March 2008 Archives
I soloed. My instructor didn't have a lot of time to do this so, we setup an hour. I pre-flighted the plane, we got up and did 2 touch-and-goes and on the third landing he had my taxi over to the ramp. I let him out of the airplane and taxied to the end of the runway and took off. As I took off and climbed into the pattern, I thought to myself, 'Holy crap, I'm in this plane all by myself!' It was both exhilarating and a little nervous.
My focus was now on the job at hand. While on the downwind leg of the pattern, I got the call from the tower, "Cessna Three-November-Bravo, you're clear touch-and-go." I repeated it back and when I got "a-beam" of the numbers, I started my landing procedures. Carb heat, on. Slow the plane to 70 knots, and bring in 20° of flaps. In my head, I said to myself, 'keep it on 70 knots, trim the plane, now turn to base and let the plane fall to the ground, don't fight it. Keep and eye on the end of the runway and turn to final. Shoot for the numbers, if you're low, give it power, if you're high, kill the power. Aim for the numbers.' As I came in for my first landing, the approach was good I brought it in and made a nice easy landing. Once I was on the ground, I disengaged carb heat, put the flaps up and brought the throttle all the way in.
The second and third landings were good, and even though I could have stopped after three I decided to go around one more time because I was having fun. I asked the tower for a "full-stop" and was cleared. I came in... this time, I came floated gave it a little too much elevator when I came in and floated up a little, but nothing I couldn't correct as I brought in, I touched down and exited the runway at taxiway-Delta and took three-november-bravo back to her parking spot and tied the plane down having used only a half hour of tach time.
Now, another phase of my private certificate requirements have been met. This time, on the solo part.
- At least 40 hours of flight time, to include
- At least 20 hours of flight training from an instructor, including
- 3 hours of cross-country flight training in a single-engine airplane
- 3 hours of night flight training in a single-engine airplane, to include
- 1 cross-country flight of over 100 nautical miles total distance
- 10 takeoffs and 10 landings to a full stop (with each landing involving a flight in the traffic pattern) at an airport.
- 3 hours of flight training in a single-engine airplane on the control and maneuvering of an airplane solely by reference to instruments, including straight and level flight, constant airspeed climbs and descents, turns to a heading, recovery from unusual flight attitudes, radio communications, and the use of navigation systems/facilities and radar services appropriate to instrument flight
- 3 hours of flight training in preparation for the practical test in a single-engine airplane, which must have been performed within 60 days preceding the date of the test
- At least 10 hours of solo flight time in a single-engine airplane, to include
- Three takeoffs and three landings to a full stop (with each landing involving a flight in the traffic pattern) at an airport with an operating control tower.
- 5 hours of solo cross-country time
- One solo cross-country flight of at least 150 nautical miles total distance, with full-stop landings at a minimum of three points, and one segment of the flight consisting of a straight-line distance of at least 50 nautical miles between the takeoff and landing locations
Next lesson: Monday, March 24.
I touched down in dirty Durant, OK on a touch-and-go to satisfy my night time cross-country requirement this evening. It was an uneventful flight. Our ground speed on the way up was about 138 knots. Our ground speed on the way back down, however, was only about 68 knots. It seemed like it took us forever to get back. But we made it just after the tower shut down for the night.
I finally get to cross off a Private Pilot Requirement off the list. See below.
- At least 40 hours of flight time, to include
- At least 20 hours of flight training from an instructor, including
- 3 hours of cross-country flight training in a single-engine airplane
- 3 hours of night flight training in a single-engine airplane, to include
- 1 cross-country flight of over 100 nautical miles total distance
- 10 takeoffs and 10 landings to a full stop (with each landing involving a flight in the traffic pattern) at an airport.
- 3 hours of flight training in a single-engine airplane on the control and maneuvering of an airplane solely by reference to instruments, including straight and level flight, constant airspeed climbs and descents, turns to a heading, recovery from unusual flight attitudes, radio communications, and the use of navigation systems/facilities and radar services appropriate to instrument flight
- 3 hours of flight training in preparation for the practical test in a single-engine airplane, which must have been performed within 60 days preceding the date of the test
- At least 10 hours of solo flight time in a single-engine airplane, to include
- Three takeoffs and three landings to a full stop (with each landing involving a flight in the traffic pattern) at an airport with an operating control tower.
- 5 hours of solo cross-country time
- One solo cross-country flight of at least 150 nautical miles total distance, with full-stop landings at a minimum of three points, and one segment of the flight consisting of a straight-line distance of at least 50 nautical miles between the takeoff and landing locations
Next lesson: Saturday, March 15 ... expecting to solo!
My night Cross-Country was moved to Wednesday, due to weather. That's just how it goes. There's an old saying in the aviation world, "It's better to be on the ground, wishing you were in the air, than in the air, wishing you were on the ground."
I had to get a lot of paperwork done to get my medical... and it took literally months. But finally, I got the nod from my AME (FAA Aviation Medical Examiner). Thursday, I have an appointment to get my Medical Certificate/Student Pilot Certificate issued.
So the plan this week...
- Wednesday night, night cross-country flight.
- Thursday afternoon, get my med. certificate issued.
- Saturday evening, planned solo with instructor.
Next lesson: Wednesday, March 12.
My Thursday less was canceled due to weather, but it was moved to Saturday and in this lesson, I embarked on my first night time work. We stayed local, but I got a chance to land at a bunch of different airports in the area this evening.
We started by doing two touch-and-goes at McKinney (TKI), then took a trip over to Addison (ADS) and performed a land and taxi-back, then we transitioned Class Bravo airspace to get to Dallas Executive (RBD) then on to Lancaster (LNC) and then Rockwall (F46), for a touch-and-go at each, then back home to TKI for a full stop. In all, 1.5 hours of time and about 86 nautical miles with the longest leg being LNC to F46 at 25.5 nm. In order to qualify to be a cross-country flight, one leg must be at least 50 nm.
The purpose of this lesson was to get used to what it's like to fly at night and to get in as many landings as possible. I am required to do 10 takeoffs and landings and 3 hours of night work along with a 100nm cross-country flight. Normally my CFI will have the student try a few landings without the landing light on (it's a little bit harder to see the runway as you land). I my case, I did all the landings without the light because it was not working. So I got a lot of practice trying to sense where to ground was as I was coming down on the runway without the benefit of seeing the runway until the very end.
Click here to see my route, McKinney Airport is at the top of the chart.Tomorrow I go on my night cross-country from KTKI to KADS to KDUA (Durant, OK) to KTKI. I am required to plan the part from ADS to DUA and show my instructor and we're going to try to do this with a minimum of GPS work.
Next lesson: Sunday, March 9.
We had MVFR (marginal VFR) conditions today, which was good enough to fly for our lesson.
We took off and did about 50 minutes of time "under the hood" simulating IFR conditions. Basically, you have to be able to keep the plane straight and level and on a heading without looking outside, using your instruments. We practiced climbs, turns, descents, slow flight, and unusual attitudes.
The most interesting situation is unusual attitudes. Basically, I handed over the controls to my CFI and was told to look away from the instrument panel. He turned the plane around and got us all screwed up. Then said, "Recover." I looked at the panel and saw the air speed indicator dropping, so I put in full power and then looked over at the artificial horizon and got us level. Then we did it again... this time he spent a good minute disorienting me, during which it felt like we were going all over the place. When he said "recover," I look and saw that the air speed indicator was going up fast, so I killed the power and looked at the artificial horrizon, which looked like it was turned on it's side and had very little blue (indicating sky showing). He basically put us into a 90 degree right bank and a steep dive, I rolled the wings level and pulled back on the elevator to get us level again. I commented to him, "I'm glad I didn't see what you were doing out the window, I might have gotten really nervous."
After that we flew north and did some slow flight in which he asked me to stall the plane. I did so and then recovered and then he had me fly the GPS approach to runway 17, when we got to about a half mile from the end of the runway, I took off the foggles (what I wore during the lesson) and landed.
My next lesson is scheduled to be a night time flight.
Next lesson: Thursday, March 6.
