bit dense on holding a steady climb speed of 75 mph and staying on the runway heading for departure. We headed west and climbed to 3000 feet (about 2500 feet AGL).

The main goals for this flight were slow flight (just a few mph above a stall) and stalls (power on, power off, and while turning). This is all aimed at getting a feel for controlling the aircraft when it's near the stall, as well as to practice prompt and correct recovery when it does stall. In terms of reacting to events and following procedures, I was a bit slow and relied too much on Ed's prompting. Next time we will do some more stalls and I will be sure to know the recovery steps cold (and to remember carb heat on/off at the appropriate times). Overall my rudder control of the airplane in slow flight and stalls was pretty good. I've always felt pretty safe and comfortable with practicing stalls, and since this airplane is certified for intentional spins, I'm looking forward to practicing those too (probably not for a few more flights - I want to first get a lot more proficient with controlling the aircraft). I was still tending to gain or lose altitude on some of my clearing turns, and I seemed to have trouble getting to and holding the target altitude from a climb or descent. Not very good with trim yet - lots of trial and error on that.

Then we headed back to Sterling. With all the clearing turns, stalls, and altitude recovery, we ended up SW of the town of Rutland, about 12 miles WSW of the airport. It was hazier than Saturday, and while I knew the general area of the airport (between Mount Wachusett and Wachusett Reservoir, with three ponds pointing to it from the Reservoir end, see graphic), I was not sure which small gap in the trees it was until we were a couple of miles out (I have to remember to also look for the I-190 expressway which runs NE and practically touches the 34 approach end of the runway). I made the 45 degree entry to the left-downwind for runway 34, and made the radio call for this. I made one more call to traffic (on downwind) then got too busy thinking about the approach and landing. Ed talked me through these, but I flew the approach and landing myself (first time landing on a grass runway). It was not terrible, but I was again slow with my feet on the landing roll. You need to really jab the rudder pedals, quick impulses, to keep the plane from swerving once you are rolling on the grass.

I taxied back to 34 and we did one more takeoff, staying in the pattern. This time I got slow on departure for some reason and Ed had to point this out (not a good place to practice departure stalls, on an actual departure). My pattern was a bit wide, and I missed making most of the radio calls, but my airspeed control was better, and lineup was pretty good (grass runway is a pretty wide target!). This time I flared a bit high, but it was OK, and I started jabbing the rudder pedals and kept the landing roll much straighter. Then I taxied back to the tie-down spot, avoiding the gliders which were being pulled out for their afternoon flights.

I made some mistakes and didn't divide my attention among important tasks as well as I should have, but overall it felt like real progress toward controlling the airplane and knowing what was going on (usually). It will take a lot more work, but I think I can do this.

Citabria 1.2 hours dual at 3B3.

Citabria Intro Flight

2011-07-02T09:00:00.000-07:00

When I learned last week that Ed is now running a flight school at Sterling, and that he had bought a Citabria 7ECA since I last flew with him (in his Cub) in 2004, I decided to sign up for some time in that airplane, with two goals in mind. One is to complete the tail-wheel training and endorsement that I started in 2004. The other is to get current on my private pilot certificate so I can fly solo again (starting with the Citabria, as soon as Ed and I decide I'm up to speed).

The Citabria is a tail dragger like the Piper Cub, but in most other respects, it's more like a Cessna 152. It's got the same engine as a 152, it's got an electrical system (for starting the engine, among other things), and it's got a full, modern instrument panel (not really modern - it's all round gauges as you can see above, not a "glass cockpit," but that's OK with me).

For this first flight, Ed handled most of the takeoff and all of the landing from the base leg (just before turn to final). We went out near Mount Wachusett and spent an hour letting me get familiar with the feel of the airplane with straight and level flight, turns, climbs and descents (the four fundamentals). It was mostly OK though I had some trouble holding a steady altitude (not trimmed quite right so I tended to gain or lose a hundred feet here and there) and a steady heading (mostly not choosing and holding external reference points to aim for, plus lazy feet on the rudder pedals).

Still it was a good flight, and I really enjoy this airplane. Although it's a tailwheel airplane, it has much better forward visibility than the Cub, which really makes takeoffs and landings much easier.

Citabria 1.2 hours dual at 3B3.

Putting the "Flying" Back in FlyingSinger

2011-06-26T19:13:00.000-07:00

I'm finally going to start flying again - in the present, not in the past. Well actually in the near future (next weekend), as I explain in this post on my Music of the Spheres blog. I plan to take some refresher lessons in a tail-wheel Citabria (pictured) at nearby Sterling Airport. I'm hoping to kill the proverbial two birds: finish up the tail wheel endorsement I started in 2004, and also get current to rent and fly solo again. If it goes well with the Citabria, I'll probably take a few refresher lessons in the C172 as well, since that's a more widely available rental aircraft.

Progress and Plan

2006-10-22T09:58:00.000-07:00

I've started to enter my personal flight lesson journals as I discussed on October 20, and will enter more as I have time. I'm going more or less chronologically and have so far entered the few introductory flights and lessons I took in "phase 1" (1997-1998) and the few more lessons I took in 1999 when I started to make some progress in landings before other priorities (such as a new house) took over my time and budget (phase 2). Phase 3 started in June 2000 and ended in May 2001 when I passed my private pilot check ride.

I've also decided that since this is something of a flying blog, I will also eventually add some notes about flight sims (which I used quite a bit as a supplement to my lessons, VOR practice, cross country flight rehearsal, etc.) and maybe even some incidental materials on studying for the written test, buying and using equipment, interesting flight experiences, and perhaps a couple of posts on air shows.

So stay tuned... I know I will (probably).

Phase 1 (1997-1998) - Done (intro flights and lessons 1-6)
Phase 2 (1999) - Done (lessons 7-14 with Kern Buck)
Phase 3 (2000-2001) - In work (lessons mostly at Worcester up to check ride)

INTRODUCTION: So what's up with this?

2006-10-20T14:12:00.000-07:00

On the off chance that someone other than me is reading this...

I took flight lessons (mostly in Massachusetts, a few in Los Angeles and Germany) on and off from 1997 to 2001 when I finally got my private pilot's license. During that time I kept detailed notes on my flight lessons and studies, in part to help me better understand and retain what I learned, and in part because I was interested in the learning process itself. I was forty-something, and although I had spent some time flying Piper Cubs as a teen in Civil Air Patrol, and had played with a lot of flight simulators in the mid-nineties, I had no recent experience flying airplanes, and I suspected from my flight sim experience that I was not going to be a "natural pilot." But I had wanted to be a pilot since I was nine years old and I wanted the challenge.

I have not flown very much since getting my license in 2001, sad to say. Life got in the way (business travel, kids, layoffs, the usual things). I keep thinking I will get back into it, and have tried several times, but something always comes up (and New England weather doesn't help much). These days I'm again playing with sims, mostly with Orbiter, a free space flight simulator that I often write about in my original blog Music of the Spheres. I'm hoping that putting this journal on line (gradually, with minor edits) will inspire me to really get back into real flying. We shall see.

I plan to apply my original flight journal dates to these posts, so they will start in 1997 - hence the title "Flight School Retrojournal." It's mostly for me, but if you're a student pilot or flight sim fan and you get some inspiration ("hey, at least I never did that") or tips from it, cool. Some of these notes have been on line for years in a somewhat different form at MiGMan's Flight Sim Museum (where for reasons that are hard to explain I go by the name "Chino"). My friend MiGMan's site is really cool if you are into flight sims or aviation history - check it out.

Piper Cub Lesson #4 (Spencer)

2004-08-09T08:00:00.000-07:00

For background on my 2011 tail wheel lessons in a Citabria, notes from one of my 2004 lessons with the same instructor in his Piper Cub. I have a strong sense of deja vu as I read these 2004 notes! I've forgotten a lot in seven years, and I still make some of the same (re)learning mistakes. I will eventually post more of these 2004 Cub notes. (Actually posted August 5, 2011)

Much better lesson today – I'm still "behind the airplane" but getting the hang of the rudder pedals and control on the ground is starting to seem possible. It was yet another a gorgeous morning with winds a bit lighter than Sunday (ORH ATIS said 280 at 10 kts, so right crosswind for 19 at Spencer) and clear skies. I again handled the pre-flight and also played with the trim wheel to determine its range, about 12-13 turns, about 6 each way from the center (crank has no stops, it keeps turning when you reach the end of the range on each end). Ed checked and added some oil and also drained fuel to check before we taxied over to the gas pump to fill up (he recycles the fuel sample into his lawn mower – he's a math teacher, BTW).

Feet – Better but still needing reminders to hold enough right rudder on full power climb and to "lead with my feet" on some turns. I controlled the airplane myself on takeoff runs and landing roll-out and did better with each landing and takeoff, starting with a couple of big swerves on the first landing at ORH (love that wide runway 29!). SMALL, EARLY corrections!!!

SA and direction in the air – Better but still drifting off the runway heading on takeoff for the left traffic pattern at ORH. There was a decent west wind (280 at 9 or 10) so I needed to adjust for this in the pattern and did after prompts the first time. Pattern leg lengths and turns were not very consistent and I didn't get up to 2000 feet every time (more like 1800-1900 but that's not too bad for now – the Cub climbs slow and there was a headwind on 29 so I should have extended the "upwind" – once I did a 45 to the left earlier than normal (usually turn left around 1600 feet) because of a departing Cessna on position and hold behind me).

Sight picture on takeoff and approach – better on this, more aware of how much horizon I need to see, and my speed in the pattern was better too, even when reducing to 1500 rpm abeam the numbers (CARB HEAT!) and establishing 70 mph glide with NOSE UP trim (seems to be about 3 cranks if I got trimmed for level before the power reduction – I usually crank in some nose up on climb out to try to stick to the 60-65 mph climb attitude). I didn't get slow, though I usually did descend too fast and had to add power (getting back the ability to tell when I'm high or low on base, though Ed asked for "1/2 inch of power" on the first landing).

Related to sight picture is the "lean left and look" technique which is needed to see ahead of you from the Cub's back seat. Need to SIT UP STRAIGHT AND BACK for this to get as much range as possible (headset keeps you about 2 inches from the window). DON'T TRY TO LOOK RIGHT TOO. You use this technique on the initial roll for takeoff when you add a little power to get rolling and see if you are straight, then SMOOTH full power while continuing to monitor line-up (and steer with small rudder inputs) through the left corner of the windshield for a few seconds until you can push a little forward stick to raise the tail. Then visibility improves and you can look over the nose for your steering cues. This technique applies in reverse on landing – once you start to pull back to slow your descent and assume the 3-point full-stall landing orientation, you lose visibility over the nose and again LEAN LEFT AND LOOK.

Mistakes and lessons – What I can remember anyway…

(1) FLY THE AIRPLANE OR HAND OFF IF DISTRACTED! I tried to help out by changing the channel on the radio from ORH tower (120.5) to 60M CTAF (123.0) after Ed's frequency change call, but I didn't know how (2-3-0-0 is the answer, the leading 1 is assumed). I fiddled around with it while looking back and up and let the airplane get into an unintended bank!
(2) WIND CORRECTION – need to review the elevator and aileron positions for taxiing and for takeoff/landing rolls with crosswinds. On one takeoff at ORH, the left wing dipped and I didn't know what that was (I thought I "kissed the ground" with a wheel but apparently nothing actually touched).
(3) RADIO CALLS – Need to start to take these over from Ed, review radio operations for frequencies etc. and review the calls he made, especially to Worcester Tower (pretty simple really). Listen to ATIS (126.55, maybe on ground before takeoff, depends on time up). On 120.5, "Worcester tower, Cub 88122." ("Go ahead" or something.) "We are out of Spencer, west of the airport with information India, set up for a left downwind, would like to practice some stop and go's" ("Stop and go approved, enter left downwind, make left closed traffic, report midfield each time"), "Enter left downwind, left closed traffic, report midfield, Cub 88122."

More notes TBD on this lesson… I just received The Compleat Taildragger Pilot from Sporty's Pilot Shop – looks really good.

1.0 hours dual in Piper Cub at 60M

D-Day: Check Ride!

2001-05-14T11:00:00.000-07:00

Today's the big day, my check ride down at North Central Airport in Lincoln, RI (SFZ). I got up around 0520 after a very restless night. I got to the Worcester airport (ORH) a little after 7 and waited for Mario (stopped for coffee). Checked the fuel in N4669L – it had flown 0.6 hours after me so Mario called for a top-off which took a long time. Preflight was good. Mario also checked my flight planning and scared the crap out of me when he told me that I had screwed up in planning a VOR-to-VOR flight, it was supposed to be direct, and he had told me this based on his talk with Ray! Oops. I figured I would fess up with Ray and offer to re-do it on the spot. This stuff delayed my takeoff, and by the time I landed on 33 at SFZ (OK, bit low in pattern), it was just about 0900 – no time for more practice landings.

I secured the plane (including chocks), grabbed all the stuff, and went in the FBO to meet Ray Collins. He’s a 50-something guy, gray hair, very airline-pilot-like (he flies MD-80’s for Continental). Serious but not stern or scary, nice guy. He had some standard “jokes” which were not all that funny (not jokes as much as “patter” I guess – putting me at ease?). He described the plan for the test, looked over my paperwork (no comment on my 98% written), and began the oral drill. He said he gives a very straightforward private exam, no silly stuff like leaving his seatbelt off and busting you if you don't notice. He had a few regulation things, what can you do as a private pilot (pro rata share, not for hire, etc.), and how high must you fly over congested areas (1000 feet above any obstacle within 2000 feet). He asked a bunch of chart questions (what’s this symbol, tell me what this symbol tells you about Keene airport, etc.). Some right-of-way diagrams, along with runway/taxiway diagrams for some incursion questions – landing here, departing here, ATIS says this, ground says “taxi to 24,” can you cross 15? Tricky, it is active despite ground instructions, so you can’t cross it – I was concerned but not perfect on the response (he said it would be a bad clearance but could happen if controller were rushed). He liked the questions to teach lessons, not just test you. Some airplane system questions. Overall, pretty easy, and he said I had no really weak areas – “OK, let’s fly.”

Oh yeah, somewhere in there he reviewed my cross-country planning and weight and balance calcs. He said he did NOT prohibit VOR/airway navigation – even GPS would be legal if it were in the panel. But he reserves the right to say that the VOR or GPS has failed in flight, so navigate without it. So my stuff was fine – VOR-based but with plenty of visual checkpoints.

He watched the preflight, more or less, then asked me a couple of questions like “what’s this?” (fuel vent) and “show me the static port.” There was one thing he asked that I didn’t know – “me either” (ha ha), but he did, it was an air vent for the avionics (behind the panel). We squeezed into the plane and I followed checklists to start the engine, get ASOS info, and taxi out to runway 05 (telling North Central traffic each major move – winds were shifting so it could have been 05 or 33). I was careful to stop short of 33 and look for traffic before crossing, and after my run-up, I spun the airplane around to visually check all parts of any patterns for the two (really four) legal runways.

Ray said “short field takeoff, pattern, soft field landing.” My wind correction was poor on both of these things – I did not hold the centerline very well, plus there were those damn sky divers floating down on the airport. Second climb-out was better but I was not accurate on holding 1440 MSL in the pattern – I was high and low by at least 100 feet. “Regular landing. Good cross wind procedure” was better, not mint, but OK (I blame it on the shifting, gusty winds – he later said I was tense on landings and advised me to “walk the rudder” back and forth on my next few landings to loosen up my feet). Then I was off to Lebanon, NH – I started my timer for the first leg (only 4 minutes away by my plan, plus 6 minutes allowed to depart the pattern, climb, and get on course). I think I made that one within one minute. I had also tuned and ID’d GDM (Gardner VOR) and intercepted the 341 degree radial I had planned. I spotted and pointed out #2 ahead (Whitinsville), and he broke it off. “Take me to Boston VOR,” and he gave me the frequency. I centered the needle with “TO” and turned to the indicated course. OK, he says "my airplane, put on foggles!" (actually it took me a few minutes to get stabilized at the altitude and heading he wanted before this, due to the bumpy air and perhaps some PIO since I was no doubt pretty tense). It looked like Ray was in a hurry to get back.

I was thankful for the 0.7 hours of IR practice with Mario the day before. It was bumpy and I used up most of my 200 feet on the maneuvers, but I kept it in pretty good control overall (didn’t lose it like I had done with Mario). He gave me one unusual attitude recovery, a nose-low left turn, pretty mild – I saw black and pulled power, leveled the wings, and recovered quickly with little altitude loss. Then he had me do some slow flight (50 knots) including a mild turn – I was not accurate on the altitude holding. Then it was a power-off stall and I forget what else – maybe nothing. Back to SFZ (inbound checklist). I think he HAD gotten a radio call (Unicomm) about meeting someone, so I think he really was in a hurry to get back.

So what did I miss? A lot – no ground reference maneuvers, no steep turn, no simulated engine-out emergency, no power-on stall. I could have done all these things though my recent steep turns have not been things of beauty, and my ground reference session with Mario was only fair. Ray talked me through the 45 degree entry for runway 33 (not needed, but OK), and he reminded me that I was getting low in the pattern before final – not holding TPA, a bad thing. I did an OK landing on 33, catching some drift at the last minute (he even said “you just caught that one”). I used the first turnoff and reported “clear of active” to North Central traffic. Ray said, well, I’ll tell you now, you passed, you’re a private pilot (very matter-of-fact), but I do want to discuss a few things with you. HUH? IS THAT IT? Yup, I guess so! After 26 years of doing this, I guess he knows that you're anxious for the verdict!

The things he wanted to discuss were holding altitude in the pattern (a problem I have seen only at SFZ – not at ORH or the quite tiny Southbridge – “a likely story”) and my landings. He said I seemed very tense on landings and didn’t use the rudder aggressively enough to stop drift (true). He suggested walking the rudders my next few landings. He said you can certainly fly the airplane, but pay attention to these things. He also said “it WAS bumpy up there, but if you wait for perfectly smooth days you won’t fly much” – I was OK with the bumps except for the worry that they would bust me on limits (but he cut me slack on this apparently).

Then in the FBO, I was shocked to see my brother Glen! He had been there the whole time (not in Pittsburgh as I thought) with digital camera in-hand. Cool to have those check-ride-day pictures. Ray completed the paperwork, I wrote him a $200 check, and he wrote me a temporary airmen’s certificate. He also gave me the customary congrats and hand shake. Glen says Ray rushed out while I was in the men’s room after the paperwork.

I hung out with Glen and busted his chops over his weight – not to be cruel, but for W&B for a possible “first victim” ride. But at 240 pounds, I still had too much fuel on board to be under max gross with Glen – sorry Bro, sometime soon in the Piper Warrior! Gotta call up Bernie and schedule a couple of lessons and really focus on getting the procedures and landings down cold for that plane so I can solo it soon. That's the next phase – after that, who knows? Maybe the instrument rating in a year or so?

Final numbers for the private include 88.1 total hours, of which 63.5 were dual, 24.6 solo (does not include 2.2 PIC hours for the check ride and ORH-SFZ flights). If I estimate the cost as $80/hour dual and $55/hour solo, this adds up to about $6500 for the private training (not including supplies, books, etc. which probably added another $1000 or so, not counting Betty's contribution for my transceiver and vitally important leather flight jacket!). I think I heard that the average for total hours for private is something like 70, so if you consider that my first three years were basically false starts (18 hours total time before June 2000), I'm right on the average (about 70 hours total June 2000 to May 2001).

FAA "Written" Exam (98%)

2001-03-05T10:40:00.000-08:00

Supplemental entry (non-flying): This past weekend I was home and and able to focus on flying stuff. Mainly I studied for the FAA written exam so I could finally get that thing out of the way. I used the Gleim book and my preparation notes to brush up on general rough spots (light gun, magnetic compass errors, category vs. class, takeoff distance charts). I also read a few chapters in the Jepp Practical Test Study Guide (a great book, BTW, even though it's from 1997 – I need to do more with this before my check ride). This was mainly to review airspace topics, FAR's, and weather reporting formats. Finally I re-took the final exam in the FliteSchool software and got 94% (6 wrong on that 100 question test). I reviewed the missed questions and called it a night at 9 pm, drinking a couple of beers and watching a documentary on test pilots (Aviation Week video I bought some time ago at Buck-a-Book, very good stuff) and then the video of "Independence Day" (a live-action alien invasion cartoon, but it has some cool SFX).

Sunday I went over to Amity where I checked in with Mario (to get my sign-off for the written) and with Bill Allen (the CFI who gives the tests). The LaserGrade software is great – very user friendly, with on-screen figures and excellent review/summary features. The 60 question test was harder than I expected, at first glance. There were two pressure altitude questions that I forgot how to do (later remembered – it's just the right side table of the density altitude chart). There were many questions I had not seen for a while on reviews and tests, including what to do if you suspect detonation on climbout (lower the nose a bit for better cooling). On one of the landing distance graphs, I could not get anywhere near the answers they had, but I took the largest value, and I guess it was right (it was #3690, and I still get only about 1600 feet, while the answer is B, 1925 feet). I hate those graphs!

Airspace questions gave me some trouble, and there was one I thought I missed but did not (#3622, Lowe Airport on Figure 27). This is a private airport with no airspace markings (though it's in a MOA which confused me). I finally said it was Class G, surface to 14,500 MSL, which was right (NB: this is a rule I didn't remember at all, but there are several cases for the lower limit of Class E, such as 1200 feet for Federal Airways, but default if none of these apply is that Class E begins at 14,500 feet, extending to 18,000 feet which is where Class A starts). There were others that confused me (there was one I can't remember where I wrote "NFI" on my notes, but it wasn't an airspace question, and the one question I missed WAS an airspace/chart question, subject area J37 according to the printed test report – though I read through all the J37 questions in my Gleim book and as far as I recall, I answered all three that were on my test correctly – oh well). I check-marked the questions I was unsure about and went back and reviewed them, keeping my original answers in all but one or two cases.

It took me about 90 minutes, but the bottom line is – I did GREAT, missing only one question for 98% on the real thing, better than any practice test (other than a few of the 10 or 20 question no-figures-mini-tests I did on Kip's FAA Practice web site). Mario says this can really help with the DPE (check ride examiner), since they tend to go easy on the oral stuff if you have a high score on the written. I sure won't ASSSUME that, so I have a lot of study left to do, but it doesn't hurt. There is a big difference between multiple choice and spitting out an essay question on the day of the check ride!

Cross Winds Under Control

2001-02-20T10:00:00.000-08:00

I'm having some trouble with weather and schedules again, and all I could find on the schedule was an hour with Mario in 661, but I took it anyway, and it was a good lesson. When I called ATIS, the wind was 220° at 8 knots, almost a direct crosswind (well, 70° anyway). This sounded like a good chance for some pattern work with crosswind, something I hadn't done in a while. One MAJOR thing I need to do all the time…

Draw and/or talk through the projected wind situation before the flight, or if it's a return from x-country, after I get wind info from ATIS!

By this I mean, "OK, 220° is from the southwest, 70° from the runway heading, a LEFT crosswind, so I will need to establish a crab to the left on takeoff, and I will have a headwind on the crosswind leg, so I'll be slow there. Then on left downwind leg, the wind will be from the RIGHT, so I'll have to crab out to the right, away from the runway to keep spacing constant, and I will have to make MORE than a 90° turn onto base leg, where I will have a TAIL wind. This will make the base leg very fast, so I will have to anticipate this and start my turn to final earlier to avoid the overshoot. Final approach will require a crab to the LEFT to hold the centerline, and on short final, transition to the slip, HOLDING IN the left bank to counter drift and straightening the airplane's axis with right rudder to stay aligned with the runway. This will put me in a left-wing-low attitude so left (upwind) wheel will touch down first." Whew! That's a lot to think through, but as long as it still isn't automatic for me, I should do that sort of self-talk every time. Mario says this is good preparation for instrument work when you can't use visual references.

Anyway, once I got in the pattern, I did pretty well with all this, and my pattern was fairly square. I did overshoot final once or twice (out of 6), but flew back over the centerline OK. I drifted on short final a couple of times but corrected OK – better to correct sooner and keep it lined up all the way, of course. On one landing, there was a truck on the runway and I was told to do a 500 foot "low approach" – I didn't know what this meant, and I had some trouble with the read-back (I need to learn to be more brief in general on the radio). What it means is, DON'T LAND, just pass over the runway at 500 feet or higher (1500 MSL at ORH). Apparently this is for spacing, to keep the pattern going, more or less a holding action, but it was weird.

On another approach, there was an Allegheny Dash-8 turboprop on long final ahead of me, so Brian (tower) said "continue downwind, I'll call your base." I properly slowed down to avoid going too far out over the city, and I stayed high to be above the airliner's path to avoid wake turbulence. It was cool to see him pass me counter-parallel at about 1 mile distance (maybe less) as I was downwind and he was on short final. All in all, it was a good flight. Mario said I really have the procedure down and just need some more practice to smooth it out. Other notes:

Radio brevity! Don't read back everything, just the essential stuff (what they want you to actually do). There's an article on this in the new March issue of Flight Training magazine.
Remember to flare! And keep the nose up as I do, ready to add power if I flare a bit too high, which I still often do!
Fly the airplane all the way to the runway! Keep the wind correction in until all three wheels are rolling, and use back pressure to keep weight off the nose wheel and improve braking.

Time: 0.8 hours dual, C152 at ORH.

Solo Practice

2001-02-13T16:00:00.000-08:00

After the morning session, I gave Mario a ride home to Leominster (his car was in the shop), figuring I'd work on the written or something at home. But I called ATIS and was surprised that wind was 310 degrees at 8 knots, pretty nice. So I headed over and took 661 up for an hour of maneuver practice out near the Quabbin. This time I wrote down some headings, altitudes, and speeds to give me a plan once I got out there, and I mostly followed it, and did pretty well, even on the steep turns and semi-slow flight (I only took it to 50 knots). I also played a little bit with controlling the plane with only trim and rudder (and throttle – I watched a Barry Schiff/AOPA video on this the other night). This was followed by a good touch and go and a fairly hard full-stop landing. This takes me up to 10 hours of solo time, which is the FAA required minimum, so that's one requirement completed, at least.

Time: 1.0 hours solo, C152 at ORH.

Shear Madness (Short Field Technique)

2001-02-13T11:00:00.000-08:00

Tuesday weather held up pretty well, and even though 69L was down with the transponder and vacuum pump problems I discovered Monday, I was able to swap planes and get two flights in 661, one with Mario, one solo. With Mario, I worked on short field takeoffs and landings, and I didn't do so well, partly because of the headwind (20+ knots mostly down the runway – I think ATIS said 15G22 or something) and strong gusts and wind shear that we experienced. It was a real bucking bronco in the pattern, with bad downdrafts in a few places (including climb-out a couple of times – dropped suddenly from 700 fpm to zero, though it didn't get negative).

We did 6 landings (Mario did one as a demo), and my big problem was flaring high. On one I think I came close to a prop strike when I let the nose drop after flaring too high. I was also slow in learning to kill the power, RETRACT FLAPS and apply FULL BACK YOKE as soon as I touched down before applying maximum braking (this is SHORT FIELD landing!). I need another lesson on this, and some practice, ideally NOT on such a gusty day. At least I got ONE unfinished requirement out of the way (instruction on short field procedures). It also showed that I could handle the airplane in some ugly winds. But…

I'm still VERY weak on wind awareness and establishing corrections for the wind on my pattern turns. I need to think about this on paper AND have a review lesson with Mario on ground reference maneuvers.
Need to do this short field stuff on an actual short field next time!
When there's a strong headwind on landing, TURN BASE EARLIER so you don't get so far from the runway (normal position would not allow a glide to the runway if you lost power at 2000 feet turning final).
Read up and CHAIR FLY the short and soft field procedures before next lesson (next lesson will focus on instrument work, unusual attitude recovery which I should have done before x-c solos, oops). Maybe make up some "flash cards" with the procedures on index cards to carry in my knee board folder.
Some days after this flight I was looking at some of the on-screen training material for Flight Unlimited III (FU3 – good training stuff actually) and found a comment about short-field landing techniques and winds. It basically said that a windy, gusty day is not the time to be practicing short-field approaches where you are on final at maybe 55 knots with full flaps. You need to carry extra speed and use less flaps, and this means it isn't really short field practice! This was not a good day for short field work!

Time: 1.1 hours dual, C152 at ORH, local.

Big Gap in the Fossil Record!

2001-01-01T13:11:00.000-08:00

By way of explanation for the big gap in retro-posting from September 2000 to May 2001: too busy with other stuff and lost interest in this project. Then I got an email from a Central Massachusetts guy who is thinking about flight lessons. He found this blog and asked me about flight instructors and stuff. I sent him an email and promptly got all nostalgic about flying. Since I'm in Brussels on business and not likely to resume flying any time soon, I dug out my flight notes and decided to skip a lot of steps and post my check ride story.

The picture here is from 1/29/01 when I took a solo flight from ORH over to Westborough to have a look at my office building area and snap a few quick pix. Flying sure is fun. So is music. So is studying Japanese. Why don't I do any of those things these days? I guess I'm doing this instead. And my regular blog, Music of the Spheres.

I should at least fill in a few gaps here, just in case someone else finds it. If you do: ignore this crap and KEEP FLYING.

Mooney Zooming (in Germany)

2000-11-12T13:00:00.000-08:00

This was an unusual lesson flown in a Mooney M231, Augsburg, Germany, with 1.0 hrs dual.

This worked out really nicely. Friedrich Karl is a CFII/ATP pilot with 6000 hours fixed wing and 600 hours in helicopters. He holds these ratings both in Germany and in the USA. I contacted him through Julius Muschaweck, ORA’s new LightTools rep in Munich. Mr. Karl first suggested moving thr flight to Saturday morning but had to fly to Frankfurt on business that morning, so it went back to Sunday afternoon. The other change was that the C172 was down for service, so we flew a Mooney M231 instead – very cool! The Mooney is a complex single – it has retractable gear, a 200 HP ingine, variable pitch prop, and even an auto-pilot! So it was quite different from the C152 I normally fly, but I did OK and really liked it.

The first strange thing (apart from the fact of flying in Germany at all) was that ATIS and ATC were essentially all in English! Although I heard some German on the radio, it was mostly English. I still had the CFI handle the comms since I had more than enough new things for one flight (airplane, airport, airspace, terrain, CFI all new for me!). We also had no headsets so we used the speaker and hand mike for comms. Preflight was fairly informal, and I handled taxi and run-up with some guidance from Fritz (let’s just call him Fritz here). We had to wait for a lot of landing traffic before taxi into position and hold on runway 25. Takeoff was OK (rotate at about 65 knots), though the control forces were more than I expected and it took me a few minutes to get used to the electric trim on the yoke, so I was really pulling hard on the yoke to try to get the nose up to a climb attitude for about 80 knots climb.

We then turned right to a northern heading, climbing to around 3000 feet and steering around a TV tower with airspace restrictions (I got to keep the 1997 sectional that we flew with), then looping around the airport to head south toward the Alps and the Ammarsee, a large lake close to Starnberg (where J and I later had a customer meeting). Once out of restricted airspace for Munich and a couple of smaller airports (Dornier’s airport for new aircraft, plus a Luftwaffe base), I did a few maneuvers, mainly steep turns and a bit of slow flight. I also had Fritz take the airplane a bit several times while I took some photos of the Alps, lakes, airports, towns, etc. (not sure on this – a bit of haze. All the while he was entering GOTO points in the GPS (Garmin 100 I think) and setting the heading bug on the DG for me to steer too – not much navigation practice for me!

Finally we headed back to EDMA and for this, Fritz gave me vectors to steer and had me follow steering cues and DME information until we intercepted the ILS glide slope. Then I steered (small corrections!) to line up the glide slope and CDI indicators on the attitude indicator, looking outside very little (but no foggles). Lined up with the runway, I did a simulated instrument approach and landing, which he logged as 0.3 hours of simulated instrument time – cool! The flare was quite different and final approach speed was about 75 knots, bit of a hot landing, and my lineup with the centerline was only fair. By mid flight and approach I had finally gotten the feel for the electric trim (I like it!) and was holding altitude pretty well. Turn off and taxi to fuel pit for the next renter (with very few instrument rated pilots in Germany, a good weather weekend in November has every pilot at the airport).

I liked the Mooney and the fact that it could cruise at 140 or 16o knots or more, but it really felt like driving a Cadillac or something, with similar good and bad points – nice to have the power and the bells and whistles, but it felt like I was isolated from the controls somehow, like power steering or something. I could get used to this, but since I don’t anticipate a lot of long cross country or business travel trips, a slower airplane doesn’t seem so bad to me. But who knows in the future? I’m glad I got a chance to try a Mooney, and he only charged me the Cessna rate, so it was $150 for the whole flight ($30 for CFI, $110 for plane, $10 landing fee).

The cool thing is that Fritz might be able to help me finish my PPSEL – he flies several months a year in Texas and Oklahoma, next in February or March, and I could perhaps go there for a week or so and finish the license if I don’t get the time to do it before then with Mario at ORH. This could require greater than a C152 – Fritz is a pretty big guy, and I’m sure we would be cramped and over gross weight in a C152! We shall see [note from 2009: I did some planning for this, but it never worked out and I finished my lessons in New England, with a few done in Los Angeles, mainly some night lessons].

Peaceful Easy Feeling (Solo Practice)

2000-10-26T14:30:00.000-07:00

I looked at the weather and decided I better fly sooner rather than later – took off at 1 pm and went to ORH for my first solo out of the pattern. It was great! I really enjoyed being up there on my own, and though I did try a few steep turns and a bit of slow flight, I mostly just flew around, looked at the scenery, and then flew back home. This was my first taste of the “freedom of flight” and it was quite nice! Flying solo in the pattern is work, as is flying with Mario – enjoyable work sometimes, useful work, but work nonetheless. This solo was really fun!

I checked the ORH ATIS and also called the ASOS at Orange airport to get a reading on the Quabbin area where I planned to fly. It was sky clear, visibility 10 miles, light winds. Real VFR, though when I finally got up there, it was actually quite hazy (but certainly 10 SM or more). Getting up there took a little work. First I had to have the tanks topped off in 69L, and discuss the solo endorsement issue with Mario (turns out he didn’t change anything except the wind allowances on the previous solo endorsement, even though it specified traffic pattern!). Then I pre-flighted the plane, got in, started it up, and as I went to change frequency for ATIS, the fractional frequency knob fell off! So I had to shut down and ask Jim if he could fix it (he had been fixing it on Tuesday!). But there’s a lesson here:

• Carry some tools! Something that could be used to turn a metal dial shaft if the knob came off in flight! And get a flashlight back in there too.

Actually I had a small screwdriver tool with variable heads that I bought in a dollar store recently. I found that one of the socket attachments would rotate the radio knob with some effort. GET SOME SMALL PLIARS FOR THE FLIGHT BAG. Now I see why flight bags get so heavy after a while! This was quite an eye-opener for me, the idea that I could be in a no-radio situation due to something as stupid as a plastic knob!

Jim fixed the knob and I was off, right at about the same time Mario taxied out in 661 for its first flight test with the new engine (he got permission for a special request to orbit over the airport at 3000 feet for 30-45 minutes to break in the engine within glide range of ORH). I requested a straight-out departure to the west, took off, spotted Spencer Airport off the right nose at 2500 feet (as usual). I was more aware than usual of the need to look for emergency landing spots and to know what to do (the ABCDE thing) in case I lost my engine. I got up to around 3500 feet and headed for the Quabbin, keeping a careful eye out for traffic, but once I got to level cruise, I also got out the GPS. It was not tracking (it had been on inside my flight bag), so I finally cycled the power and punched in a GOTO for ORH, giving me a continuous readout of distance and bearing to the airport, though I didn’t really follow this (I did check the heading indicator against it – I mainly wanted to see that it worked on a flight away from the airport, and it did fine).

I got to the NE Quabbin area and did some clearing turns, followed by some steep turns, maybe 3 in each direction. A couple were pretty good, the others gained or lost more than 100 feet. Practice! That’s the name of the game. I also did a little slow flight, though I was careful not to stall – not that I can’t recover, but on the off-chance of a spin… well, let’s not go there! I will practice stalls on future solo flights, and I will also do a little touring around to approach the airport from different directions. This time I just looked at the chart and where I was w/r/t the Quabbin, estimating a course of 135 deg. back to ORH. When I got part way there, I tuned in ATIS and got “kilo.” When I had ORH in sight, I realized it was less than an hour, so I did a couple of 360 deg. turns just west of Spencer, then realized this may have been in ORH’s Class D already (4 NM radius), so maybe I shouldn’t have been doing maneuvers there (this was not a steep turn, maybe 30 deg.). So I cruised over to Spencer (town) and made my call, “Worcester Tower, Cessna 4669L, over the town of Spencer, inbound for landing with information kilo.” Tower told me to report left downwind entry. I entered the downwind at 45 deg. as I have done several times, descending from 3000 feet to 2000 feet (TPA) along the way. The pattern was good (OK, I got a bit slow on turn to base, DUH), but the flare was a bit late and I bounced pretty hard, but kept the nose up and kept good control. Taxied back to Amity and secured the airplane – done! Very cool to take an airplane out by myself like that!

Note: the picture here shows the town of Spencer but not on this day - this was fall 2004 when I was doing some Piper Cub lessons. More on that some other day!

Good Lesson!

2000-10-24T12:55:00.000-07:00

Finally some good weather and a good lesson! I took the morning off for this, and yesterday’s wonderful weather thankfully continued into today. There was a little snag when I started preflighting 69L before Mario arrived – the mechanic (Jim) was fixing a knob on the radio and putting a placard on the pilot’s door, “no push” – need to open window and unlatch from the outside! No biggy, but when I opened the door, I felt something drip on my head. It was fuel from the wing tank, right near the drainage port. I called Jim back to check it, and he said it was a real leak, and we couldn’t fly 69L! The good news: since it was a weekday, 261 was available (and 661 is finally back on line with its new engine). So we flew 261, even though it made a horrible grinding noise when the flaps were lowered to 30 degrees (we decided to fly and not use more than 20 degrees of flaps).

Takeoff and climbout were uneventful – I held the centerline quite well. I decided to go out to the practice area and do some steep turns and other maneuvers visually, for review, then do some more under the foggles. This worked out pretty well, though I lost over 100 feet on 2 of 3 steep turns. Need to practice! But now I can practice on my own, since Mario says I can solo to the practice area, in part because I did well today. He did hear some “hangar talk” about my little ATC problem on the last solo lesson, but it was distorted – Bill told him that I said I had the traffic (on base) in sight, then flew right past them – this was not the case. I told the tower 2 or 3 times that I had the landing traffic in sight and was looking for the turning traffic, understanding I was #3 for landing, but I never saw #2 – they ended up doing a 360 and letting me land ahead of them. I think the tower should have handled the spacing better in this case, or I could have asked to do a right 360 myself for spacing. I was maybe a little fast on downwind, but I didn’t do anything wrong. Today we had close following traffic again, reporting mid-field left downwind at about the same time as me! It was a Cessna 310 twin, very fast. He must have slowed down or extended his downwind after I turned base – he landed after us.

Anyway, the maneuvers went pretty well, though my altitude control on the steep turns was mediocre, and I did much more than 90 degrees on my clearing turns. I did much better under the foggles this time, keeping up a reasonable scan and not letting anything get too out of whack. A couple of my climbing turns to headings were dead-nuts – this is where you climb 500 feet while turning to a specified heading, wanting to arrive at the heading and altitude simultaneously. I ended up with 0.4 hours of IFR this time, and felt pretty good about it, though at the end I did start to have this mismatch between the attitude indicator showing a slight bank and my brain saying nope, this is level! Have to remember that in case of engine failure above clouds, the non-vacuum turn and bank indicator is my friend, NOT that attitude indicator, which will tumble when you lose vacuum! Partial panel! Yikes!

Speaking of loss of power, Mario pulled this on me near the Quabbin, and I did very well, establishing best glide, picking out a nice farmer’s field, judging the wind, entering base, and turning for line-up and doing a forward slip to kill some altitude. Only thing I forgot was my ABCDE emergency procedures list – airspeed, best place to land, checklist (for possible restart or errors), D I forget now (DISTRESS!), and E for exit preparations (turn off fuel and mags, but leave master switch on until flaps are out, and also unlatch doors). I did this OK, and I also navigated back to ORH pretty well.

All in all, a nice lesson, with nice weather to boot! Mario got laser eye surgery so he is now 20/15 uncorrected – cool! $4000 for that!

No-Fly for P-51 at Chino!

2000-10-21T13:27:00.000-07:00

This is a "supplemental" post about two non-lesson flights that didn't happen, alas. In 2000, I was a member of the Chino Air Museum ("Planes of Fame") in the Los Angeles area, mainly so I could qualify for some war bird flights (you still had to pay, but members got some priority or something - hard to remember as I write this in fall 2009). I was in LA on business, added some weekend time for flying as I sometimes did even for lessons, and booked demo flights in both an AT-6 and a P-51 Mustang! I was psyched! But unfortunately even Southern California can have crappy weather ...

This week I've been in Los Angeles on business, and we've had some of the ugliest non-winter weather I’ve ever seen in LA — I went to Chino and hung around for 4 hours (looking at airplanes, not so bad), but my P-51 and AT-6 flights were canceled because it never got beyond about 2000 foot ceiling and 4 miles visibility. You don’t want to zoom around at 300 mph if you can’t see better than that. Bummer! At least I got to sit in the cockpits for some photos and talk to some of the pilots at Fighter Rebuilders. These lucky guys fly these war birds all the time, and work on restoring them the rest of the time. John Hinton was going to be my P-51 pilot, and Matt Nightingale the AT-6 pilot (he’s been working at FR since he was 12!).

I looked over their German Me-109 which is in their shop — Steve Hinton (John’s brother), the head honcho, had the Me-109 in England for a Battle of Britain commemoration, and he lost one of his brake lines on a landing — he ground looped it to avoid running off the end of the runway, damaging the wings pretty badly, but he was not hurt. It’s so cool the airplanes they have just sitting there, almost all flyable. On the ramp today were the P-51D, TBM Avenger, P-47B (razorback version), B-25, AT-6, L-5 Sentinel, and Japanese Zero! In the active hangar just behind the ramp there were two Hellcats, two Wildcats, a Corsair, a Skyraider, another P-51D, P-40, and some I forgot. Just awesome. They sent a number of aircraft to Hawaii recently to fly in a new Disney film about Pearl Harbor. They were shrink-wrapped in plastic and put on a “garbage scow” for a slow two week cruise to Honolulu. I think the film will be out soon (so this must have been last year).

Sitting in the planes was actually a lot of fun, and I got a few good photos of myself in the planes (and other plane photos too, of course). The AT-6 has original instruments, while the P-51 has been upgraded to a more modern panel. I had to be careful climbing in and out of the Mustang not to catch my foot on the landing gear lever—that would have been embarassing to collapse the gear on the ramp—I don’t think I can put a P-51 on my American Express! So I went zero for five on flights this week—these rides and three C152 lessons I had scheduled at EMT with Bryon. Oh well—I’ll be in LA again in the next few months.

Tonight I’ve been hanging around the hotel (packing for early UAL flight tomorrow) and feeling sort of overwhelmed about the near future – trying to keep everything in balance with family, work, travel, and flying. If I don’t make flying a priority, it just won’t happen – weather and travel and kid-scheduling just wipe out most of the chances to fly. Sometimes it feels like such a rat-race, but a lot of the time it’s fun, and I just have to remember how lucky I am to have all that I do have and to be able to fly at all.

Dual: First Cross-Country (ORH-PSF-ORH)

2000-09-10T10:00:00.000-07:00

This was my first official dual cross-country (greater than 50 nm from home). It was a good one, with a lot of points to remember, so I better write it down while it’s still fresh in my mind. The cross-country planning went pretty well – I got all the airport info (just PSF and ORH, 64 nm, no third leg this time), estimated based on 90 knots airspeed, and did approximate calculations with zero winds. When I called 1-800-WXBRIEF and got the standard weather briefing with winds aloft, the 3000’ and 6000’ winds were both 6 knots, and the interpolated direction for 4500’ was 25° -- so not much wind and a gorgeous day all the way around (I actually called for a briefing at 8:30 am and was told ORH-PSF was “VFR not recommended” due to low ceilings and fog, so I briefly considered flying to Concord, NH instead – but when Mario arrived, I called again, and PSF was clear, so we stayed with plan A – I should have called the Pittsfield ASOS weather phone line directly – when I did later, it was clear).

The first big problem was that the plane wouldn’t start (it was N47261 – plan was for 661, but it was in the shop for a new engine). The battery was dead – someone had flown a night flight with the alternator light on, apparently (you should look for this and cycle the alternator half of the master switch in this plane). We spent half an hour trying to hand-prop the plane, and it finally turned over (with help from Bob Karman and another CFI, Bill – Mario hates hand-propping but he was the one who finally did it after maybe 20 tries). So we were off at 10:30 a.m. Next challenge was getting to runway 11 – only two taxiways were open (construction), so back-taxi on runway was required, slowing everything down. We back-taxied only part way (tower said expedite, traffic on base!), then turned around and did a short-field take off (stay on brakes, 10° flaps, full power, release brakes). We flew left base and departed downwind to the west (magnetic compass heading 297° according to my nav log). My timer and yoke mount worked well, as did the knee board with my nav log and sectional chart. Mario had his GPS mounted but I could not see the screen – he cheated a couple of times, confirming or correcting my assumed positions (though it was really pilotage, holding a heading, timing, and VOR for 90% of the flight).

Once clear of ORH air space, climbing up to 4500’ cruise altitude (west-bound, even thousands plus 500) we called Bridgeport radio (122.2) to activate the flight plan I had filed on the phone (a first for me). Then we called up Bradley Approach (119.0) and requested flight following (yet another first for me – we were near Tanner-Hiller airport and reported this). Good thing I had recorded all those frequencies on my nav log! They gave us a squawk code and new frequency, which I wrote down and entered (only advantage of 261 is the dual-frequency radio, so you can queue up the next needed frequency). Flight following showed its value very soon, over the Quabbin Reservoir – they called out traffic at our altitude, crossing in front of us, 3 miles – we looked but Mario and I could not see the traffic (I missed my chance to say “no joy” on the radio!). Bradley said “if you don’t have a visual, suggest you expedite descent to 4000 feet” – Mario said “my airplane” and dived us down there pretty fast. We then looked up and saw a 172 passing left to right, just about where we had been, maybe ½ mile away. Close one! We had a good view of Westover ARB to our SW at this point.

I had easily spotted Spencer Airport and the Quabbin south dam, and my next check point was Amherst, Mass – but we also had to avoid Northampton airport, just 4 nm away, due to parachute activity (jumpers away at 8500 feet). I diverted a bit north of my planned track and flew right over the UMass campus – I spotted Becky’s dorm area and took a quick picture.

We had trouble spotting the airport, which is right at a bend in the (Connecticut?) river. I spotted what I thought was the airport, though it looked like a dirt strip (www.airnav.com says it’s asphalt, 14/32, 3500 x 50 feet, oh well).

On the outbound leg, I tended to gain altitude up to 4600 feet or so, but Mario reminded me that holding the planned 4500 and planned heading are especially important with flight following – you must report any altitude changes. Visibility was pretty good from 4500’ though there was a lot of low haze. Our next check point was Albert Airport, a small private strip in the Berkshires. I never saw it, but as a backup, I tuned in the Chester VOR and established that I was on the expected 022° radial. I also spotted a carrot-shaped lake with a dam at its S end about 10 nm SE of our position and noted this on the chart (distinctively shaped lakes or lakes with dams and radio towers seem to be the best landmarks).

Now we were only 17 nm from Pittsfield, and I spotted a large town just over a hill with a radio tower – the chart confirmed that this was Pittsfield, and I spotted the airport just to the SW of the town, but very faint. I think Bradley terminated our flight following at this point, and I tuned in the ASOS to get winds and altimeter setting for PSF. I then called up the CTAF (122.7) and gave our position, requesting the active runway. It was 26 with right traffic. As we got closer, we could see the reason for right traffic – two hefty mountains that would be right in the way of a left pattern for 26 and 32. I swung to the NW, passing over downtown Pittsfield and a high, wooded mountain ridge to enter the pattern on a 45° to the downwind (TPA 2200 feet). With reminders from Mario, I called my position on each leg to Pittsfield traffic (which was nil at that point). I lined up and made a rather long, sloppy touch-and-go, climbing up over the hills that seemed to pop up rather quickly off the west end of the runway. Climbed back to TPA, then turned right to take up my course.

At this point I tuned in and called Bridgeport Radio (Flight Service Stations are called “something Radio” in flight) to close my flight plan to Pittsfield. Two strange things – I got Burlington FSS, and there was a mix-up on whether I had filed out and back (I had not, though I thought I did when I told the weather briefer that I was coming right back, only a momentary stop at PSF – Burlington FSS closed my flight plan for me). So we flew back without a flight plan, but we contacted Bradley on the last-used frequency (good thing I wrote it down!) and resumed flight following.

I got the Bradley guy a little annoyed when I made several course changes over the next few minutes, trying again to swing a little north and avoid the parachuters around Northampton. He had to call me out several times to other planes because my course was changing. We also missed one or two calls for us – bad move – but we were busy and Mario was telling me stuff. We again flew over UMass and I tried to take another couple of pictures, but Mario got annoyed with this, because we also were trying (and failing) to spot an airplane that radar had told us was nearby (our 11 o’clock, climbing through 4500 – we were at 5500’ on the way home, as high as I have ever flown on my own).

Again I got my main checkpoints (Amherst, Quabbin dam) and we soon spotted ORH, a little patch of white just below the haze line to the east. We got Bradley’s OK to switch frequencies briefly to monitor ATIS, then we shortly asked to discontinue flight following so I could call up the tower. We requested a straight-in approach from around 10 miles out (since my return heading was 109 and runway 11 is 110), another first for me. We were told to report 3 mile final (Spencer airport is a good reference for this, it’s about 4 nm west of ORH). It was hard judging my descent from that far out, and I needed to keep my speed up because of following traffic. Tower said to land long (to avoid long taxi on runway) and turn left at taxiway Bravo, way down at the far end of 11, “no delay” due to following traffic (a 172 I think – the C152 is always the slowest thing in the pattern). I tend to land long anyway, so this was no problem!

All in all, a pretty good flight. I did most things right, kept track of my position, flew the airplane well (held 90 knots cruise and was right on 5500’ on the trip home). Now I’m ready for a three-leg cross-country next Sunday in Los Angeles (EMT-F70-CNO, El Monte, French Valley, Chino). Some things to keep in mind for future flights:
• For making minor course corrections when your hands are busy elsewhere (writing notes, tuning radio, etc.), the rudder pedals do a real nice job – smoother than yoke corrections! Of course you have to be trimmed well for this to work.
• It’s important to hold the planned course and altitude if you are on flight following – you want to be a predictable target.
• Call the local weather at the destination to get current conditions, don’t just rely on the weather briefer.
• If you want there-and-back flight plans, you have to tell the briefer this, it isn’t automatic, even if you tell them you are just doing a touch an go.
• Remember sunglasses, especially for the LA flight next weekend!

Time: 2.2 dual, 0.0 solo, TT TBD hrs, C152 at ORH

Supplemental: Several August Flights

2000-08-29T10:53:00.000-07:00

Wow, I’ve gotten behind in documenting my flights. It’s not that they are routine or anything, but I’m short of time tonight too! Briefly

8/19/00 Dual with Mario, 1.1 hours – Filling in my syllabus items with power-on and power-off stalls and 0.4 hours of simulated instrument with foggles. This was turns to headings, climbs, and descents. This was a pretty good lesson.

8/27/00 Dual with Mario, 1.6 hours – We got carried away! Plan was to practice forward slips at altitude, and we did a little, lining up with some power lines near the Quabbin as if they were a runway, but very high. Forwards slips to lose altitude fast (20 degrees of flaps, though Mario does them with full flaps too, usually not recommended). We also did a little VOR and pilotage practice – it was good visibility but a lot of low haze that made it hard to identify location. If I will go solo to practice area, I have to be able to get back easily! Also tried “Dutch rolls” as Jason had showed me once, cross-control exercise, keeping nose on point, fishtailing with opposite rudder. Ended up talking about and going to the hook-shaped 2500’ runway at Palmer (PMX), and it took me three tries to land on it. Landing illusion from narrow/short runway, you think you are high. I’m spoiled by ORH’s wide 7000’ runway!

8/29/00 Solo landing practice, 0.7 hours in pattern. Frustrating session. Two fairly good landings in left pattern, then passing Hood blimp caused tower to put me in right traffic, and I got flustered and flew downwind too tight and didn’t reverse wind correction. This led to rushed base and high final. Overshot turn to final each time. Grrr! Need more work, and still getting slow on base!!!

Dual: Pattern Practice

2000-08-16T18:00:00.000-07:00

I've decided to lose the "lesson #" or "flight #" designation since there are now both dual and solo flights, plus some semi-documented flights, so I'll just mark posts as Solo, Dual, or Supplemental.

Mario was out this week because his wife just had a baby (their third, a baby girl). I planned to do some solo landing practice, and although the sky was clear and beautiful, the winds were outside the limits Mario set on my solo flight endorsement (8 knots, 4 knots crosswind) – they were at 300 degrees, but 16 knots, gusting to 23 knots. I was out of luck, but it looked like Doug Rio was just hanging around, so I asked him to fly with me. He said OK. He’s a young Brazilian guy, working on his MEI right now. We took the third C152, one I had never flown, 69L (six-niner-lima in the trade). It’s newer than the others, pretty nice, red-white-and-blue paint scheme, pretty sharp.

The wind gusts blew my around a bit, and it was fairly turbulent. I decided to use only two stages of flaps and tried to fly base and approach at around 70 knots rather than 65 on final. I got slow on one approach, got down to 1800’ on one base leg, and got down below 500’ AGL pretty far out on one final. Line-ups were fair, I’d say. All my usual problems, but slight improvements – I really held 70-75 kts from the numbers to final on all but one approach (on one I was up to 80 kts on part of the final). Still playing with power too much because I’m not consistent and I’m not nailing the 65 or 70 or 75 airspeed I need. ALSO – the view was lovely (not that I notice much in a landing session!), but the sun in the west was BRUTAL flying off runway 29. I need sunglasses, even some clip-ons for the flight bag for now, get Rx sunglasses soon, though! I quit after 4 landings because the sun was just too blinding, especially on climb-out.

It frustrates me that I plan to notice more things in landings – speed, trim, landmarks to hold headings and to turn toward, crosswind correction. But I get this tunnel-vision thing going and focus on 3 or 4 things (it used to be one or two – I read my account of lesson two with Mario, the June 5 evening landing session with two after-dark landings, which MiGMan just posted – man, I was CLUEless back then, just about 10 weeks ago, so I guess I am making progress). Doug was nice, he told me to watch my airspeeds, especially in gusty conditions, and also to watch pattern altitude (usually I’m good on this). Nothing to blame on Rio, though I wish I could have been sharper flying for another CFI.

I received my Jepp knee-board and the timer and yoke mount I ordered. Ready for cockpit management on cross-country flights!

Time: 0.6 dual, 0.0 solo, TT 31.8/1.1 hrs, C152 at ORH

Solo: All By Myself

2000-08-08T18:00:00.000-07:00

Remember that Eric Carmen song, the one he stole from Rachmaninov? That was me, tonight. This was the first TOTAL solo, and it went OK, though I still can't figure out why I always pull the airspeed back to ~60 kts on final rather than the required 65 kts. Not a big safety issue since the C152 stalls at 35 knots with full flaps, but it's frustrating. When I arrived at 5:00 the ATIS said that wind was something like 260 degrees at 12 knots, gusting to 18 knots. This was outside my 4 knot crosswind limit that Mario endorsed for solo pattern work. So I waited, and by 5:30, the new ATIS said 270 at 8, so this was OK. I got the clipboard and walked out to N67661 for preflight.

I was very careful on the preflight and very deliberate in following EVERY checklist item for startup. Mario arrived with his student just as I was ready to start the engine. He asked if I wanted him to fly a couple with me, but I said no, I was comfortable. “As long as you’re confident – pilot in command!” (Mario’s favorite phrase!). I taxied out and heard ground tell a just-landed Hawker business jet to hold on taxiway delta while I crossed in front of them. As I did my run-up I heard that there were two planes on approach, a Learjet and something else. I called tower with “ready for takeoff, request left closed traffic” when the Learjet was on 3 mile final. I was told “clear for takeoff, no delay” so I taxied smartly (but not rushed!) into place and kept rolling as I pushed full throttle. I didn’t hold the runway heading so well on climb-out, one of my mini-problems. On downwind I watched the Learjet land, a pretty sight indeed. I called as I turned base (controller’s request, rather than mid-field downwind) and was cleared touch-and-go. Surprised I got no “caution wake turbulence” but it was no problem.

I still have trouble with getting slow on base and final, and I don’t really know why. Perhaps as I descend, I have an unconscious fear of “diving toward the ground” (though it’s really a controlled descent), and I hold extra back pressure. This was my problem with Kern – “get your nose down, Bruce!” – last summer. Lineup was poor the first landing, I overshot, but I did better on the other three. I got down to around 60 knots on final and added some power because I thought I was descending to a short position. I’m still really not judging the “point that doesn’t move on the windscreen” very well. I was not right on the centerline at touchdown (problem for narrower runways at other airports), and I had a small lateral drift, but I held it pretty straight. The other patterns and landings were about the same. I’m just frustrated with this getting slow thing. Need to work on this with Mario on Sunday.

On one approach the tower said “watch for landing Cessna on short final – keep your base turn square” meaning that I shouldn’t just swoop down military-style on a curved base-final turn, because the Cessna needed time to complete its touch-and-go. I saw the Cessna and replied “I have the traffic in sight, will keep my turns square for spacing.” Wow, real pilot lingo! I slowed down a bit as well. One time I got “cleared to land” before I even called the tower! I wasn’t sure it was me, so I called him to confirm this. I’m feeling pretty good about the radio work these days – I hear and repeat what I’m supposed to, and if I miss something, I call and ask. I keep it brief even though ORH is hardly a very busy tower (though one guy often covers ground and tower operations).

So I only did 0.6 hours, 4 landings (only $30) -- no sense in practicing something consistently wrong. Figure it out with Mario on Sunday maybe. We also worked on the flight plan for the first official cross-country for some time in the next few weeks (planned ORH to Pittsfield to Orange and back to ORH, though Mario says I could have simply gone ORH-PSF-ORH). Mario also suggested I practice flight calculations with the analog E6B as well as the electronic one (some cruel flight examiners have been known to take your batteries, “it just died, what do you do?”). On the way home I stopped and bought a Minolta 38-90 mm zoom point-and-shoot camera. My old SLR is too bulky, but for flights and air shows, I want better creative control for framing shots!

Supplemental - Cross-country cockpit management (8/9/00) – I just ordered some stuff that will help with the cross-countries, I think: a Jepp tri-fold knee board, a Westbend dual timer (large LCD display and buttons), and a medium yoke mount for the timer (velcro attachment, suitable for Cessna yokes – will also work with GPS if I ever get one of those little guys). This will allow me to keep the paperwork organized in the cockpit, and with the timer on a yoke mount “in my scan” (yeah, right) I will have a better chance at remembering to time my flight legs, resetting the timer for each one. This stuff totals about $80 from Marv Golden Discount Aviation.

I also saw a VERY cool thing on one of the sites (no, not a GPS, though of course I’m already lusting after those!). This was a digital “flight recorder” (FlightCom AiRepeater FC-37, $99) that attaches to the yoke and connects between the intercom plugs and headset. It records the last 60 seconds of audio received over the radio and lets you quickly “rewind” to hear if an ATC call was for you, or to copy down a complex instruction, etc. This could be a real safety aid on IFR flights, though I don’t think I need this sort of thing right now (plus 60 seconds seems a little skimpy).

Time: 0.0 dual, 0.6 solo, TT 31.2/1.1 hrs, C152 at ORH

Dual: Mini-Cross Country

2000-08-06T12:24:00.000-07:00

There have been a lot of days when I've been outside, looked at the sky and thought, "what a gorgeous day -- I wish I were flying!" Well Saturday was one of those days, and I WAS flying. Blue skies with a scattering of puffy white fair-weather cumulus. A little bumpy here and there, but nice. This was all-dual, 1.7 hours C152 with Mario.

I used the airport directory and NY sectional chart to do most of the pre-flight planning for a mini-cross-country, flying ORH to ORE (Orange Muni, just N of the Quabbin) to FIT (Fitchburg, along Rt. 2, over Gardner -- even saw the Gardner VOR) and back over Sterling to ORH. I hoped to detour E to fly over West Boylston and the Wachusett Rsvr., but the first part of the flight took longer than expected. Even though it was too short to be an official cross-country, I figured it would be good practice to get all the info, mark up the chart, fill in the forms, and all that. Then on the flight, following the chart, looking for visual checkpoints, finding and approaching unfamiliar airports, etc. -- just like a real x-country. It's purely a "local" flight for Mario, but I never flew into any of these airports, so it was authentic to me! Total ground distance was only 68 NM, but flying around to properly enter the patterns probably doubled that!

Mario was impressed with my flight planning -- I even got the weather and winds aloft at 3000 feet (only 6 kts at 20 degrees) but I didn't complete the corrections in my navigation log. It was harder than I expected to follow the chart on my lap while juggling 6 or 7 frequencies (ORH's 120.5, ASOS and CTAF for ORE and FIT, CTAF for Gardner when we overflew the airport at 3000 feet, ATIS for ORH, back to 120.5). I also had to look for check point landmarks, plan my entry to each pattern, and fly the airplane! I forgot a lot of stuff along the way, but Mario said I did OK.

Things to note:
• Frequency congestion is a big problem -- 3 or 4 area uncontrolled airports use 122.8 as CTAF, including ORE, and it was very noisy. It took a while to figure out that 32 was the active runway, and it took me even longer to figure out how to enter the downwind at 45 degrees for this since I was approaching the airport on the runway heading! A straight-in approach is bad form at uncontrolled fields (people need to see where you are before you just show up on final). I ended up doing a big circle around the airport which took a long time.
• Watch altitude and airspeed! I climbed to 3300 or descended to 2800 a few times from my planned 3000 (not a normal VFR cruise altitude, but OK for less than 3000' AGL). I should have cruised faster on some legs -- 100 knots maybe. Pitch, power, trim! I should try using the rudders more for slight corrections to course (due to bumps or my wandering attention). If the airplane is trimmed well, it won't climb or drift so much when I'm fiddling with the radios. With flight-following on future x-countries, ATC will expect you to stay at your planned altitude.
• I need to practice forward slips at altitude! I came in high into FIT and Mario told me to do a forward slip. I aggressively pushed full right rudder as he had done earlier, and rolled left at the same time, but I pulled back on the yoke! BAD MOVE. Perfect cross-control set-up for a spin at maybe 1000 feet AGL. People die this way. Fortunately the C152 is forgiving and Mario caught it in time. I need work on this!
• I did OK finding the airports, though I didn't hold my planned magnetic course very well, and I didn't re-adjust the directional gyro to the whiskey compass until I passed Gardner and realized the heading could not be right if I were heading right for FIT (which I was). I got a few of my checkpoints, missed others.
• Over-flying Sterling is a bad plan due to glider traffic there – we stayed further west, passing just east of Mt. Wachusett. We saw two gliders well above us to the SE. There were also "parachuters away at 9500 feet" over ORE. These things made Mario a bit nervous. I was not worried (big sky theory, or maybe just naive?).
• GET ATIS! Before calling ORH on return I forgot to get ATIS until Mario hinted that I had forgotten something. I also need to review arrival and departure plans. It would have been nice to know the active runways before I got so close to ORE and FIT. I wish N67661 had a better radio (one with a button to toggle between active and standby frequencies -- then you can tune in the next one when you have a free moment and just flip it in when needed -- 261 has this but it climbs like a dead dog, so I'll stay with 661 when I can).
• I need a knee board for flights like this -- juggling the loose chart and the other paper where I had written the TPA and CTAF info was distracting. This is a small taste of cockpit management -- I could see this being VERY important on longer x-countries. I need a timer too -- and maybe bifocals! The text on the sectional is small and looking at my watch is distracting, but I need to be timing the legs of the flight, and restarting the timer at each leg!
• On departure, from uncontrolled fields, you need to climb straight out to TPA and depart on a 45 degree turn (R or L) from there. Then turn to heading when you are at least 500' above TPA. At a controlled field, if you get "right turn approved," you can turn to course any time, though you usually should clear the end of the runway first (but OK if you are not at TPA yet).
• Photos were cool since it was such a clear day, BUT... it IS distracting, even when I say "your airplane" for the shot. PLUS I need a point-and-shoot camera with telephoto. The wide-angle Samsung doesn't cut it.
• TRIM, TRIM, TRIM! Both for cruise and for pattern/approach. Trim for the speed I need! I don't do this enough, and I'm not consistent on altitudes because of this. I also play too much with the power, which is bad because it messes up your speed (and trim), which you are counting on to meet your flight plan. There are a lot of things to keep in mind up there!
• Need to practice VOR intercepts and localization in Fly! or X-plane -- I used the Gardner VOR (GDM, 110.6) one time to figure out where were along the first leg (since I couldn't find the Barre race track, my second check point), but I was awkward with it. Another thing to juggle!

There's more I'm sure but I need to get back to work here. I've scheduled my first totally solo flight for tomorrow (8/8) at 5 pm, to practice pattern work on my own at ORH, if the weather is OK and cross-wind is less than 4 knots. This is followed by an hour of ground time with Mario to plan a longer cross-country together. I need to do some prep for this tonight!

Time: 1.7 dual, 0.0 solo, TT 30.6/0.5 hrs, C152 at ORH

Supplemental: Cross Country Pre-Planning

2000-08-03T10:19:00.000-07:00

I'm starting to think seriously about cross-country flying, which will also help me prepare for the written test (charts, plotter, wind, etc.). I scheduled a lesson with Mario for 9:30 am Saturday and left him a voice mail suggesting we do a "mini-cross-country" as a change of pace from all the pattern work. I roughly planned this last night, deciding to fly to Orange (ORE) then to Fitchburg (FIT) and back to ORH. This is a total of 68 nm which should be 0.85 hours (51 minutes) if average ground speed is 80 knots. I picked out check points too. This should be pretty educational for local area familiarization -- pass near a couple of the nearby western airports, over Barre (which shows a race track on the sectional), near the north tip of the Quabbin and into ORE. Then east over Gardner Airport (and VOR, GDM) and into Fitchburg, finally SSW over Sterling, west of the Wachusett, over Holden (possible detour to West Boylston), and into ORH. With landings, this could be up close to 1.5 hours. I think it's a good intro to cross-country flying.

I also found my old Los Angeles VFR terminal area chart and thought about that cross-country on September 17. I think I'll plan to go down to French Valley, which is in the SE corner of the LA terminal chart, near Lake Elsinore, uncontrolled, about 55 nm SE of EMT. Then I'll see if we can stop at Chino on the way back to EMT -- that would be cool to land there myself!

SOLO! (Lesson #25)

2000-07-29T13:00:00.000-07:00

I did it! I soloed in a Cessna 152 (N67661) today (7-29-00) at Worcester (MA) airport, where I resumed my flight lessons with a new instructor in early June. Worcester Airport (ORH) is only 20 minutes from home and is a tower-controlled airport with light airline traffic. I now have a whopping zero-point-five hours as pilot in command. The weather was the usual for Worcester -- cloudy, wanting to rain. Last Sunday we did a "final" test -- 6 landings with no help from my instructor. I did well, so we scheduled a long block of time for Saturday, expecting to solo. I arrived early and spent over an hour with my CFI, Mario, going over my pre-solo written test. That was pretty easy thanks to all the ground school study. Meanwhile, I'm sweating the weather, since ORH started the day with fog and 100 foot ceilings. By 11:30 a.m. it was up to 1100 feet, but we need 1500 to meet minimum VFR (500 feet below any clouds, and pattern altitude is 1000 ft AGL, 2000 ft MSL -- visibility was fine, 10 miles).

By 12:30 it had crept up to 1500 so we decided to try it -- winds were calm to 6 knots and mostly west, little crosswind (only runway 29/11 is open due to construction on 33/15). We took off a little after 1 pm (after a careful pre-flight -- Betty and Caroline had also just arrived to see me off and take pictures -- I sent them down to the approach end of runway 29). We didn't expect to have much time, since a thunderstorm was expected later in the afternoon, and as that moved in, wind and wind-shear could be a problem. One odd thing was that the ATIS frequency was off the air for some reason, so I had to telephone for the pre-flight ATIS info. The tower frequency was a bit scratchy too -- I was glad I reviewed the light gun signals, though I didn't need them.

Mario once again was deliberately silent (and hands off), and I did two pretty decent touch-and-goes. The third was to be full-stop, but I flared WAY too high, bounced a lot and drifted to the right, so he said "let's see that one again." I took it around the pattern and landed OK. We taxied back to Amity, and I left the engine running while Mario gave me some final words and hopped out (he had already signed my logbook and student certificate). His main advice was "no pressure - don't rush for ANYBODY." I got a little stressed last lesson when we were sandwiched between two turboprop commuters and two Pipers in the run-up area. Follow procedures and ATC instructions, but don't rush and forget things!

Once he was out, it seemed very..... routine! I consciously looked down at the empty seat, said "that's odd," finished my checklist, and called ground for permission to taxi. Just following procedures. When I called the tower at the intersection of taxiway bravo and runway 29, I was told to hold short while another small plane landed (a Mooney I think -- I had seen him on base and final so I expected this). This gave me a minute to look for Betty and Caroline -- they were at the fence and Betty waved back to me. Then I got "taxi into position and hold" followed shortly by "clear for takeoff, make left closed traffic." So I took off. This didn't feel the least bit scary or odd to me, though as I expected, the C152 climbs a lot better with only one person aboard! I got maybe 1000 fpm rather than 500 or less with Mario aboard. I was careful to watch my airspeed and to stay coordinated. I remembered carb heat, radio calls midfield downwind, power reduction, and all stages of flaps. I was not as consistent on my turns to base and final as I wanted to be, and I overshot the first one a lot (shallow S-turn back to line up, keeping the ball centered pretty well), the second one a bit, but the third was just right. I picked my landing spots each time, but didn't really stick with the decision (I added a bit of power when I felt like I was getting low a couple of times, though the VASI lights generally showed me as high -- of course high is better than low).

The first landing was a bit "firm" but OK, and I kept good control as I rolled out, raised flaps, killed carb heat, and applied full power for the touch-and-go. The second landing seemed smoother, though it was long because I started to flare very slightly when I was still a bit high (hey, I got 7000 feet of runway to play with). The third landing was full-stop, and I think the flare was good, but when the nose wheel came down, it started shaking like crazy. I pulled back gingerly on the yoke (offload the nose wheel, aerodynamic braking) while I also applied the brakes pretty hard, wanting to exit at the usual taxiway delta. The tower told me to take that exit and contact ground. I switched to 123.85 and reported "Worcester ground, Cessna 67661, clear of the active." They told me to taxi to Amity, so I did. No special words from the tower (I hadn't mentioned first solo to them, though Mario had called them on the phone to let them know to watch out for me). But when I taxied back, Mario was there with a big grin and a Polaroid camera. He said I did a great job. Betty and Caroline showed up a moment later and we took more pictures. It was only three landings, 0.5 hours in my logbook (plus 0.7 more dual), but this was my first solo flight, first PIC time, so it's really REALLY cool.

Now I know I can finish my private pilot, hopefully this year -- sure, I still have a lot to learn, but that first solo is really a confidence builder after decades of dreaming and three years of start-and-stop lessons. In each of the last three springs and summers, I managed to get 6 or 8 hours in, then something would come up (the first "something" was a divorce!). Things have stabilized pretty well now, and I realized in June that this is the one thing I have consistently wanted to do for some 35 years, since first learning the basics of flight in a bunch of Piper Cub orientation flights as a Civil Air Patrol cadet. So I decided I would not put it off any longer. Lifelong dreams are too important!

This is the "solo story" that I posted in rec.aviation.students.

Time: 0.7 dual, 0.5 solo, TT 28.9/0.5 hrs, C152 at ORH

Supplemental: Pre-Solo Chair Flying

2000-07-27T20:25:00.000-07:00

Mario told me to "chair fly" this week, which means thinking through the procedures, mentally re-flying a lesson like the last one, thinking through the checklists, radio calls, taxi, run-up, takeoff, pattern, and landing. I've been studying for the written too -- I filled in most from memory then looked up the FAR's for each answer (not multiple choice!).

I have tried to chair fly with the help of X-plane and Fly! but the behavior is so different from the C152 that I don't think this is helpful for the landing phase. Chair flying with no sim is better! Last night I discovered that Flight Unlimited 3 does actually support separate USB yoke and pedals with suitable edits to the flt3.cfg file, and I got this to work with a lot of finagling (USB situation is messed up -- have to re-plug both devices after every reboot, and their ID's can change, changing what FU3 defines to be device 1 vs. device 2). Although FU3 includes only the Seattle area, it seems to behave and look better than either Fly! or X-plane. So it may be worth spending some time with it -- though Fly! is the obvious thing to use for navigation practice and cross-country preparation, since I do have the Boston area scenery in there. The elevation still doesn't look right, but the Wachusett, major roads, and area airports are in the right places.

Expecting to Fly (Lesson #24)

2000-07-22T14:00:00.001-07:00

Editor's Note: Those lesson numbers are starting to bother me - 24 lessons to solo?!? Yes, and about 28 hours, but 17 of those hours were in dribs and drabs spread across 1997-1999, so I actually soloed after about 11 recent hours. Everyone says you shouldn't care about this sort of thing, but everyone does!

Go for the moon! Well, not the moon exactly, but for solo next Saturday!!! The "final exam" went well with nary a word from Mario once we were airborne (though I did start off poorly by skipping a step in the startup checklist and not retracting the flaps before I started to taxi - FOLLOW THE DAMN CHECKLIST!!!). I did six UNASSISTED landings, five of them pretty good, one of them far off the centerline but recovered on my own (that's useful info for Mario too, to see that I can screw up and still save the landing without too much fuss, though it would be better not to allow that drift -- consistency will come with practice). Mario said everything was good -- procedures, altitudes, descent rates, turns, radio work, EXCEPT…

• Not correcting for the wind on turn from downwind to base -- the tailwind moves you out so you must start the turn earlier and turn MORE than 90º to get established at the right distance (over Worcester State's football stadium - I was way east over downtown Worcester once or twice).
• Getting slow on turn to base - I was at 70 kts when I added flaps abeam the numbers, but I lost it a bit on the turn to base.
• Staying lined up all the way down so the wheels track nicely with no side loads -- getting better but still allowing some sideways drift (once it was a LOT, I probably should have done a go-around on that one).
• I also notice that I got kind of mousy on some of my pattern turns -- trying to keep them fairly shallow, but rolling out early and then tweaking in the rest of the turn -- just fly a rectangular pattern!! As Mario likes to say -- "control the airplane -- YOU are the pilot in command" -- he really likes that expression!" (I actually don't mind it myself).
• If I do a go-around (and don't be afraid to do this if I'm not happy with the approach), remember to establish positive climb and bring the flaps up IN STAGES. Don't want to sink back on the runway from 30 feet!
• ALSO - I was sandwiched between a couple of commuter turboprops ahead and two Pipers behind when I got to the run-up area at taxiway Bravo. I got flustered and wanted to rush through the run-up and taxi fast onto the runway when cleared (the commuter was sitting at the end of the runway with engines running, but I was cleared first, then told to start my crosswind early, at about 1400'). DON'T RUSH IT. When cleared, the runway is MINE, and the other guys, big or small, just have to wait. NO NEED TO RUSH.
• Watch out for wake turbulence if I do get cleared behind a big guy!

So Saturday should be my first solo! I first have to do an hour of ground instruction (at 10 am) with Mario so he can make sure I know enough of the pre-solo written test he gave me (I'm in good shape on this, and he says it's "open book" anyway, with the POH, airport directory, FAR/AIM, etc. available when I need it). I filed a maintenance squawk at M's suggestion because N67661 is using a lot of oil and showing streaks on the cowling. I hope it doesn't have to go into the shop before Saturday. With luck, this will be the last entry in this pre-solo (three year!) flight lesson journal. I'll start a new one Saturday with my very own solo story!

Time: 0.9 hrs dual, TT 28.2, C152 at ORH

Semi-Finals for Solo (Lesson #23)

2000-07-22T14:00:00.000-07:00

At the end of this lesson, I discussed the solo plan with Mario. He basically said that NEXT lesson (tomorrow!) we will do pattern work, and he will say and do nothing (short of a real emergency), sort of a pre-solo final exam. He will also give me the pre-solo written test to take home and do, and on the next lesson (soon!) he will grill me on the questions, take me up for a T&G and full-stop, and sign me off for solo! So I am really REALLY close and with luck (weather mostly - crosswinds my big problem), I will solo in the next few days, just short of 30 hours TT (time to switch to a new flight lesson notes file then too).

Today was a two-parter, and fairly long as my recent lessons have been (we seem to have lost the "one hour to stay fresh" idea, though 1.2 or 1.3 is not bad). The first part was in the west practice area, for my first 0.2 hours of simulated IFR, wearing foggles rather than a hood (I could actually see quite a lot of the side and front views). He had me do level flight, turns to specific headings, climbs and descents, with and without turns. I did OK on this stuff (sim experience may actually help on this sort of stuff). I overshot my headings and gained or lost as much as 150 feet (100 is the practical tolerance), but overall not too bad. It was a bit bumpy in spots, but I did OK, didn't overcorrect for it, just rode out the bumps. Things to remember:

• Stay coordinated - step on the ball!
• Don't exceed 30º of bank (standard rate turns in IFR).
• Roll out ahead of the target heading.
• Level off ahead of the target altitude, 10% of the climb rate (50 feet lead for 500 fpm climb or decent).
• Pitch, power, TRIM!!!
• Keep the scan up (I think I did OK on this -- did not seem fixated on the attitude indicator).
I actually liked the IFR stuff, but may try the hood next time.

Then we went back to the airport to practice touch and goes. Flew over town of Spencer to set up the mid-field left downwind for runway 29 (Mario said my pattern entry and setup was "perfect"). Did most of the radio calls except when there were calls to watch traffic and to be #3 after specified traffic which I had to spot and report (lot of traffic today, including two other students doing T&G's, with right as well as left traffic active in the pattern -- controller was busy today). Winds were pretty good, sometimes at 290º, straight down the runway, but I had a crosswind on some landings. I did one really smooth landing, the first one I think, probably my first "greaser." The others were "firm" but I recovered them well, re-flared and held the nose off. Some points:

• WATCH THE WIND ON TAKEOFF - with a wind from the left, I usually had the yoke turned RIGHT at the liftoff point, adding to the wind drift, a mistake. Need to establish the crab INTO the wind as soon as the wheels are off the ground.
• In the pattern, I did pretty well with altitude control, though I still don't have a good feel for when I need to turn greater or less than 90º in my pattern turns due to wind effects.
• Still slow on base and final sometimes (final was usually OK, 65 knots, often 60-65 on base). Mario is still foggy on why I get slow (me too!), but he did mention the need to get the nose down when you add flaps.
• Early lineup was better, and I held the lineup better on most passes, and when I drifted off, I did the corrections myself. Poor wheel alignment on some landings (need to control the airplane all the way down!).
• REMEMBER CARB HEAT midfield when I make the radio call - I forgot a couple of times, though I remembered flaps every time (only used 20º because of the strong headwind on final, low ground speed with full flaps, and also needed to keep speed up due to heavy traffic in the pattern).
• Getting a little better on trim in the pattern.
• WATCH THE TAIL WIND (fast ground speed) on downwind leg -- it went fast and my radio calls were late sometimes (also a lot of radio traffic today, so I had to avoid stepping on others' transmissions).
• IMPORTANT: After touchdown, FLAPS first, then carb heat IN, then full power for takeoff (I skipped the flaps once - dangerous since you can sink when you lose their extra lift, don't want to be airborne before flaps are fully retracted!).
• RIGHT RUDDER for full power climb - keep that ball centered better.
• I was not consistent on the length, altitude, and descent rate for my end-pattern (from abeam the numbers to base to final). Some of this was due to ATC and traffic spacing (slow flight, extend downwind, etc.), but some was just poor airspeed control by me, though Mario commented that I did a nice job each time correcting for the problem and getting the airplane aligned and down. Generally I was high at the start, which is better than low.
• Need to pick my touchdown spot sooner and REALLY aim for it.
• IMPORTANT: Need a review on how to forward slip on final when I end up too high and with less than full flaps!

Overall, a good lesson, and I think I'm justified in pushing Mario a little on the solo plan -- I'm just about ready. I still have this feeling of odd inconsistency -- some things I really have a good feel for (like correcting for various starting points for final, high or low). But other "simple" things seem to escape me sometimes (like which way to bank and press rudder to line up the nose on short final!!!). But the good news is this: I can land the airplane! Not always perfect, but I can land it.

Time: 1.3 hrs dual, TT 27.3 hrs, C152 at ORH

Getting the Green Light (Lesson #22)

2000-07-17T19:00:00.000-07:00

This was a pretty good lesson considering the week off and the crappy weather. There was a slight but noticeable crosswind, and we stayed in the pattern in N47261, which is the underachieving C152 (climbs like a bumblebee). Started out with runway 11 and did OK on takeoffs (some drift) and pattern (crabbing for wind MOST of the time). Landings were a little rough, but I flared and got the plane down, even with some wind correction.

IMPORTANT NOTE: When I bounce, I have a tendency to lower the nose to try to paste it on the runway. BAD MOVE. When you bounce, you are still flying and have to land AGAIN. You don't want to land on the nose wheel. KEEP THE NOSE UP AND ADD SOME POWER IF NECESSARY. Also, TRACK ALONG THE RUNWAY -- I put some bad side loads on the gear last night. AND THINK ABOUT THE WIND. Use ailerons for drift, straighten the nose WITH THE OPPOSITE RUDDER. I got confused on the proper rudder to apply and/or I let off on the correction too soon.

Another thing is speed. I'm still getting slow sometimes and I don't really know why. It should be easy -- 75 downwind, 70 base, 65 final, boom. Once established, I do a lot better if I just look at my landing spot and BARELY GLANCE at airspeed.

There were a lot of jets around last night, and at one point a Hawker was slowly back-taxiing to get to the end of the runway (they want all 7000 feet I guess). I was on downwind, so the tower (Dave, he's a student pilot too -- should see if I can visit up there some time) told us to do a 360 when abeam the numbers then report back when abeam again. This gave the Hawker time to get in place and take off (caution wake turbulence). Pretty cool! Mario handled the radio on this part -- I didn't expect it and wasn't sure what to read back. Mario also asked the tower to give me a light signal before the first takeoff (green - clear to take off, clear to land if airborne). He wanted me to see what it looks like -- good idea. I need to memorize the signals (I know them well enough for the multiple choice FAA questions).

Finally we had to switch runways from 11 to 29 by doing a right 90 followed by a 270 onto the new runway heading. Mario did the radio on this one, but we agreed that it was good to have seen a couple of these ATC-ordered pattern spacing maneuvers before I solo. Another student told me he got two of these on his first solo and had never seen them before -- he just wanted to land! He's got 37 hours and is almost ready for his check ride (needs night x-country and long solo x-country, figures he'll complete in 43 hours, wow!). He was a 20-something heading off to Embry-Riddle Aeronautical U in Florida to train as a commercial pilot, and he wanted to complete his private before enrolling. I could have probably learned faster in my twenties, too. But all in good time, grasshopper. Mario told me to study the Part 61 & 91 student pilot/solo regs before Saturday's flight, so maybe…

Time: 1.2 hrs dual, TT 26.0 hrs, C152 at ORH

Learning to Land (Lesson #21)

2000-07-09T07:00:00.000-07:00

This was an awesome lesson. Wind was very calm first thing in the morning (I called ATIS and ASOS from home) so I didn't have to sweat the crosswind stuff, just concentrate on flying a solid pattern, good approach, and FLARE. I've just about got that part now, though I still have a tendency to stray from the centerline at the very end and to relax my control of the airplane once it's on the ground (but still rolling and maybe even before the nose wheel is down). I'm also still a flying a bit slow on base and final (get the nose down!!!), but I could possibly solo next lesson if it's calm.

I experienced a lot of stuff today, in nine landings (all touch and go but the last, no go-arounds, no Mario saves):

· Simulated engine out -- "lost your engine" on downwind near the numbers -- Mario pulls idle power. First try I set best glide but still "squared off" the pattern and needed to add power to reach the threshold. BAD MOVE. Set best glide (65 knots) and HEAD FOR THE RUNWAY NOW (then communicate with ATC if there's time, "request priority landing, engine out emergency"). Second time I made it with plenty of room.

· Patterns with NO instruments. I did three or four of these. Mario covered up EVERYTHING, even the tach. I flew smoother this way (don't be a slave to the instruments in VFR!), though I was high on one landing, and Mario demonstrated a forward slip (this was probably a Mario save, can't remember). Nice to know I can fly a reasonable pattern and approach in pure "seat of the pants" VFR.

· No flaps landing -- did one or two of these -- come in shallow and faster than normal. Landed at maybe 70 knots. Not bad, not really any harder than normal as long as there's no crosswind.

· Had to expedite one turn to crosswind because a jet was ready to depart. Watched it take off from the downwind leg, a nice view. First time I've gotten "caution, wake turbulence" from ATC -- not a factor since we touch down and take off in the first 3000 or 4000 feet of runway and the jet lifted off at 5000+ feet.

Mario felt I made real progress on both this and the Friday lesson - me too. I'm really landing the airplane (as long as there's a minimal crosswind). Cool. Remaining problems -- still slowing too much on base and final, often around 60 instead of desired 70 then 65. What's up with this? And I get a bit confused on controls when I start to drift near touchdown -- don't want to bank much down here, use rudders more (and correctly). Better to get the corrections in earlier when they are smaller! Thank goodness for the wide runway. But I was very close to centerline on most of the landings. The flares were pretty decent -- a bit hard on a couple, a bit floaty on a couple more. But overall, a great lesson. I feel really comfortable in the airplane now.

Oh yeah, I also need to MEMORIZE the control positions for taxiing with wind! This is important in the feather-weight C152. I still get confused on this and when I'm holding the yoke, my hands want to steer with it, even though my feet know that this is their job. Useful tip: Use the heading indicator to visualize where the wind is with respect to the airplane. If it's coming from 320 degrees, use the directional gyro to show where it is coming from as you steer around the airport. Another thing: requesting "the option" from the tower means (if cleared for it) that you have the option for touch and go, go around, simulated engine-out approach, or full-stop landing. Only request this when the pattern is pretty free of traffic -- common courtesy to other pilots.

Time: 1.3 hrs dual, TT 24.8 hrs, C152 at ORH

All But the Flare (Lesson #20)

2000-07-07T19:00:00.000-07:00

This one looked like it might not happen at all. With only 29/11 available due to construction on 33, crosswinds are normal, but AWOS/ATIS sounded bad. They had 350º at 19 knots, gusting to 26, variable 340-020º which gave a crosswind component of 16.5 knots, which exceeded the demonstrated 12 knots for the C152, though Mario said HE could do it, carry more speed and use minimal flaps. But me??? We briefly considered Fitchburg, 10 minutes NE with a runway 32, but it turns out the C152 had only half-full tanks, so no-go. We called weather again and the winds seemed to be calming, so we went for it.

We ended up doing 9 landings, and on the first 4 I managed to learn to recognize my wind drift and fly a wind-corrected pattern fairly well. I held my speed better too, though I need a lot of work on control positions for taxiing the airplane! The first few approaches were all over the place, but then I finally started to get it and managed to hold right yoke and left rudder and pitch to keep the approach spot fixed on the windscreen. Mario said "you're getting this!"

The trouble was the flare - still no clue on when to start it and how fast and how much to pull. Mario did the first few with a rushed "my airplane" each time. The last 2 or 3 were me, but my one full landing was REALLY hard on the right wheel. Mario used the long runway to make it look easy to roll along the centerline on the upwind (right) wheel, but I could not control it that precisely. But everything else was working at the end. We even had to switch to right traffic to clear the way for an incoming Dash 8 from the south (new American Eagle flights to/from JFK I guess). This was tough the first time (right wing hides your ground references), but I did OK, though sometimes I would forget the crab and just get parallel to the runway, then drift too close. This means that with the fast ground speed on the turn to base, I had only a second or two to get flaps in and turn final. On one of these, I was really slow and Mario took the airplane and did a couple of steep turns to get us lined up.

A couple of times we took an extended downwind to give me more time on final to get established. This helped. After the lesson, Mario was very encouraging, said I made real progress on all but the flare. Tomorrow morning (0700!) we will work on that part. Solo will be… when I'm ready! But I'm getting close. One thing that helped on final (oddly enough) was the sun -- it was low and straight ahead for approach to 29 so I could barely see the instruments. This meant I had to look outside (to hold the touchdown point fixed on the window), which was better for me anyway! I tried to explain some of my perceptual difficulties to Mario at the start of the lesson (I know I should see that drift, but I don't!), and it also helped to discuss and diagram the likely wind picture on the ground before we flew -- I was starting to visualize it, and plan for it.

We did encounter wind shear on a couple of approaches. I was holding right yoke and left rudder and had a good line up when suddenly it went bad. I'm thinking, what did I screw up? But Mario explained that the wind shifted just then so you just adjust to what you see. He emphasized that I CAN control the airplane, I'm the pilot, so don't be afraid to make it do what you want. I'm getting there!!! We took a few pictures too -- there were some awesome clouds out there, including some towering cumulus or thunderstorm clouds with flashes of lightning underneath way east, near Boston.

Time: 1.3 hrs dual, TT 23.5 hrs, C152 at ORH

A MiG At Your Six (Lesson #19)

2000-07-03T19:00:00.000-07:00

Of course I didn't literally have a MiG at my six, but to paraphrase an alleged fighter pilot quote ("A MiG at your six is better than no MiG at all"), having landing problems is actually good because it means I am learning to land an airplane, something I have always wanted to do and something for which I am clearly not overly gifted. I know I can learn to do it, but it may take a bit longer! So relax and enjoy the ride. The real title of this note should have been "crosswind blues."

My real problems are consistency and multitasking. I was frustrated again tonight by my inability to implement stuff I know how to do, and have done in previous lessons. When it comes to smooth execution of the final 30 seconds or so from starting base to (almost!) landing -- that's where it breaks down for me. Paying attention to multiple things at once and remembering and executing the procedures. Tonight there was a substantial cross wind, and I thought I had the side slip technique, at least in concept. Wing low into the wind, point the nose down the runway with the rudder. The part I missed until attempt #4 was to HOLD the left aileron and to HOLD the right rudder the whole time (on final -- probably should crab first then transition to this since being cross-controlled down low with my tendency to get slow is a classic stall-spin set up -- need to discuss this with Mario). The thing is, it's not like a normal bank where you neutralize controls after establishing the desired bank. You find out what position of yoke and rudder straightens your path and alignment and HOLD THEM IN!!! Only adjust it if you overshoot or the wind changes or gusts.

I did not get this on three attempted touch and goes, and ended up drifting all over the width of runway 29 (150 feet wide!). On the last attempt, I had the control ALMOST (slight drift), but I basically forgot to flare, so Mario did this. He executed the go-around on the first three attempted T&G's. Good thing the airport was empty (as usual on a MVFR semi-rainy evening). So it was not my day, but nobody said I was Chuck Yeager, and Mike Love (not the Beach Boys' Mike Love, but the CFI author of a book I have called "Flight Maneuvers") says that cross wind landings require finesse and practice. Well, I'm working on part deux anyway! Mario is very patient and encouraging, though I sometimes wish he were a little more critical and a little better at diagnosing what I am doing wrong. We ended at 0.9 hours just when I started to get the slip procedure, but the weather had dropped below VFR with visibility under 3 miles, and the tower was having trouble keeping us in sight. Time to go home! As I taxied off the runway, a female deer was on the grass 50 feet to the right. She ran away when I gunned the engine to start taxi after doing the checklist.

N47261 is a pretty crummy little plane. Weird noises, barely climbs, barely keeps running in the idle check (with carb heat) at runup. At least they replaced the nearly bald right main tire before our flight today (we were the test pilots for this work, but I figure if the mechanics can't replace a tire correctly, we're in trouble on a lot of other stuff - I did a thorough preflight and checked the bolts, pins, and brakes carefully on that wheel). Try to get 661 next time!!!

Silver lining department: OK, so the crosswind landing thing needs a lot more work. Not to mention the basic landing thing. But look on the bright side:

• I'm flying -- it's not an F-16, but when I call the tower (nearly perfect on my radio work, Mario says), get "clear for takeoff," push full power, and take off, it's still VERY cool. Look, Ma, I'm flying the airplane!
• I'm doing many things pretty smoothly and consistently -- preflight, run up, radio work, taxi, takeoff, trim, climb out, straight and level, and pattern turns are all pretty good.
• Wind is a bitch. This is one area where sims may have hurt me a bit. Most combat sims have no wind model, and in a fast jet, typical winds are a minor correction anyway (though important in long range navigation, most of the time you just follow the waypoint caret anyway, and any wind correction is probably factored in by the nav system). At 65-75 knots in the pattern, a 5 or 7 knot cross wind is a big vector for a C152. And even thinking about the wind is hard for me, very abstract -- you can't see it directly, you have to learn to infer it from the airplane's behavior, although the reported wind gives you some clue of what to expect. I am starting to get the wind idea, crabbing and slipping and all.
• Rome wasn't built in a day. OK, so I had some early flight experience in the Piper Cub (no landings though), and I have years of sim experience (mostly in combat jets with questionable flight modeling and little attention paid to precise patterns, navigation, etc.). But I still have to learn to fly the real airplane in the real wind with the real instruments and controls, and I have to learn it at my own speed. Some lessons will feel like progress, others won't. But it's fun all the same to be doing this. There's nothing I want to do more! Before too long I will be a pilot, and I won't have this dream any more (I'll replace it with an accomplishment and probably set some new goals, like an instrument rating, aerobatics training, or buying an airplane -- did I say that?).

One last thing. PREPARE. I did do some reading on landings and stuff yesterday, but I didn't review my notes on past lessons and mistakes, and I still don't have the instrument/outside scan and pattern procedures down cold. They should be smooth and continuous, not sequential. Things happen quick up there, even at a paltry 70 knots. I could even rehearse the steps in my car or in a chair, with or without a sim. The mental game of flying!

The consistency will come with practice -- I have 22 hours now, but only 4 of them are very recent. Flying at least once a week will help with this too.

Time: 0.9 hrs, TT 22.2 hrs, C152 at ORH

Rust Never Sleeps (Lesson #18)

2000-07-02T15:00:00.000-07:00

Even after flying around the world in economy class, I was ready to once again take the even more cramped left seat of a C152. The 2+ week layoff really hurt me, as did the 2+ hours hanging around the FBO for the flight (1:00 scheduled, but shit happens as usual -- but by the time I flew I was feeling time pressure because I had to pick up J & C and take them places). Not Mario's fault, but it gets annoying sometimes. ANYWAY, it was clear and warm, about 85 F, and with full fuel tanks and close to 400 lbs of adults on board, the C152 was a bit sluggish. We could barely get 400 FPM out of it. Runway was 29, winds 270 at 5 or so. Crosswind picked up as we got back for landings.

Preflight was fine, got ATIS (which expired while I was fumbling through the checklist, Charlie went to Delta) but I made the radio call to ground early, before I had completed the pre-taxi checklist. READ AND FOLLOW CHECKLISTS. That should be so easy, but I get sloppy, in a rush to get going. Bad plan! My radio calls were good, overall. Taxi this time with wind-awareness -- left quartering tail wind -- REVIEW YOKE POSITION FOR TAXI WITH WINDS. Takeoff was pretty good, I tracked the 290 degree departure heading pretty well and trimmed for my 67 knot climb (later slowed to Vx around 60 kts to try to get better climb rate). Straight out departure to the vicinity of Spencer, and I knew where to expect Spencer Airport when Mario asked me, good checkpoint awareness. Bit of turbulance around 3000 feet.

First up (my request) was slow flight, and I was sloppy. Started by NOT doing a real clearing turn. Slowed to approach speed and configuration and did some shallow turns. So-so on these -- poor altitude, heading, and rudder control. We did these for maybe 15 minutes before heading back to ORH for some pattern work, two T&G's and a full-stop. These were VERY sloppy. Pattern was OK, I'm really OK up until the key position, but there I always start to let my speed drift, and I'm not well-trimmed for the speeds I need (75 downwind, 70 base, 65 final). My turns were VERY sloppy and I overshot the turn to final each time, partly due to the wind.

Crosswind was also a pain on final -- trying to slip, bank into wind and straighten ground track with rudder, but VERY sloppy on this. I guess I really don't "get it" as far as real action on the crosswind. Flare was high each time, and I bounced and drifted laterally, with Mario needing to take the airplane on one landing, the others saved by me (adding power at M's prompting). Mario said I did fine, but it didn't feel so great. But tonight I have another lesson at 7 and we will stay in the pattern and I will get this landing thing figured out!

Time: 1.1 hrs, TT 21.3 hrs, C152 at ORH

Starting to Get It! (Lesson #17)

2000-06-13T19:00:00.000-07:00

It was cloudy and light rain at ORH, but when I called Mario, he said OK as long as we stay in the pattern (low ceiling, clouds coming in, but still VFR). So we did, and I had a GREAT lesson! I did 6 touch-and-goes and one full stop landing, and two of them were actually pretty good. The others were bouncy, high-flare jobs, but Mario only had to take over on one of them (I added power to salvage one bouncer myself). I felt good, felt like I was actually doing most of the things I know I should do. I was fairly relaxed and felt in control of the airplane and myself. And Mario says I'm just about ready to solo! He said I was really flying the airplane out there last night. One or two more lessons and we will get that psychological barrier and life milestone out of the way. Unfortunately this will be in early July since I leave Saturday for my Korea to Germany business trip (around the world on UA and LH).

The good news items include:
• Followed checklists in detail this time, preflight, engine start, run-up, etc., no skipped steps or backtracking.
• Handled all the radio calls myself, from taxi to landing, including the base call for each touch-and-go.
• Good taxiing -- stayed on the lines (remembering that the reference point is in front of MY eye, not the center of the cowling).
• Good takeoffs -- nice rotation, trim, hold 67-70 knots, stayed aligned with the runway heading until crosswind turn at 1700 feet.
• I remembered and followed all the pattern steps with almost no prompting.
• I used trim much better, especially on climb-out and level off for the downwind leg. With this, I was able to fly with a very light touch and no PIO. This also helped me to stay quite close to pattern altitude (2000') once I got there.
• My patterns were reasonably rectangular and I sometimes corrected for the slight crosswind, though I varied on this. Used shallow turns, none over 30 degrees, and rolled out aligned with the runway on most approaches.
• I noticed the spot on the windshield that did not move on touchdown.
• Looked down the runway for flare height cues (but didn't read them right most of the time!).
• Good takeoffs on the touch-and-goes -- get flaps up, carb heat off, full power, steer with small corrections. I did swerve a bit sometimes, and I kept too much weight on the nose wheel sometimes, leading to a dreadful rumbling.
• Did not get flustered when we passed briefly through a cloud on downwind -- I just watched the attitude indicator.

The BAD news items include:
• Poor airspeed control on base and final -- need 70 knots on base, 65 knots on final, and I was not trimmed for this AND I chased the airspeed indicator when I was off speed. Need to pay more attention to the outside cues, where the nose is, and NOT get slow on final (e.g. 60 kts). Being stabilized on final will help the flare too, less variation to worry about.
• Got close to runway on downwind a couple of times, leading to a rushed turn to base and then final -- a carrier pattern! But this didn't give me time to handle flaps, radio, lineup, and air speed stabilization without feeling rushed. Part of this was the tower's request that we keep a tight pattern so he could keep us in sight (clouds were coming down) - Mario says on a better day, we could extend the downwind.
• High flare! I still start to get nervous with the "ground rush" in the last few seconds, worrying that I will land on the nose wheel, though I am still pretty high. This will come with a bit more practice and a stabilized final.
• Poor wind awareness -- I corrected for the wind sometimes but still didn't fully grasp what it was doing to me on each leg. It was not a bad wind, from 100º at 7 knots, while we were using runway 11 (110º), so it was just off by 10º from the left. Mario gave me a tip, not sure how general -- 100º wind direction was LESS than the 110º runway heading so crosswind was LEFT. Have to think about this one for other directions! It actually seems wrong based on the picture I just drew - LOOK THIS UP!
• Last landing was AWFUL -- bounced so much Mario said it should count as three landings. He said this often happens after a good session with touch-and-goes, on the full-stop landing the student loses focus and does a real stinker. Oh well, he said the total lesson was really quite good.
• Consistency! This is a major thing -- still a lot of variation and times when I fail to do things I know I should do AND know how to do. But this is part of the learning process too, and very typical. It's also related to confidence -- knowing I can do something, feeling free to make adjustments, not hesitating or always checking with the CFI. Mario says that the solo helps this too -- once you have experienced being the only "pilot in command," you know you can do it, and it makes it easier to learn the rest.

I am far from perfect, but with this lesson, the good news outweighs the bad, and I feel like I finally am really starting to "get it." Landing an airplane is starting to feel like a normal thing to do. I think I should be able to solo after maybe two more lessons (one to catch up after 2+ weeks away, then final prep and solo).

Time: 1.1 hrs dual TT 20.2 hrs, C152 at ORH

Pattern Work at ORH (Lesson #16)

2000-06-05T20:00:00.000-07:00

One good flight deserves another, right? Well, the next couple of weeks will be busy, so I decided to take another lesson yesterday -- nothing for 10 months then two in two days! We got another late start on the scheduled 7 pm lesson and decided to stay in the ORH pattern (landing runway 11 this time, vs. 29 yesterday). This means we were landing a little south of east, 110º -- there was a crosswind from the north, so I had to crab to the right on the downwind, angling slightly north of the nominal 290º downwind heading to keep from toeing in and crowding the runway on downwind (something I tend to do anyway). It also increased my ground speed on base (tail wind) which contributed to my late turn to final (something I tend to do anyway!). I was so wide on the first one that I did a go-around (I tried to parallel the runway like an "upwind leg" but Mario told me I should be right over the runway for a go-around, so I flew over there). Good thing there was no other traffic there last night!

I never really "visualized" this crosswind, and I think this is what made my landings so rough. Since I was going EAST on final with a wind from the NORTH (left to right), I needed to crab into the wind to have the correct ground track -- bank to the left. Mario wanted me to hold in this bank (left yoke) and straighten the nose to track straight ahead by using RIGHT RUDDER. I more or less did this, but with overshoots and corrections, I was swinging all over the runway (good thing it's so wide). We did maybe five touch-and-goes, with Mario calling the tower to report left base each time (I was too task-saturated to think about the radio calls -- once he was so busy explaining something that he forgot to call base and got a mild reprimand from the tower -- "you seem to be on final, you can go ahead and land if you want" -- that's a real no-no at a controlled field, but it was otherwise dead there -- the controller was cool about it and Mario apologized).

Meanwhile it was getting dark (picture is from the Fly! simulator), another first for my flight lessons -- the last two were basically night landings. On all of the pattern work, I was quite tense and this showed on the yoke, PIO all over the place (pilot induced oscillation). As usual, when I'm busy I forget about trim, and I also notice overshoots late and tend to jerk the yoke back to where it should have been -- bad move! Things to remember and do:

· Use trim all the time! Trim is your friend! Establish the 67 knot descent near the end of the downwind and hold with trim. When off trim, I tend to get slow (nose high) then over-correct pushing the nose down. You don't want to be slow on base and final at 1000 feet AGL or less!

· Don't over-bank in the pattern -- 30º max, 20º even better!!! This isn't an F/A-18 carrier break!

· Think about the wind -- get a mental picture!

· Smooth, small inputs on the controls.

· Look to the end of the runway for the flare cues!

· Memorize the pattern procedure -- carb heat, power setting, descent, sight picture!

· Work on my instrument/outside scan! I tend to fixate on one or two things at a time.

· Memorize go-around procedure and the emergency procedures Mario gave me.

One cool thing that Mario demoed and I then tried was flying the pattern with ONLY trim and rudder, no yoke! Adverse yaw gives you your turns (right rudder to bank left), trim controls your nose (pitch) and therefore speed. This was a lot smoother than when I was horsing the yoke around. Mario says we will work on things like this to get me more comfortable with ALL the controls in the airplane (people have had primary control failures and used trim and rudder to land -- it can be done, and it could save your life).

I felt very overwhelmed and not very slick last night especially when Mario had to save a couple of the landings after a big bounce, but he said I'm doing fine for this stage, typical problems, and I'm not that far from solo. We need to work more on pattern and landings of course, and also on emergency procedures. He wants to put me under the IFR hood for a bit too, since I've never done that and it's important if you end up in a cloud. Somehow he seems more down to earth, patient, and positive than Kern -- I like him better as a CFI. I also bought a POH (handbook) for the C152 and my own fuel-tester. Yesterday I also got the E6B flight computer I ordered from Sporty's -- I prefer this over the slide rule thingy for the various calculations you need for flight planning. On my Korea trip, I will concentrate on completing the FliteSchool CD-ROM ground school course so I can take the written test in July. Depending on weather and other schedule factors, I hope to get 6 to 10 lessons in by September and solo the airplane. I will put $1000 in an account at Amity so I can get the $50 "club rate" on the C152 rather than the $56 standard rate.

Simulator Stuff
Meanwhile I decided to return the Saitek X36 stick/throttle set I bought last week, as cool as it is. I'll replace it with the new CH Flight Yoke LE USB (about $90 on the web), which will be much more realistic with Fly! I'll try using the existing CH Pedals with it (works OK with the Logitech though it's very jerky in the calibration screen), though I may later buy the USB Pro Pedals which include toe brakes (Fly! supports these). I think I can even work on pattern stuff that way -- set my RPM, watch my descent, put in a cross wind and crab or slip against it. Some of this is just getting the procedure to be totally routine, and I think Fly! is close enough to reality for this (though it's fuel-injected C172R with no carb heat to pull, vs. the 1980 C152 we are flying IRL - no biggy).

Time: 1.0 hrs dual, TT 19.1 hrs, C152 at ORH

Back in the Saddle (Lesson #15 - Start Phase 3)

2000-06-04T14:00:00.000-07:00

I missed writing up a lesson or two with Kern last summer, I think, plus a rather poor showing in a C152 flight with a CFI named Jim, a real old-timer at Sterling (3B3) when I decided to try that out right when I was moving to this area (I just learned that Jim died of lung cancer last week, leaving Sterling with but one very busy CFI). So here I am in the next millennium, re-immersed in sims and deciding at age 47 (+1 day) that the clock IS ticking, and I better get some real flying in if I ever want to solo and get a PP certificate. I fixed up my insurance situation with a pilot-friendly level term policy. Yesterday we stopped by the Worcester Regional Airport (ORH, elevation 1009 feet) to pick up some info at the Amity Flight School. We were driving on to gigantic Quabban Reservoir, almost to Amherst, on a birthday outing to enjoy the wonderful weather and scenery -- and it turns out I did a power-off stall over the very same body of water today!

I should have reviewed these notes first, but it was a bit impulsive -- I called this morning and scheduled a one-hour lesson with a CFI named Mario for 1 pm. Things ran late due to ATC problems (a no-radio student pilot in the pattern was part of it). So we actually took off closer to 2:30 pm, from runway 29. ORH is a controlled airport with ATIS, ground control, and tower control. I did most of the radio work with guidance from Mario (early forties, African-American who reminds me of Arthur Ashe). Pre-flight, taxi, and runup went OK, a little weak in parts of the checklists as I got distracted by things like a two-engine turboprop airliner landing just in front of us as we held short! Takeoff was OK, though I drifted off the centerline as usual on climbout (hold that DAMN RIGHT RUDDER and figure out a reference point to use during this nose-high climb!). It was a "straight out" (not "direct" as I said on the radio) departure to the west.

By drifting, I ended up directly over the Spencer Airport, not a good place for maneuvers! We continued west (a bit NW) and did some steep turns, 45 degrees right and left. Surprisingly these were OK -- I lost about 150' on one and shallowed the banks a bit. Then he had me try some climbing and descending turns to specific headings and altitudes -- e.g. from 3000' heading north, climb and turn to reach 3500' at 180 degrees (south). I was not good on the timing, but I got better on the 3rd or 4th try -- need to (quickly!) establish the best speed for the climb or descent, THEN dial in the bank angle that will allow you to turn in the time it takes to reach the new altitude. Pretty cool.

Then over the Quabban itself, I did a power-off stall that was pretty good, though I didn't pull back hard enough to get a clean break without a bit of coaxing at the end. Mario said the examiner will most often ask for an imminent stall -- horn, buffet, identify, recover. Safer and quicker for them (full stall could lead to a spin if you botch the rudder too badly, not likely but posisble). Mario was always pointing out airports and good fields for emergency landings -- many out that way and good practice.

Finally I headed back SE toward ORH -- Mario asked me how to get back to the airport, and for once I KNEW! I spotted Mt. Wachusett and deduced the correct heading back to the airport. Spotted it about 6 miles out (it helps that it's on a large hill!). Do I have SA, or what? Well, "not" is probably correct, but in fact I had been looking at the charts a lot and flying test flights around Worcester in the new Fly! flight sim (I installed USGS-based scenery for Eastern Mass, using a freebee called TerraScene - now I need to get the Quabban area files to add to my region, since that's the typical practice area).

We called the tower to report our position over the town of Spencer (first flying there so we would be in position to get a left hand pattern, my preference -- ATC was handling both at ORH, and a glider who strayed too far from Sterling was in a right pattern for runway 29 -- the other two runways are closed for service, to make them wider and longer). We had to set up for a 45º entry onto the left downwind (for 29), which worked out to roughly north from where we were, and we used a pond as a guide to entering at the right (45º) angle. We had to call the downwind and then extend it for an arriving helicopter that I spotted first, low above the Worcester skyline to the east of the airport. I told Mario I was task-saturated with the pattern and traffic (and flaps!) and asked him to call the tower to report base and final. I turned base, rolling out early when I thought Mario said to do so, then corrected. I overshot the turn to final (surprise!) and had to S-turn far to the left to line up (careful to stay coordinated on this turn).

There was a moderate cross-wind that Mario thought I could handle, and I sorta could. He said "push hard right rudder to line up the nose, then bank to track the centerline. This was a cross-control maneuver, a slip really. I started OK but released the rudder too soon, then swayed back and forth with the ailerons, trying to correct the line up. Got the right rudder back in (maybe Mario helped on this part) and thought I was lower than I was, so I flared too high (another shocker!). I slipped some more, lined up, and landed mid-field, using up most of the remaining runway. Not my finest landing, but we walked away from it.

Overall Mario thought I did great considering no real flights since August 1999. I like him -- if I can fly with him once a week, I think I can make real progress. He doesn't seem as slick as a pilot (vs. Kern), but he is a lot more easy-going as a teacher. So now I have maybe 18 hours (and 47 years, as of yesterday!). I think the sim stuff, especially Fly! with the actual area airports, terrain, and navaids, will really help me -- even got rudders again -- Fly! supports multiple game devices, so stick/throttle can be USB and rudder (with a "dummy" stick to make Win98 see it) in the game port. Cool, cool, cool! But I want to fly for real once or twice more before Korea (less than two weeks -- that will be an interesting but nightmarish flight in itself, from Boston to Seoul to Germany and back home in maybe 10 days -- around the world, as they say).

Hey, I can fly today's flight in Fly! Dial in that crosswind…

Time: 1.0 hrs dual, TT 18.1 hrs, C152 at ORH

Steep Turns, Distracted Landings (#12 to #14)

1999-07-27T19:29:00.000-07:00

I didn't take any notes on this (I'm writing this on 8/3/99 and I have another lesson tonight) -- it was an abbreviated lesson where we spent most of the time practicing 360° turns at bank angles up to 45° -- working on keeping the nose in the right position on the horizon with proper back pressure. Then I did one landing that I barely remember -- I was really distracted by issues having to do with the house addition we're trying to do. I felt pretty frustrated. The 45° turns were fun -- 1.4G so you feel something, but at first I was shy about applying sufficient back pressure to pull us through the turn, so the nose was dropping (and Kern told me to keep back pressure and proper rudder input so we don't get into a "Kennedy death spiral," a reference to the recent crash that killed JFK Jr and his wife and sister-in-law as he tried to land at Martha's Vineyard on a hazy night, flying his recently acquired Piper Saratoga - he regretted this little joke, but graveyard humor is a strong aviation tradition!).

Tonight we'll try some ground reference maneuvers -- I only really did those on one flight with Bjorn, back in March 1998 I think. Plus a landing or two. I really need to focus on holding the proper nose position in my climbing turns (don't let it drop!) and in my descent for landing (70 kt glide, nose DOWN, and down even more with full flaps). ALSO -- make those turns 90° to the runway! I have a hard time judging this for some reason. THINGS TO REMEMBER

TONIGHT…
• Watch for traffic in and around the pattern!
• RIGHT RUDDER only (mostly) on takeoff, and ease it off as speed builds up and control authority improves!
• TRIM for hands-off, power-off 70 kt glide for approach, and don't EVER let the nose get up near or ESPECIALLY above the horizon (too fast is better than too slow)
• Keep the nose UP in climbing turn out of takeoff heading
• REFERENCE points for 90° turns!
• Watch out the front for nose position -- GLANCE left and back for turn control

I KNOW I can do better on this stuff -- it's not that hard!

Editor's Note: This was just about the end of the 1999 "phase 2" -- I was in a new relationship and moving and house buying issues (after the house addition plan fell through) were too distracting and too expensive to allow me to continue flight lessons that year. There was an additional lesson with Kern on 8/3/99 (1.1 hours, traffic pattern and landings at Norfolk), plus a single lesson 8/29/99 at Sterling (3B3) with Jim Davitt (fundamentals, stalls, landing, pretty ragged). Total time at end of 1999 was actually 17.1 hours according to my log book.

Bouncing into Norfolk (Lesson #11)

1999-07-20T19:02:00.000-07:00

First the good news: I'm landing the airplane pretty much on my own (and my taxi and takeoff skills seem pretty decent now). Five landings this lesson. But the bad news is that I'm wildly inconsistent on some very important tasks, especially my pitch and speed control on final, but also on turns in the pattern, which is kind of weird. Kern said he thought I would have a lesson like this -- hitting the wall or whatever they call it (nope, I didn't really do THAT). But I really need to work on KEEPING THE NOSE DOWN when I'm on final -- it really does look like I'm afraid of hitting the ground in the nose-low attitude that you have in the C152 on final with full flaps (I don't feel afraid -- I believe my eyes and in fact really noticed for the first time whether the touch-down point was moving up or down or stable on the windscreen -- usually moving UP since we were low on every approach, even on Kern's one demo landing).

The weather was really good -- there was a thunderstorm Monday and that left some really nice, stable weather behind it. Once again, practically no wind -- I have my hands full enough without it, but we'll have to deal with crosswinds one of these days. My first takeoff (runway 36) was good (I used a distinctive cloud as a reference point to stay on my runway departure heading), and we turned left 90 at 800' then made a 45 to leave the pattern. We finally headed east (090) for Norfolk airport (32M), which we found easily this time by following the correct (and distinct) power lines, then noting the small pond NW of the runway. I leveled off and held my altitude (2000') and course very well this time.

Norfolk was pretty much deserted and looks more rural and run-down than 1B6. They have a single runway (36) which is shorter and narrower than 1B6, but they also have a taxi way, which saves time and is safer than back-taxiing on the runway. Kern talked me through the pattern entry for 36 after we overflew the airport and he checked the wind sock and tetrahedron (they have both). I don't remember much about the first landing, though I started leveling off at 1000' on downwind rather than 1200' as required, and I don't know why!

In the pattern, for some reason I started lowering my nose a LOT when I would make my turns. I think this is related to loss of attention to nose attitude when I look out the side to try to judge my angle and position to the runway (I also checked the directional gyro for a W heading), but it IS pretty screwy and really bugged Kern. When you make your (CLIMBING!) turn to crosswind after takeoff, you are trying to get to pattern altitude ASAP (1200') and establish a level cruise, but only VERY briefly. Very quickly you are abeam the numbers and need to pull carb heat on, lower power GRADUALLY to idle, establish a 70 kt glide, and TRIM for this (3 and a half turns of NOSE UP TRIM, cranking the wheel BACK or down for this, as I practiced many times in the car).

• Pull carb heat ON
• Lower power to idle
• Hold back pressure to get to 70 kts
• Lower nose VERY little to hold the 70 kts
• TRIM nose up 3.5 turns!
• Start your turn to base!!!

This was happening too fast for me, and as I was trying to judge the position and angle to the runway (hidden by the damn high wing!), I would let my nose go wherever it wanted to go! It even got up above the horizon once or twice, and my speed with no power was below 60, getting near power-off stall speed. THIS CANNOT HAPPEN!!!

So there I was with the nose moving all over -- the trim should have made the 70 kt glide essentially hands-off. Meanwhile, I would have taken too long to get these things set up, so my downwind is extended, and I'm gliding too low to make the runway when I finally turn base and then final, so every time I would have to add a LOT of power to arrest the descent, leading to a roller-coaster-style up-and-down approach, which was bad. Somewhere on final we also crank in FULL flaps (from zero), which requires even steeper nose down attitude to hold the 70 kt glide.

Finally I would be more-or-less stabilized on short final and start thinking about leveling off to fly level to the runway (maybe I'm subconsciously trying to level off way to soon when I let my nose get high in the approach???) and transition to the flare. But my height judgement was poor and twice I bounced without really knowing it - so I continued to pull back full on the yoke, thinking the main wheels are down. Kern knows (and assumed I knew) I had bounced, and he's applying FORWARD yoke, fighting against my back pressure -- he's getting the nose down, trying to keep us from stalling close to the runway! This was all pretty frustrating for both of us, but we kept at it for four landings at 32M and a final landing at 1B6 just about at sunset (really pretty sky on the short cruise back to Hopedale).

Next lesson we will work on some steep turns to try to give me a better sense of my pitch control from external references even when turning. Landings too I assume. I really want to do things right, and I don't know how to make myself do what I know I should (I hold pitch very well on our full-power takeoffs, rotation and climbout at the proper attitude, which is nose HIGH, going away from the ground!). I know pitch controls airspeed -- I know a LOT of stuff but my subconscious seems to have its own ideas when I'm landing. Kern seems baffled and asks me why -- sometimes I want to say "you tell ME why, you're the CFI!" -- but I just need to keep practicing and try to solve all the simultaneous equations until it all clicks for me.

We also had a Piper that we didn't see who came close to landing on top of us on our last landing at Norfolk -- he must have done a straight-in approach and he was not on the CTAF frequency, we heard no Norfolk traffic calls. He saw us and did a go-around, but a pilot walking his dogs while we were fueling told us that he came within 300' of us! Yikes!

Questions for Kern:
1. Full flaps on final vs. putting them in gradually (in stages, as many books show)
2. "Start your turn" calls looked wrong to me -- never looked to me like we could line up from that point - wind correction? Anticipating my slowness to react?

Time: 1.5 hrs dual TT 14.2 hrs, C152 at 1B6

Landings and More Landings (Lesson #10)

1999-07-13T18:58:00.000-07:00

This was a much better flight overall, though I'm still inconsistent in many ways. I landed three times at 1B6, one of them pretty good. Doing all the flying myself though Kern is still talking me through a lot (though now putting more on me -- are we high or low, OK low, so what? Right, add power or you won't make the runway). My lineups on final were bad -- once I was WAY over to the right and I guess I must have slipped to get back lined up (or maybe Kern helped on that one?). Once I flared quite high and "dropped it in" as they say. Given that I didn't fly at all for three-plus weeks, I think I actually did pretty well.

We started out looking for Norfolk Airport, planning to fill the tanks -- but we never found it! I wasn't worried but it shouldn't be so hard to find airports within 10 or so miles of 1B6. Of course I was just as clueless (but this is consistent with my experience level and the fact that most of my brain is engaged just holding altitude!). Weather was very clear though there was a LOT of sun glare from windshield scratches when flying toward the fast setting sun in the west.

Filled up the first page of my first log book! Yippee!

Points to remember: Trees, climb speed, nose position, rudder use, climbing turn, coordination, judging the point to start pattern turns, toeing into the runway on downwind, setup for 70 knot glide, TRIM!, judging the turn to final, judging too high/low, use of power, FLAPS!, staying lined up with runway, judging when to flare, radio calls, forgetting basic procedures.

Time: 1.4 hrs dual TT 12.7 hrs, C152 at 1B6

Get Your Nose Down Bruce (Lesson #9)

1999-06-19T10:00:00.000-07:00

I didn't record any PC notes for this flight on the day I took it (today is 7/14/99). This was right before I left for Japan on 6/20 and it was a busy weekend! I flew with Kern to North Central Airport in RI (SFZ), my first takeoffs and landings away from 1B6. SFZ (shown here) is the nearest uncontrolled airport that has good size runways suitable for early landing practice (and taxiways too - 1B6 requires back-taxiing after every full stop landing). I'll add more later (there are a lot of hand notes in Flight #17, mostly done on the flight to Osaka the next day).

This is where I adopted the Native American name "Get-your-nose-down-Bruce" because I had a tendency to hold too much back pressure when the nose was supposed to be slightly down for the gliding descent in the landing pattern. This was perhaps an "instinctive" attempt to keep from going down too fast, but of course it would slow down the airplane more (not a good thing when you are slow for landing anyway, and close to the ground). I guess I did it a lot.

Time: 1.4 hrs dual, TT 11.5 hrs, C152 at 1B6

Editor's Note: Blogging this ancient history in October 2006, I note that SFZ ended up being the airport where I finally took and passed my check ride in May 2001, so it's interesting that this is where I first started to work seriously on landings. Maybe I'll dig out my old paper notebook "Flight #17" and update with those notes sometime, but probably not! The reason that it was #17 so early in my flight lesson career was that I had been keeping notebooks on my various flight sim experiences since 1994. Flight sims and a lot of reading were the reasons I knew so much of the basic flight stuff even on my intro lessons in 1997, though my practical skills lagged far behind my formal knowledge!

Practice in the Rain (Lesson #8)

1999-06-17T10:30:00.000-07:00

It didn't look VFR to me -- gray and drizzly -- but clouds were all at 10,000 feet, the WX said, so Kern said "we're go." Well, they weren't ALL at 10K -- quite a few floating around at 1100-1500 feet gave us some trouble. Not to mention the C172 was in for 100 hour maintenance, so we flew the little C152 (not a bad little plane, though we were only 60 pounds under max gross weight, and it climbed VERY slowly). Kern took a Boston VFR Terminal Area Chart -- a good idea, it turns out.

Well, it's late, so I don't have time to give the gory details. I did better than last time but still rather spotty on holding altitude and keeping my nose where it should be and my eyes out of the cockpit. Taxied better (need work on even braking). First takeoff was still a bit hesitant (Kern said last flight I "kissed the ground goodbye," touching my wheels lightly after liftoff, insufficient back pressure and a dip in the runway). I did OK on the climbs, some drift, but OK on rudder and coordination I think. Practiced turns (including two 360's), climbs, descents. Little wind and poor ground viz, so we didn't do ground refs today. Visibility started to look QUITE poor in some directions when we reached 1500 feet, but we pressed on to 3000. Ended up west for a while, then south, then north, then south -- then lost!

Not exactly LOST, but neither of us really knew where the airport was, and there were a LOT of clouds around. Kern tuned in the Putnam VOR (in CT, 122.8), knowing the 074 radial points straight to 1B6 (we practiced intersecting a radial, I guess!). But we got confused by the lack of recognized landmarks, the clouds, and the fact that we BOTH forgot we had crossed Rt 140 at some point (we were briefly actually IN some of the clouds -- Kern is instrument rated of course, but it's still not a good idea). So it took a couple of iterations with the VOR to get us back -- Kern was real annoyed with himself. I was never worried especially -- we had a lot of fuel and plenty of places to land if need be. Coolness or clueless? Good question - I really did relax and enjoyed a few minutes of sightseeing while Kern took the controls and tried to find a recognizable landmark (he was not as good as I expected at this, oddly enough, considering his long experience, but in fairnesss, he really doesn't know the Hopedale area that well yet).

ALWAYS carry a VFR Boston area chart, PAY CLOSER ATTENTION to landmarks -- maybe try to say "we're southwest of the airport, maybe 10 miles" to track our position.

Finally Kern talked me through the pattern on a left upwind entry from the south (runway 36). Again, sloppy on nose attitude and altitude control, but I managed, and we both were on the controls for the final approach, flare, and landing. Then we back-taxied and took off for one more time around the pattern -- this time I controlled the takeoff much more smoothly (smaller "pressure like" excursions on the rudder pedals compared to large excursions needed for taxi at low speeds). Overall a very educational and enjoyable flight (finally hit double figures in logged time, barely).

Next lesson in two days! Then off to Japan for two weeks (oy!). I think I may be able to solo this summer if I can make progress as Kern expects. I have my student pilot flight physical scheduled for July 8 in Newton (another $75 for that, but I'll be qualified to solo if I pass). Better check my eyes with these glasses before the test…

Time: 1.2 hrs dual, TT 10.1 hrs, C152 at 1B6

My "Flight of Passage" (Lesson #7 - Start Phase 2)

1999-05-29T09:09:00.000-07:00

It's funny how I met Kern Buck -- in September 1998 I read the book his brother Rinker Buck wrote about their flight across the US in a radioless Piper Cub back in 1967 (Flight of Passage). Then I heard his name in the waiting room at Jiffy-Lube in Milford when we were both having our cars serviced, and I introduced myself (maybe March '99?). We talked on the phone a few times, kinda fun, he was renewing his CFI rating and said we'd go flying when he did.

Well, he did, and we did! Flew a C172 (N738NL) on a gorgeous, windless Saturday morning in Hopedale, where Kern is now a freelance CFI (I guess). We preflighted the airplane together, and I handled all the operations, taxi, and takeoff (he did the radio calls). We worked on the four fundamentals since it had been so long since I flew (climbs, glides, straight & level, turns). He talked me through the approach and I followed through on controls for the landing (he had some trouble finding the airport when we were out west near Mendon -- it's a new flying area for him, he took his IFR instruction at Hanscom).

I did OK on taxi, takeoff (a little hesitant on pulling back at Vr), straight and level, and climbs. Turns were pretty good too, I think, though I gained or lost some altitude on some of them. On glides, I got so hung up on speed that I lost track of my directional control and let the nose wander all over the place. NEED TO HOLD SOME LEFT RUDDER ON A GLIDE. Why??? Shit, I forget!

I don't really have the money for frequent lessons, but I'd like to fly once a month and not worry TOO much about "progress" -- make some slow progress, keep my hand in the flying game. Maybe do self study to take the written exam. Kern would really like to "solo me" this summer or fall, and at $90/hour, we're talking "only" about $1000 for the 10 or 11 hours that this would probably take (I thought I had more time than I do -- there are some unlogged hours, but I probably need around 10 hours of "recent" time to really be able to solo. I'd also have to get my medical exam -- don't have to take the written before solo, but that would be cool too). It's "only" $1000 but with everything else I'm doing, it's kinda tough. I should really level with Kern on this -- if he wants weekly flights, he needs to get an additional student, not just me!

I like Kern -- he's an interesting guy, certainly, and seems OK as a CFI, pretty relaxed, but not as relaxed as Bjorn. Of course this was our first flight, and his first flight in a long time as CFI (though he has 2000 flight hours, 1000 of them as CFI). We need to get our goals in synch -- I'd love to fly a lot and solo and get my ticket ASAP, but money is too tight for this right now.

Follow-up: I spoke with Kern about scheduling more lessons. During the call, Kern told me that he thought my flying was really good, and that I knew most of the basics pretty well. He said I really just need work on integrating it all, practice and pointers, and that within about 2 lessons we could start to work on takeoffs and landings, with the idea of solo by the end of this summer! That would be so cool! Trouble is that 8-10 hours will cost $800-1000, and with house plans underway, money and time are tight. BUT IF NOT NOW, WHEN? Kern says if you love it, then find a way to do it -- don't keep putting it off. And it's important to fly regularly, like once a week (travel permitting) so I don't keep backsliding and having to review for half the lesson. I'M GONNA TRY FOR IT!!! Take a look at the budget...

Time: 0.9 hrs dual TT 8.9 hrs, C172 at 1B6

Going in Circles (Lesson #6 - End of Phase 1)

1998-03-29T08:30:00.000-08:00

Bjorn was back from Sweden and the weather looked good for the weekend (unseasonably warm, in the 70’s), but Saturday afternoon was too gusty to fly. So I rescheduled for Sunday morning at 8:30. It was still a little windy and picked up through the flight, though above 3500’ it was pretty smooth. I was late in rotating on the takeoff (watching for 60 mph for Vr, but the nose wheel started to shimmy – it was actually a crummy takeoff, and a sign of things to come!). I thought I would do a little better because I had spent about an hour on Saturday sitting in the cockpit of the 172 to be more familiar with the instruments and controls. It didn’t help!

When we got to 3000’ (over Woonsockett, which I incorrectly guessed to be Mendon! No SA either!), Bjorn had me start doing some steep turns, 45° left and right, trying to return to my starting point in heading without losing altitude. I sucked at this! My big problem was overcontrolling and using jerky, fast inputs on the wheel. Second, I was not really aware of what the “sight picture” should be out the window, and I kept looking at the attitude indicator. I applied control movements sequentially rather than simultaneously, and I failed to notice when the nose was going down from insufficient back pressure in the turn. Sometimes I would overbank (30° normal turns don’t require much opposite aileron, if any – but at 45°, the airplane wants to keep rolling into the turn, so you have to apply some opposite aileron to hold the 45°, plus jimmy the wheel around to keep the wind from knocking you out).

The big problem with the nose dropping was caused by not applying smooth back pressure at the same time as I moved from 30° to 45° in the bank – then I would have to roll BACK to 30, apply back pressure, then go to 45 again and try to hold it. I felt like a one-armed juggler – I just could not keep all these things in mind at the same time! Grrrr!!! Bjorn did a couple of demos and made it look easy – on the first one, we felt a little bounce of turbulence as he returned to the exit point he started and went through our own wake.

I need to ask him to get the black disks to cover some of the instruments to force me to be more “eyes out of the cockpit.” Maybe I also need a sort of review lesson of basic stuff – standard turns, straight and level, setting up for climbs and dives. This three or 4 weeks between lessons is pretty frustrating, but that’s life as we know it. The budget will not take much more than this.

On the way back to 1B6, we went through a simulated emergency landing setup, cutting power and using the airport as our emergency field. The one thing I did well was setting up for best glide speed at 75 mph. But I let the wind drift me all over the place, and we were way too high and fast for the landing, so I did a go-around (probably my first – maybe 200’ above the runway, apply full power, establish a climb – I forgot to raise the flaps, of course!).

I really do need to go in a day or two before each lesson and sit in the airplane and rehearse the procedures we will do. Next up is slow flight (again!). At this rate, I’ll be doing landings, oh let’s see, when I’m 63?!?!

Time: 1.0 hrs dual TT 8.0 hrs (C172 at 1B6)

Editor's Note: With the divorce and other stuff going on, money and time just got too tight, and I didn't take any more lessons with Bjorn - in fact this was the last lesson until May 1999! This was the end of my "phase 1" attempt to get my pilot's license (1997-1998) - there would be another brief attempt in 1999 and the big push that finally succeeded in 2000-2001.

Ground Reference (Lesson #5)

1998-03-10T07:58:00.000-08:00

I lucked out on the weather – there was a big thunderstorm last night, but this morning it was OK. It was quite windy and the cloud level was fairly low but still OK for VFR. Bjorn was very cool – a much more patient and understanding instructor than Jason (not burned out yet?). He suggested ground reference maneuvers, which were fun!

Preflight and run-up were fine, and I’m taxiing more smoothly than before, despite the long layoff (the airplane feels at least a little familiar now). There was a fairly strong crosswind from the west, and we took off to the south (18, left end of 1B6) then departed west (right turn) toward Mendon and Upton. The crosswind really blew me around on takeoff – Bjorn prompted me to crab into the wind and hold right rudder while on full power. I leveled off at 1500’ and looked around for a rectangular field to use for pattern work. I had some problems with the strong wind from the west (I wasn’t really visualizing this wind, I was just using the ground reference points and horizon to try to keep a constant distance from each leg). I was rather sloppy on this, but I got better after a couple of turns around the field, gradually steepening or shallowing the bank on the upwind or downwind).

I did a lot of turns around a point, using a comm tower near a distinctive silo, and at first, I did something like the picture shown above, from John Denker's See How It Flies. I should re-read the various chapters on maneuvers. After a while I did see the pattern of how to vary the bank continuously vs. the wind.

Finally we went over to Rt. 146 and did a bunch of S-turns across a road. This really IS fun! I did pretty well overall, sometimes undershooting the road (e.g. being perpendicular to the road before I was over it), sometimes starting the outside of the S too early or late. But I made a couple of turns that Bjorn said were really good, even holding altitude.

In general, though, I did NOT divide my attention that successfully. He kept saying, “keep your nose up” and I would gradually lose or gain altitude in these maneuvers (between 1000’ and 1700’ vs. nominal 1500’ we wanted). I got real steep a few times when I was too far from the reference point, and lost sight of it. Also on the approach back to 1B6, I did OK on turn to base, but overshot the turn to final again, doing a steep turn back when I was slow and low power -- NOT GOOD! I got a bit nervous with the crosswind, fearing I would not make the lineup, so I asked Bjorn to take over after I lined up, and I followed through.

He made a decent but fast and somewhat floaty landing to the north (36), with a LOT of crab required on the final, and a lot of cross-control slipping on short final (that felt really strange, I recall – I could really feel the slip as he used opposite rudder and aileron to stay lined up with the runway in the strong crosswind). Now I don’t want to wait 5 or 6 weeks for the next lesson – I could make some progress on landing now that I’m getting a better feel for controlling the airplane w/r/t the ground, even with a stiff wind. I was a happy camper. Bjorn is off to Sweden until 3/26. Jeff says I still have over $600, but I don’t think this is right. He promised again to send me a full accounting.

One other thing: I really felt like I was flying the plane “naturally” or something for a few minutes during this flight – doing what I had to do without thinking about the mechanics. Not quite Zen-like, but getting a feel for flying (and only in brief bursts). I wish I could fly every week now, but I can't.

OTHER PROBLEMS: Still rather dead on my feet when I wasn’t thinking of the rudders or looking at the ball. Weak on trim. Unaware of most instruments. Looking at RPM’s too much when I adjust the throttle. Not looking for traffic very often. Better on external references for attitude, but still not good. Bjorn suggests that I spend some time (for free) sitting in the cockpit of the C172 on the ground, memorizing instrument positions, switches, and procedures. He said you could even rehearse stalls and landing approaches, like a fixed simulator – hey, maybe I could bring my notebook PC in there…

Time: 1.0 hours dual TT 7.0 hrs, C172 at 1B6

The Separated Man Also Rises (Lesson #4)

1998-02-03T08:00:00.000-08:00

The separated man also rises! This was my first lesson since the whole separation (and soon divorce) mess started in fall 1997, just after I got back from Germany. Quite an interruption there (of a lot of things!). A few little changes at Hopedale too – Jason and Joe both gone south, and Jeff has a new CFI, Bjorn, a very young Swedish guy who is really nice and has excellent English. I preflight checked the C172 (the C150 is gone too – bummer), and also did all the taxiing, the takeoff, and climbout (let it get a bit nose high/slow on the climbout). It felt OK. Scenery was different with snow and no leaves – a lot easier to spot the airport!

I did OK on straight and level, climbs, turns, etc. except for a tendency to drift right (too much rudder and/or not adding left aileron to compensate for the right rudder held against full-power engine torque). I also looked at the instruments too much and trimmed too early. Bjorn had me do some slow flight, which was pretty good once I got the power and trim set right. I asked for stalls and he let me do power and power off stalls. I let the nose come up too high after one and got a secondary stall (actually was close and Bjorn pulled it back the rest of the way to show me – the left wing dropped a lot, but we recovered fast before any spin possibility – I also allowed the nose to drift high after recovery other times, and was off on timing the raising of flaps. NEED TO GET A POSITIVE RATE OF CLIMB BEFORE CUTTING POWER OR RAISING THE NOSE TOO HIGH.

I was able to spot the airport better with water tower landmark and black strip vs. white field. He talked me through the turns as we glided down to pattern altitude (1300 feet). He let me do the final approach, but I turned from base to final WAY too late (I thought he would take it at that point). Had to make S-turns and come in rather steep and fast – Bjorn took the plane and saved the landing, but touchdown was beyond mid-field (still plenty of room to stop, but not exactly slick).

I’m thinking I’ll try to do maybe a lesson a month – slow progress at that rate, but better than zero, and all I can likely afford (if that!). I like Bjorn – hope he sticks around a while. I should start my ground school study again, but I’m too busy looking on the Web for prospective dates! I’m finding women who sing, but so far none with an airplane! Maybe I should join a pilot’s club of some sort?!?!

Time: 0.9 hrs dual TT 6.0 hrs (C172 at 1B6)

The Red Baron (Non-Lesson Flight in Germany)

1997-09-07T11:42:00.000-07:00

This was a surprise "bonus" flight during my business trip to Oberkochen, Germany, traveling with our German distributor's technical sales guy, Jörg. I saw low-flying Cessnas and other light planes from our hotel in Aalen-Waldhausen and found that there's a general aviation and gliding center at "Flugplatz Elchingen," about 15 minutes away. I had Jörg drive us over and found sightseeing flights for 40 DM a person (about $23 – he paid as I had no DM!). Jörg had never flown in a light plane (a French "Robin," low-wing 4 seat with great visibility), but he was a good sport and gave me the front seat.

The pilot was an even better sport – during a conversation in his broken English and our better French (and my non-German), I told him I was a 5 hour student pilot (BTW, I never would have guessed a few months ago that I'd be a "5 hour student pilot" this soon, so I should remember that this is cool and not be impatient if things take a little time). So he gave me the right seat and stick (after takeoff and initial climb out) and let me fly for about 20 minutes over the lovely German countryside! Very cool – we saw towns, a monastery, a quarry, the Zeiss factories in Oberkochen, etc. I mostly did shallow or moderate banks plus a bit of climbing and gliding (Jörg was a bit greenish in the back seat). I liked flying a stick – the plane was zippy (180 h.p.) and handled nicely, with great visibility from the big bubble windows (sliding canopy). I fancied myself the Red Baron in the clear blue skies over Germany, flying this bright red French "robin." I hope I can con Jörg into one more flight before I go back, maybe Friday, weather and time permitting (doubtful we would get the same cooperative pilot as Sunday – he was not supposed to let a passenger fly the plane on a sightseeing flight, obviously, so I really lucked out in that regard). It was supposed to be 20 minutes but I'm sure we ran long – we covered a lot of ground.

One thing that was notable was how comfortable and relaxed I felt on this fight – flying the plane in a very basic way, enjoying the scenery, turning to where the pilot pointed, it was quite easy. I was reasonably smooth and light-fingered on the stick (performing for Jörg, maybe, but not the "got to master this procedure" pressure I feel with Jason – I really need to work on this, as I think it's me more than Jason).

Time: 0.4 hours, not logged, non-lesson flight

Lesson #3 - Partial Redemption

1997-09-06T11:30:00.000-07:00

Partial "redemption" but still not a terrific flight. As I suspected from my sim experience, I am not exactly a natural when it comes to learning new eye/hand (and foot!) coordination skills. I still am holding the controls in a virtual death grip, leading Jason to demonstrate how well the C150 flies hands off (he thought it was bumpy air before this, but it was me overcontrolling!). I'm thinking "light touch," yadda-yadda-yadda, but the inner Bruce is holding on for dear life, it seems. Yet I don't really feel afraid, and overall this flight was more relaxed. I even spotted the airport while we were on the 45 degree pattern entry (I saw the power plant reference point from 7 miles – I still don't have good S.A. concerning my location, though I recognize major distant reference points and some local ones now).

We did more stalls – I still don't have smooth control and recovery, though watching the wingtip helps). We also reviewed slow flight, gliding and climbing turns, and we finally got to a ground reference maneuver – a rectangular course ½ mile from a runway-like mowed farm field. I did OK on this, and I flew the pattern as far as final. Jason also had some "fun" – going vertical in the C150 (not for long!), pitched up into a stall at probably 75-80 degrees – cool! Also when we had to get down to 1000' AGL for the rectangular course, he did some REALLY steep maneuvers as he spiraled down. Got a couple of plus G's on that, and a few moments of neggies. I love that stuff – borderline aerobatics that I thought were beyond the lowly C150 (of course it helps to be doing these things nose-low for that 1G assist.)

I'm typing this at Logan as I wait to board a Lufthansa flight for Frankfurt (1 week). No lessons this week, of course, but I hope I can squeeze in 2 lessons the week of 9/15 before another tough work schedule week. Jason says we will start to really work on landings next lesson too (his today was a bit "firm" – a high flare and he basically dropped it in – there was a bit of a crossswind too for runway 18).

Time: Dual 1.0 hrs, TT 5.1 hrs (C150 at 1B6)

Lesson #2 - Not So Hot

1997-09-04T16:00:00.000-07:00

This was NOT the greatest flight. Switching airplanes again was part of it, as was waiting 10 days between flights (the first lesson with Jason was just 2 days after I did 2 flights in LA). Also I think that 4 p.m. is not my "peak" time – I was at work at 0730 since I was leaving early, I was tired and tense. Excuses, excuses – I just didn't feel like I knew how to do anything, basically. My turns were sloppy, I didn't scan the instruments, I didn't know where I was, and I still couldn't find the damn airport. But on the "get back on the horse" theory, I scheduled another lesson for tomorrow at 0830, so I don't go to Germany Saturday on a sour note (I hope! I tried to do another lesson last Tuesday but it was too windy with limited visibility). Other points:

· C150 is a wee bit snug for two big guys (Jason is 215, I'm about 205 these days), but it's OK – flimsy little doors on that puppy. Cute l'il airplane, though.

· Starter was on the fritz – Jason finally hand-propped it from behind ("Hold those brakes like you never held them before" – Jason called tonight, tomorrow's lesson is cancelled while they replace the starter, rescheduled to Saturday 1130 just before I go to Germany!)

· Airspeed and altitude control were lousy – flopping all over the place. The C150 doesn't weigh much even with our 400+ lbs on board, and updrafts can really throw off your stability.

· Instrument fixation! (no black disks today)

· Too tense on the controls – overcontrolling, jerky: use pressure and smooth movements!

· Steep turns: sloppy, slippy! More back pressure! Need windshield reference point!

· Stalls: Get this damn procedure down! Control pitch after recovery! Don't push the nose down for recovery, just relax back pressure (I lost 150 feet on one stall)

· Coordination drill: Dutch rolls, crossed controls (bank left but use right rudder to keep the nose on Providence, then reverse turn, holding bank-side rudder briefly before transition to cross-controlling) – fun, but sloppy (surprise!)

· We were short on time since I was so thick on the stalls and steep turns, so at 1725, Jason said, "semi-aerobatic maneuver," and did a cool, really steep descending turn back toward 1B6, almost a wing-over (nope, that's a steep CLIMBING turn, this was more a nose-low slice).

· I do like those plus and minus G forces, slight as they are in this "bug smasher" (as the air force types call these little Cessnas and Pipers – hey, we can't all be fighter pilots, except on our PC's).

· Another minor distraction was my camera – I took it along and shot a few pictures near the airport to try to ID the landmarks (big powerplant southeast of the runway is the landmark for turning to base when 36 is the active, and this powerplant should be easy to spot, though I still don't see the airport until Jason has us in the downwind, ½ mile west of it)

· With all of this, I don't think I've hit any sort of "wall," and it IS pretty damn cool that I'm actually flying an airplane up there at 3000 feet (give or take a few hundred!)

Time: Dual 1.0 hrs, TT 4.1 hrs (C150 at 1B6)

First Official Lesson (Hopedale)

1997-08-24T16:00:00.000-07:00

This was also a good flight, and my first official (non-demo) lesson with Jason. Jason is not exactly Mr. Congeniality – he seemed a bit irritable at first, but I guess he's never one to be too chatty. It's a job, right? In flight is where it counts, of course, and he's very patient and appropriately educational. Today we again focused on the four fundamentals, and I think my over-controlling was a little better (different airplane too, C172 – I wanted to try the C150 but it was out later than expected, and I didn't want to wait again – it's a critical path when they only have one of the aircraft you are learning in, but it's a small, convenient flight school, so c'est la vie – C172 seemed HUGE after flying the 152). I have a couple of new problems (well, let's say more obvious): instrument fixation, and getting flustered on new stuff.

· Preflight seemed to take me a long time – Jason watched and helped when asked, but it was my job to run the checklist (I need to write out and memorize the pre-flight checklists so I can go more smoothly through them). Taxi was still awkward, but less so than before (need smaller inputs on the rudders). Weather looked suspicious but was fine except for a very dramatic looking rainstorm over Worcester (visibility must have been 15+ miles)

· Takeoff was runway 18, to the south, with a right turn (west) departure. I did OK on takeoff except I rotated a bit late (I need to write down and memorize the V-speeds for the C172 and C152, or better yet, get the POH for both). I wish all the planes had either knots or mph and not un peu de tout.

· Problem one: instrument fixation. After a couple of turns, Jason zapped this by plastering black rubber suction-cup disks over all but the tach! No airspeed, attitude, altimeter, or turn and slip! This forces you to look outside the airplane for your flight cues, which is a great idea. I think sims have made me an instrument junky (but everybody probably does this to some degree).

· Steep turns, 45 degree bank, 360 degree turns -- cool

· Stalls - procedure - got flustered, problem two ("don't go bonkers on me now") – stalled once in a turn – Jason thought I was nervous on the stalls (I don't think so, but maybe my switch from light touch to death grip on the yoke says more than I know!). I have to start memorizing some stuff – procedures, RPM's, V-speeds, etc.

· Fluster example: letting nose go down a lot in a turn after stall recovery, then adding lots of power and yanking back on the yoke – nice G-force, but bad form!

· MCA – mushing along indeed – swing the yoke all over for nil effect – cool.

· Altitude control in turns, often good, but inconsistent (inconsistency is probably my problem 3, but it takes practice – I'm only a 3 hour student pilot – Jason even gained 100' in his "blind" 360 degree demonstration turn)

· Fly back home (no joy on 1B6! see satellite pic above, needle in a haystack!) – 120 mph on downwind seemed fast, but Jason said no – 65 mph landing speed (seems fast in a Taurus but slow in an airplane you are riding onto the ground – maybe this is why I like knots, a different unit for the airplane)

· Landing – Jason's plane, but really following through on controls, and talking it down – "Flare-flare-flare-flare-flare-flare-flare-flare-flare!"

· The bottom line: $92.25 (I didn't get a receipt, oddly enough – paid cash)

· Next: more turns, MCA, stalls, starting pattern work, rectangular course (ground reference) – scheduled for September 4 before Germany trip.

Time: Dual 1.0 hrs, TT 3.1 hrs (C172 at 1B6)

Thumbs Up (Intro Flight at EMT)

1997-08-23T16:00:00.000-07:00

As Hades says in Disney's Hercules, "Two thumbs WAY, way up!" This was a great flight (it was with Valley Flight Center, 818/444-7739). I even did maybe 80% of the landing! The CFI was supposed to be "Brian," and maybe that's his nickname, but he's actually Sergio Guevara, Jr., and he has 1700+ hours, CFI/CFII, working on multi-engine with hopes for ATP and airline flying. Nice guy, and very instructional (kept quizzing me on various stuff on the preflight checks, e.g., FAA no longer requires that a radio license be in the aircraft with the air worthiness and registration, but the POH must still be there – I didn't know some things like "dorsal fin," the forward extension of the vertical stabilizer – gotta study harder I guess).

ANYWAY, we did a real thorough pre-flight (but no paper checklist for the outside walkaround – I would have to buy a handbook for that, and he knew it, as did I from this morning – we could have used the POH itself, but I would have gotten oil and gas on it like this morning at CCB). He even put water in a fuel sample to show me what that looks like (sinks to bottom, color is different, beads up on ground). We had to tighten screw on the right wing. Switch to bullets (as opposed to AMRAAMs?):

· I really like that little C152, and I may try to switch to C150 back home and save some money.

· I made the radio calls and did pretty well thanks to some recent practice with sound files I got from the web (ATIS and other radio samples in VOX format). Got ATIS, requested taxi clearance and takeoff, and even called the tower when we were at the West Covina Mall heading west for landing.

· I did the takeoff myself (wind was 190° at 14 kts, essentially straight down the runway, no crosswind), swerving a bit on the rudders, but not too bad (I made sure the door was securely latched this time!). Got fast on climbout (80 kts -- you want to gain altitude fast over the I-10 and other dense ground features, so cruise climb has to wait – 65 kts for best rate I believe – if I knew which plane I was flying back home now, I would have bought a handbook and checklists, because both Valley and F.A.S.T. down the street had these for C150, 152, 172, etc.).

· We had asked for a left downwind (north) departure to the Santa Fe Dam practice area, just a few minutes away. I tried to scan for traffic and I did not particularly notice any ground features other than the I-10 and I-605 freeways.

· We started with climbing to 3500' and then did some turns at various bank angles – as usual, I was overcorrecting. One problem I have is overcontrolling for the overbanking tendency in steep turns (30 and 45° today) – it only requires a slight touch of opposite aileron, and if you add too much, it shallows out the bank. I did this a lot but improved a little, and I did one really nice 45 degree bank (feels steeper than that – you can feel the 1.4G's)

· Speaking of G's, I couple of times I pulled a few more (maybe 2?) when I started to let the nose go down too much then added power and pulled up too abruptly. CFI didn't say anything. My altitude control in turns was so-so.

· There was one close airplane that I spotted at my 9 o'clock, turning away (west) from us on the way to the practice area. I think he was maybe 2000 feet away and only 300 feet below us when I saw him – some sort of Piper. I spotted and called clock positions on other traffic a few times, 5+ miles away, except for an escaped helium balloon that passed us at 2500 feet near the mall!

· We did both power-off and power-on stalls, with flaps (landing and takeoff configs) – cool, though I didn't really feel the pre-stall buffet (I heard the horn loud & clear though). The nose seems WAY, way high, but I know it's not. I lost over 200' on the second stall.

· After the stalls when I was straight and level again (at 3000 feet I think), he cut the throttle to idle and said "What if you lose your engine right now, what do you do?" I said, OK, establish best glide speed (he said good, 60 kts, do it), then I proceeded to put the nose DOWN and speed up to 90+ knots! DUH! So then I'm saying, look for an airport (nope, we don't have one), or a flat, open field to land on – there's a sports field just to the left, there's another one. He said "what about that big dirt field there to the right?" It looked like one of the quarries near Duarte to me! But on closer inspection there was one that looked like a huge parking lot under construction. I made a shallow bank that would have made the field, then he said add power and make for EMT. It was cool that he pulled this on the demo flight – he was really testing my knowledge and maybe even "coolness under pressure" (I know this was low key – any "coolness" I may have WILL be tested more in the future I'm sure). One funny thing is that I don't feel any sense of fear with this stuff – stalls, simulated engine failure, steep turns, etc. all seem OK to me. My nervousness is performance pressure – I want to show the CFI that I can do all this stuff.

· The CFI basically told me where to start my turns for most maneuvers, calling out headings (I got better at rolling out on heading, still a little sloppy, but close – I only forgot to lift my wing to check for traffic once or twice). This was true especially when we entered the pattern – I tried to note my position and altitude, but I missed a lot (I was pretty jazzed by the end of the hour and started overcontrolling more again after improving in mid-flight – thinking about tuning and getting ATIS and calling the tower for landing got me flustered as I was trying to follow the I-10 back to the airport – BTW, need to keep such ground reference features a bit further to my left so I can keep the freeway in sight – those freeways are great nav aids, though!).

· When he had me start the turn to final (he was making the radio calls after I called the downwind), I couldn't believe he wasn't taking the airplane! He was guiding me on adding flaps, reducing throttle, carb heat, adjusting lineup, but I did all of that myself! (He may have tweaked the controls a time or two.) When we got over the threshold, he had me pulling the yoke back, and I actually flared to a very slight bump and landing (he added a skosh of power at the flare I believe to slow the descent a bit). This was shocking, but actually quite cool! At Hopedale, the landings seem to go too fast, but in this case I was involved in it, and it seemed OK, or at least possible!

· One slight worry on the turn to final – I hesitated (checked traffic maybe?) and started the turn a tad late, so I had to steepen it to get aligned with the runway. I remember reading that this is a spot where accidents happen, when the pilot misjudges the timing or the wind, and you are fairly close to stall speed (not to mention the ground). This can be a problem especially because of the increased stall speed you have in a bank, though it probably was not more than 30° (you should not do more than 30°of bank in the pattern).

· I held back pressure to slow us then applied brakes and turned left at the center to go to the fuel pit – tower ignored my call for this, so we switched to ground anyway and got permission. My taxiing was still not smooth, but the best effort so far, even using differential braking. One thing is for sure – with all the visual and physical information, landing the real airplane is WAY easier than landing in FS95! I never mentioned flight sims to either CFI today – it just didn't seem especially relevent.

I guess the bottom line is that it is starting to feel a bit familiar and if not easy, at least "doable." Brian/Sergio said I did well on everything except that over-control thing – I really need to work on that part. It was really a fun flight – in a way he really threw me into the deep end of the pool and covered a lot of topics for a demo flight. In my log book, he noted "Demo flight, preflight, taxi, runup, takeoff, stalls power on/off" – an excellent lesson for my 60 bucks. And today I more than tripled my logged flight time (TT from 0.6 hours to 2.1 hours). I think I can solo this fall if I can just get those weekly flights in with Jason! Note: FLY WITH THE LEFT HAND! Have to keep the right free for throttle and radios and all, so get used to it. Also, TRIM and USE A LIGHT TOUCH ON THE CONTROLS.

Time: Dual 1.0 hrs, TT 2.1 hrs (C152 at EMT)

Door is ajar! (Intro Flight at Cable Airport )

1997-08-23T11:00:00.000-07:00

This was another impulse thing, as I still have my 4 pm intro scheduled at EMT. The weather looked good (light smog but blue skies and reasonable visibility), so I drove out the I210 to Claremont, just like I used to drive home when we lived there. Just past Claremont is Upland, and they have an uncontrolled airport there with a single 3800' runway running SW (24/6). My CFI was Alan Runyen, a nice young guy with some 850 hours (working on CFII). I felt bad making him fly a C152 since he's about 6'5" and really has to squeeze in – hard to see how he can work the pedals with his knees so far up! But that's his job. Our combined weights and full fuel load put us at maximum gross weight, but it seemed to handle OK to me (we climbed at about 500 fpm, and he said the C172 would do 1100 with our weight, but no 172's were on the ramp, all on rentals). I signed for the ½ hour intro flight for $25 – not bad.

Alan handled the radio (Unicomm) and we had no headsets (the cabin noise was bearable once I got the door closed). GOT THE DOOR CLOSED?!? Yes, this was my first in-flight "emergency" of sorts. After takeoff I noticed that the door was vibrating, then I saw that it was open 2 inches! I guess I had not really checked that it was latched tight when we did the pre-takeoff checklist. I was handling the takeoff (mostly – I think he helped me a bit on the rudders), and we had just gotten to maybe 50' AGL when I noticed the door. I said "your airplane" and managed to get it closed. There was no actual danger, but it was a bit distracting. I immediately thought of my reading "if the door opens in flight – FLY THE AIRPLANE!"). Other points:

· He watched me do the preflight checks and pre-takeoff checks from the POH checklists.

· We took off to the SW then turned left a couple of times to head out east to a practice area close to the foothills.

· I did a few fairly steep turns - kinda fun, though of course I overcontrolled a lot and lost or gained altitude whenever I paid attention to something else besides the turn itself. I remembered to lift my wing and clear traffic before each turn.

· Control forces were rather light. I used trim a little (not enough).

· He let me fly the pattern right up to short final! I was rather sloppy, I'd say, and he had to goose the power a couple of times when I lost altitude. Airport is 1439' MSL, pattern altitude was 2300' MSL. I did pretty bad on the lineup for final, but Alan corrected it with a slip (I now realize!), using opposite rudder and aileron to line us up without banking. I did really notice how the left wing completely hides the runway on the turn to base and (partially) on turn to final.

· He used a number of ground references for the pattern, a flood control channel for the crosswind (crossing fairly close to the SW end of the runway), a school where he starts his base leg. We had to stay N of the 210 to avoid airspace limits (I see now that they cut a circular notch out of Ontario's Class C airspace to give CCB a little uncontrolled area for its pattern).

· I can't really feel the airplane slipping or skidding yet – even when grossly uncoordinated (ball 2/3 from center), it seems OK – gotta learn to sense this better without the instrument!

· There was a substantial fuel leak from the left fuel drain (?), but Alan said this would stop as the fuel level went down (I don't think it did – it's due to expansion from the heat – it must have been 90 F at 11 am).

All in all a short but enjoyable flight. Very much like Hopedale – you would hardly know you are in LA air space. El Monte is better in this respect (different experience), but who knows? It makes me think I should check out the C150 at HAS before I start the real lessons – it could be a big savings. Cableair's rates are especially cheap even without block or club plans (C152 $42, C172 $52-57 depending on equipment, CFI $21). And if the door comes open on takeoff, FLY THE AIRPLANE! It really can happen (and people have crashed by playing with the door when still low and slow). Good reason to have your seatbelt securely fastened!

Time: Dual 0.5 hrs, TT 1.1 hrs (C152 at CCB)

Flight Log Supplemental (Pasadena)

1997-08-21T18:24:00.000-07:00

I visited El Monte Airport the other day and bought a VFR Terminal Area Chart for Los Angeles – pretty cool – amazingly complex airspace! I also set up an intro lesson at Valley Flight Center in a C152 (C172 down for maintenance – a common problem for me back in Hopedale, though I'm not recording all the cancelations etc. here). This is $30 for ½ hour, $60 for 1 hour, so I'll go for the hour, Saturday afternoon, and also see what the C152 is like (smaller cockpit, flying near gross weight depending on CFI's weight and fuel load – I'll be interested to see a weight and balance check and density altitude calculation in this case, especially if it's hot!).

I noted on the web that Pro-Pilot and FU II are both delayed until "fall 97," rather than August. Haven't had much of a mood for sims recently anyway, but those will still be worth checking out when they ship.

Flight log supplemental: Ground school etc.

1997-08-09T20:16:00.000-07:00

I'm working on a plan to get started on lessons sooner rather than later... (financial and marital negotiation notes omitted, though these are certainly part of the process of learning to fly!)

I also sat in on a ground school session with Jason at HAS (Hopedale Air Service) last night. It was on METAR/TAF weather reports (new ICAO coding for weather and formats info). Jason was OK as a lecturer for the short part I sat in on – he then switched us to a King video on this stuff, which was fairly good (I think I can actually read those things now!). So I'm thinking that it will be worth it to do the ground school with them too rather than try to do only self-study – the discipline of weekly classes and readings and the chance to "show off" my knowledge in class will be good for me, I think. HAS also has a new CFI, and I do mean NEW, just out of flight school, and just off the boat from Germany. I forget his name – he's 23 and he's really green, with a strong German accent. I'll stick with Jason, thanks – but I better get going before he signs up too many students and dumps me on someone else!

I also began to read and study my new "Jepp" materials in earnest – chapter one on fundamentals of flight and stability, including the exercises. Pretty much review, though I need to get to the "second nature" point on some things like what the control surfaces do when you move the yoke (i.e., left yoke, left aileron goes UP, right goes DOWN). This was also covered in the demo video that came with the Jepp kit, and it will be lesson one of ground school, next Tuesday 6:30-9:30 pm (when I will be in LA). They will allow you to make up two lessons for free, or sit in on another class if they cover one you missed. I guess this is tied to their having to sign off in your log book for covering the required material before you take the written test.

Introductory Flight at Hopedale (1B6)

1997-07-24T14:00:00.000-07:00

It was cool and cloudy for July, and I would not have guessed it was VMC, but I called up HAS and it sure was (visibility was something like 20+ miles – I could see Boston and Providence from 3000' MSL – a lot of high clouds). Drove about 40 minutes from Framingham to 1B6 (new office will be much closer). Flew with Jason (don't these guys have last names?) in a Cessna 172. I liked him better than Kris or Kelly, and I liked the C172 better than the Cherokee, oddly enough. This was the most comfortable or relaxed of three intro flights, to the point that I felt more "there" and able to observe and react to what was going on and even enjoy the view a bit. Some miscellaneous points to maybe flesh out as time permits (while ideas are fresh).

· Turn to final hard to judge in FS95, "real airplane too!" (sez Jason)

· I did "OK" with typical new student tendency to over-correct on the controls – with emphasis on light touch (trim) and visual (look outside) orientation, I think Jason will teach good habits

· Cross wind landing, wind from NE, substantial crab angle, slip? Fair amount of bank correction in close (turbulent), judging sink rate, line up, position, getting awful close to those cars on the road at the S end of the runway – landing does NOT look easy, and of course it is not, so it's why you practice that stuff a zillion times before you solo

· Stratus clouds 12K+ (I have a lot to learn about weather!)

· Visibility about 20+ miles despite the look of very solid (high alt.) clouds and impending rain (even felt a few drops)

· Reference points for turns - landmark on left wing moves to nose for 90 dg, moves to right wing for 180° turn – gotta learn to pick out landmarks quickly for ground reference maneuvers – also rolling out on correct heading and not too early (shallowing out the bank) or too late (overshoot)

· Better ground SA from high wing – Jason starts from basics, I claimed little knowledge, asked about ground references, other questions

· Lift wing on turn side first to clear traffic, then turn (main concession to high wing) – I liked seeing the ground below to the left, and I liked how roomy the C172 felt (also liked having trim wheel in the panel rather than between the seats on floor)

· Taxi and radio– still weak, pedals and brakes not real distinct feel, just squishing around down there – keep hands off that wheel (except for wind compensation)

· Jason – easier to communicate with, patient but tells you stuff, says it takes a few hours to get the feel for even the basics of level flight and coord, generally comfortable feeling (important to feel relaxed in airplane)

· Preflight brief – he did one based on the 4 fundamentals, climb, glide, straight/level, turns – I thought he was setting up for an hour lesson, but he said since I flew before, may as well have a plan, and I liked this – no shame if he explains how an airplane turns, even if I know it pretty well. Back taxi 360° to visually check the pattern for aircraft to the west (left pattern for runway 36). Throttle seems backwards (in for full power – HOLD IT IN on takeoff, keep hand on throttle much of the time, especially when low).

· Visual attitude reference for level - top of compass on horizon

· For climb - dash on horizon? Glide - need a reference (two thumbs, 8° my guess) - need to pay attention to correct amount of right rudder against torque in full-power climb (leads to drifting off course if you hold too much or too little)

· Tried rule of thumb! 4° below horizon, etc

· Preflight trick – he sometimes tapes a coin on a flap or something to see if student is really inspecting everything in preflight (thorough, checklist based – Jeff must have told him my comments from Kris) – suck on the stall warning port to test it (has a reed like a clarinet)!

· Still no joy on finding airport despite spotting landmarks (including Boston for east) – though overall SA seemed better when he pointed out big picture landmarks like Boston (east), Providence, Woonsocket, Worcester (we could even see mountains of S NH beyond Worcester's buildings), all from 2500-3000 feet MSL

· Turn coord so-so

· Trim works! Fly with 3 fingers, light touch - let go of the wheel and see where the nose goes

· Got an actual pilot log book with one entry of 0.6 hours – cool enough!

· Power off stall – hard to enter, faint buzz of stall warning, gentle recovery (nose level, power full) – not the least bit scary

· Fly at least once a week - he's there maybe 8 am most mornings – general impression: an American "airport bum" (flew on his daddy's lap from a young age) – slightly reserved guy, a bit scruffy – I can relate better than to foreign CFI's trying to build time here in the cheaper American skies (unfair generalization based on 2 of 7 CFI's I've spoken with or met having strong foreign accents – guess I prefer American CFI's for whatever reason). His verbal patter (e.g. talking his steps on pattern/approach/landing) was smoother than Kris's

· Some say 70% out the window, Jason says 99% -- less reliance on instruments and airspeed and more on attitude/pitch (reference cage for attitude indicator kept slipping - vacuum problem)

· I want to start the real hour-long lessons soon.

Time: Dual 0.6 hrs, TT 0.6 hrs (C172)

Introductory Flight at El Monte (EMT) Airport

1997-06-24T19:00:00.000-07:00

This was more or less an impulse thing – when I do take lessons, it might be cool to take a few in Los Angeles when I'm out here for business. So I called up Bartlett Aviation at El Monte Airport (just south of Arcadia) and made a 7 pm appointment with Kelly. She turns out to be a 500-hour CFII from Chicago who appears to be about 17 years old but is probably 20-something (thin, reddish hair, freckles, wire rim glasses). This was another $35 intro flight, and I did better in some ways, worse in others (or maybe she just commented or corrected more, and ended up taking the controls a bit more than Kris at Hopedale – when she said "get north of the 210 Freeway," she meant quickly – steeper turn , though I had kicked into an earlier turn quite fast and too steep, so I was "hedging" and gradually shallowing out my bank, probably slipping in the process, even as I tried to step on the ball). Airplane was a 1975 Cherokee 140. This is LA, and although we only saw 2 or 3 other airplanes, this is not the place to mess around!

Preflight was much like #1, though Kelly had a typed checklist, which was good. We checked oil but not fuel (checked level, didn't drain a sample as the plane had just been flown). The novel thing was setting 118.75 on the radio to get ATIS (Clear, Wind 230 at 9 kts, vis 8 nm, altimeter, active is 19 information QUEBEC). Then I got to call the tower for permission to taxi, "El Monte Ground, Cherokee 2120 X-ray, at Bartlett, request taxi to active," usually forgetting to confirm with "20 X-ray, roger" or whatever. Pretty awkward, but better than at Hopedale, and that was just Unicom! This is an LA-area controller, and Kelly said they expect crisp, quick calls, though they understand that students can be slow on this stuff.

Taxi was a little better than at Hopedale, though I gunned the throttle a lot at first and used the brakes too much (taxi at 900-1000 RPM is good). Runup was OK (don't fixate on instrument looking for that 2000 RPM, continue to look outside the airplane – fixating is not so good), and more radio calls were needed (I forget the wording already, but we got a clear to takeoff with a left departure). Kelly actually held the centerline on takeoff and I followed her cue on rotation and climbout. Heading south, we followed a "wash" (flood control?) because you are right over roads and the I-10, no good place to set down if your engine fails on takeoff. Had to hold substantial right rudder (a "boot full," as they say?) on climbout due to the high engine power and relatively low speed (90 on the instrument, but I think she said this was mph, not knots). I made a left turn to follow the I-10, then left again to follow the I-605 north. The freeways are great landmarks, easy to follow. We then flew above Arcadia for a while, toward and then parallel the foothills (pretty close at one point). We stayed below 3000' (airport elev is 296' but the San Gabriels rise up pretty fast N of Arcadia). It's best to stay N of the I-210 to stay out of El Monte's airspace. I recall the freeways clearly, as well as the big houses above Foothill Blvd and Vons. I saw the Santa Anita Mall, and I did a 30+ degree left bank directly over the race track and got a nice view. I overcorrected on my turns but got better – I certainly did not feel especially skillful or precise. I had trouble keeping the nose level until near the end (level was VERY low vs the horizon – the mountains and haze made it hard to judge the horizon, and I forgot to cross-check vs. the attitude indictor until Kelly reminded me). Kelly was very relaxed and flew very smoothly when she took over toward the end.

Haze was moderately annoying, and the low sun at 7:30 pm gave a lot of glare and NO visibility over the nose when flying W (scratches on windshield gave a LOT of scattering glare). Runway was not that easy to spot when we headed back south (I made the radio call to request a straight-in approach). We did not get a clear to land but rather an instruction to call when 2 miles NE of the airport (Kelly made that call I think – but how do you know that distance?). They called traffic on final, and we spotted a twin down low, so Kelly made several S-turns to slow our close rate. She finally radioed for permission for a 360 to give the landing plane time to clear the runway. I tried to follow the speed, flaps, attitude, control feel, etc on the short final, but it happened too fast for me. There was a crosswind from the right (from 230° on 190 degree runway heading, so maybe a 4 kt crosswind component?). It was enough that Kelly held noticeable right stick and compensating left rudder. Her landing was quite smooth, and she quickly taxied off the runway (I called for permission to taxi to the "fuel pit," where the student pays to top off the tanks, $7.75 for 3.8 gallons, my first AVGAS purchase – this gets subtracted from the $35 intro flight fee, but on normal flights, you pay three things, gas, instructor, and rental fee).

On the whole, Kelly was OK. I think I would prefer a slightly older CFI – she communicated and taught OK, but I couldn't quite "relate" to her somehow. Not likely I will fly much with her (if ever again). I may also check out Bracket Airport in Pomona next time I'm out here. The flight seemed more "routine", somehow, pretty much fun, but I still had some of that frustration of not doing everything at least a little better, like coming out of banks and observing my altitude and other instruments – short answer is that my time in CAP years ago is useless, and sim experience is at least partly negated by bad habits from yank-n-bank combat sims. Real airplanes have a "feel" (especially the rudder in the Piper – nose up/down yoke forces seem mild even without trimming them out). Still some feeling of "is this really happening," especially in banks where I can see the ground better.

A few firsts on this – first in LA, controlled air space, radio comms, real use of trim, fueling the plane – well, some of these are small thrills! I'm not actually taking lesssons, of course, so no log book for this or the last Intro flight! Meanwhile I broke down and bought FS95 on sale at CompUSA for $38 – Flight 2 and Pro Pilot are due later in summer, and 688I Hunter/Killer (sub sim) shipped today but probably won't make stores until this Friday (I planned to be sub-simming tonight if it was out). Bought a VFR Terminal Area Chart for San Francisco (they were out of sectionals and these charts for LA) – this is for "Flight 2" (it may come with one, but it's only $4.33, vs. $7.50 for the sectionals).

Time: 0.6 hours dual (unlogged).

Introductory Flight at Hopedale Airport

1997-06-11T09:00:00.000-07:00

It was very clear and warming fast when I drove over to Hopedale for an intro flight with Hopedale Air Service (HAS). I watched a C150 do some practice landings from 8-9 am while I waited for Kristian to return from his lesson (Jason was the CFI for the C150 - the first landing was VERY rough, fast and with 2 big bounces, too fast, or he flared too early, perhaps). I spoke with Jeff (the owner), but he said he was too busy to take on new students now. He seemed like a nice enough guy.

After Kris arrived and debriefed his last lesson, we went out to the Cherokee 140 for the pre-flight inspection (he first found me a headset to borrow). We checked power off and keys on dash, then flaps, control surfaces, fuel (visual check on quantity, drain some for contamination check), landing gear, oil (he actually could not get the cap off, and we taxied out with the access door open!). Inside the plane we checked RROW (registration, radio license, operational limits [POH], weight/balance), making sure the paperwork was in the aircraft (we actually didn't check W&B per se with just the two front seats occupied and no baggage). We also double checked that tie-downs were removed (he told me of one C150 lesson he gave where the student forgot the rear tire-down and flew once around the pattern with a cement block dragging – this caused it to handle very strangely – I'll bet! -- way out of W&B limits so a wind gust could have been real bad news).

Next he showed me the startup procedure, which I don't remember in detail (cautionary note: there was no written checklist for any of this, other than the POH). He basically showed me the controls and let me do everything from this point until I entered the downwind for final approach, when he took the controls for landing and taxi back to ramp. There should be a checklist (for students or renters) because the order of operations for lights, amp check, fuel pump, carb heat, etc. was not obvious to me. We also checked all controls for free movement (with visual, except for rudder, which won't move anyway due to nosewheel steering linkage). Yell "Clear!" and start the engine (full rich mixture, throttle 1/8" or so, turn key full right and push).

Then I (or Kris?) removed the parking brake and I taxied to the edge of the ramp. It was hard to not try to steer with the "wheel", only with the feet, and the toe brakes were kinda weird too. We stopped and did the runup check (set brake, 2000 RPM, Magnetos both, right, both, left, both and watch for slight RPM drop, ditto with carb heat on/off). This is when Kris noticed the oil check door was open, so I stopped the engine and he opened the door and closed the hatch. All OK, so now I have to make a very newbie-sounding radio call, "Hopedale, Cherokee 3569 Foxtrot, blah-blah-blah for runway 36." This was very awkward (hope nobody was listening!) – gotta read those radio procedure web pages now! I had to do the departure call as well, and one or two others I forget (mostly for "traffic," warning any planes on approach that we are on the runway – typical uncontrolled airport stuff).

Checking again for traffic, I taxied very awkwardly to the south end of the single 3200' runway 36, experimenting a little with the toe brakes en route. Not very smooth! A little better when I finally put my hands in my lap. I did a U-turn near the end and found myself well left of center, but OK. Release brakes, full throttle, steer with feet to stay roughly lined up (a bit wobbly), and the end of the runway seemed to be getting close when Kris said "start to pull back," so I did, and we lifted off and began to climb.

At about 1000' (I think – Hopedale is 269' so this would be only 730' AGL), I began a turn to the left. Coordination was OK, a little slip when I peeked at the ball. I wasn't sure where he wanted me to turn, so I made several "partial" turns before I started asking him what headings he wanted to roll out on. The view was – not much! Rather hazy and all trees and quarries and a lake or two. My outside SA was minimal! We leveled off at about 2500' and set throttle for cruise (1800 rpm?). I never noted the I-495, which I assumed would be a major landmark. I held altitude fairly well in turns (climbing with too much back pressure on one, gained 100' to 2600), but I held airspeed (angle of attack!) less reliably, I think.

We made some more turns, and Kris pointed out that we were over Mendon, with Uxbridge off to the left. We turned back and he showed me a couple of landmarks for finding the Hopedale runway (one was an industrial building or tower, the other a water tower) – not an easy thing! It's just a 3200' strip of asphalt among a lot of trees. We turned to a heading of about 140° (S.E.) and got within about a mile of the runway before I spotted it at an angle to our flight path. He had me turn (right I guess!) to line up with the runway on the downwind leg (180°, south), then he took over the controls for the rest of the approach. He said to begin a turn to base when abeam of the numbers, but we overshot this (he had to extend further south because we were too close to the runway, a very narrow pattern).

Final went very fast and seemed steep to me. I was not very aware of the "sight picture" (though I had this TERM in mind) – looking for our aim point, the point that was not moving on the windscreen. The S end of the runway is very close to the road, and we seemed very low over a passing car. He touched down long (I think), not on the numbers, and I recall some last minute bank correction (there was a small but noticeable crosswind as the day was heating up – going to 95+ today, it was 86 at the start of the flight). He said "that was not such a good example of a landing!"

Kris is amiable enough, and his accent is not TOO hard to understand. He was very laid-back in the cockpit, didn't seem rushed or nervous, and he let me fly the plane the whole time, with barely any correction or criticism. This was an introductory flight, and I had taken pains to try to show I was somewhat savvy about all this flying stuff, so maybe he was holding back. I think I could train with him, but I wonder if I should "audition" Jason as well, just to compare them?

(That's a lot of writing for a 30 minute intro flight – no wonder people generate web pages on this stuff!).

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