Lesson 6 (mostly)

October 29th

Tonight was nice. It was overcast with clouds at 9,000 feet, and a light sprinkle. The winds were at about 10kts.

This night's main focus was going to be landing and touch and go practice. We would do touch and goes and approaches at Nampa Airport, which is a non-controlled airport.

Here is a capture of a chart showing Boise, and the surrounding Airports. You can see Nampa just to the west of the purple circle around Boise which designates it's airspace.



We started off the night in the office, talking about how landings work. We discussed arriving in the pattern at 45 degrees downwind on the midfield, then, abeam the numbers (looking 90 degrees out your window at the end of the runway) you pull the power to 1700 rpm, pitch for 80kts, and put in one notch of flaps as soon as your airspeed indicator needle hits the white arc.

Here is what an airspeed indicator looks like. The top end of the white arc (at about 85kts on this indicator) is called V-FE. V-FE is known as "Maximum Flaps Extended Speed", which means this is the fastest we can go with the flaps extended. To go faster and drop them may cause problems.



After this, when you turn on base, you pull the second notch of flaps and keep the speed around 75kts. When you turn on final, you pull the last notch of flaps and keep around 70kts for landing.

Jim said that if a person can't get the first step correct (when you're abeam), they often times have to forgo the landing altogether because it takes too long to correct what they missed. So I focused on getting that correct tonight.

Since winter is arriving, there is less time in the evening for practice in the light, so I bought a little flashlight on a lanyard that I'll take with me from now on when I fly in the evenings.

We preflighted, ran the checklist, SAFEST and got ATIS. I asked to run most of the communications tonight. Tonight the engine was acting a little funny, the idle wasn't staying put. So, during the run-up Jim leaned the motor and raised to higher RPMS to maybe clear out what might be causing the issue. After the run-up, the engine sounded a lot better, so we went for it.

We started out in Boise, and asked the tower if they had any room for a few touch and goes. They said they would squeeze us in, so we taxied out and got lined up. We took off, and went around the pattern. Abeam the numbers I pulled the power, pitched for 80kts, and pulled the flaps just like I'm supposed to. As we were turning base, ATC said this was the only touch and go we'd get and after this we had to head to Nampa. So I brought it down, leveled off, and landed, albeit a little to the left of center. Then we took back off again and headed out to Nampa. Boise is difficult because it is busy, but I really enjoy that experience.

This was the first time I'd deal with a non-controlled airport, so rather than having to call out our position all the time and remember all the steps it takes to land, plus everything else in the cockpit like my altitude and airspeed, Jim took over communications for this airport. Non controlled means there is no tower to talk to, and your communications are basically between other pilots, and you just keep advising your position.

Nampa was difficult to see tonight, there was a haze, and the airport isn't lit up as brightly as Boise.

We got in the pattern and I did all the steps, and we tried to set it down. This was I think the best one of the night for me, it floated nice, and then landed pretty smoothly. The next two got gradually worse, I got to experience what it felt like to "balloon", and what it felt like to bounce. I think a lot of this is due to the fact that it gradually became later in the evening, so that now it was night, and I was having a hard time discerning where the proper place to flare was. I was focusing on the on the section of the runway that was lit from my landing light rather than where I was supposed to be looking. I still have to get past that feeling of the ground rushing up, and knowing what to do and when to flare. I think one day it'll just "click".

After about the third time around, we headed back to Boise. This was the first time I'd officially gone "outside" an airspace, so I had to do some additional things before I could come back IN. When we're in the practice area, we're technically out of Boise's airspace too, but they keep an eye on us anyway. When we were heading out to Nampa, it's different. So I had to get a new ATIS in the air, and then I had to call back in and get permission.

By now it was totally dark, and all the lights of the city were on. It was very cool. It's a different feeling when all your panel lights are lit too.

We landed, and then had to hurry off the runway and into parking as there was someone behind us going to the same area. Parked, tied down, and locked up. I didn't get to do the steep turns that I was supposed to learn in this lesson, because we were focusing on landings. That's fine, I'll get them next time I go up. Learning landings is important.

It won't be long before I solo. The next few lessons before and during the solo have to be during the day, so I'll have to plan something for the next week or two.

It's always cool walking back in from the airport and seeing the planes and hearing the noises of the airport. Back in the office we filled out my logbook which is what we do every night, and talked about what happened in the lesson. It went really well.

My next lesson will be Friday the 2nd of November, at 11am with Ryan Pike.

Lesson 5 finished

October 24th

Well tonight was just absolutely gorgeous. I couldn't ask for a better night. I wish I would have brought my camera.

I found my knee board, it was at home. Somehow it had fallen behind the desk in the office. Who knows. But at least I found it. Yesterday, the 23rd, I had brought my stepdaughter Ariel, who's 11, and her brother Alec, who's 10, out to Jacksons Jet Center and the plane with me to look for it. Of course we didn't find it, but the kids were taken by the plane.

The whole time we're driving to the airport I don't think it sets in that we're going to the actual airport, and they were going to see an actual plane. We get there, and then walk through the Jet Center, and out to the tarmack. Ariel looks around, and her brother goes, "WOW!!! You're flying a REAL plane?!" I smile and look back. "Yessir!" Pretty soon I was showing the kids the plane, and they had climbed in while I looked for the kneeboard. I soon heard airplane noises coming out of the cockpit. Kids are great. What was nice is to share my knowledge that I have gained so far as to how a plane works, and I could show them how the controls work.

Of course, they had to stop and watch every plane take off and land that they could before we had to leave.

Time to return to the lesson.

We ran through the preflight, checklists, ATIS, and SAFEST, which I was getting better at, but still had trouble with anything other than "put tab A into slot B" when it came to the seat belts. I'll get it. I felt much more relaxed having my communication scripts again, and called Clearance, Ground, and Tower. And then I called Departure once we were in the air.

We flew out to the south practice area and then reviewed stalls and slow flight. I felt a lot better about them, but need to work on my quickness of recovery, and loss of altitude in doing so.

Then we went to work on the ground reference maneuvers. I think I picked a field too small to fly rectangles around, but after my 3rd pass, things were looking pretty good. We then zeroed in on Swan Falls road to practice S-turns.

Oh how fun. I could see how aerobatics could be fun to do. I loved going back and forth over the road. I loved trying to perfect it. I could do that all night.

We then practiced turns around a point, which I think I did pretty good. Tonight's air was super smooth, and the only turbulence we got was a bit of our own wake turbulence as we caught up to it turning around the point. It's kind of like a boat making circles in the water, and then catching up to it's wake.

Then, all too soon, we headed back. I got about .2 hours of night flight in tonight, as it was after sunset when we headed back to the airport. It was really pretty to see all the lights of the city. I really wanted to do approach calls on the radio, but I was having difficulty deciphering the quickness of the ATC's speech, so I let Jim do the radio.

It was really interesting coming down on a dark runway, landing on the lights. I can see why they want you to do night flight training. It's a lot different.

I called Ground to taxi to parking, and then we got there and tied down.

After it was all locked up and tied down, and I was walking back to the Jet Center with my headset bag, logbook, and knee board, I looked back at the planes, and then looked around the airport and took everything in. I took a big breath. This was nice.

My next lesson, Lesson 6 is on Monday the 29th. It's going to be a review of everything, and then introduces steep turns.

Half of Lesson 5

October 19th

So at 8 am, today was another cloudy, rainy day. The ceiling was at 7000 feet, and the forecast was for it to come down to about 4500 feet by the time we were done. It really didn't feel too bad, but the wind was at 15kts pretty much directly from the east.

Ran through the preflight, the checklists, ATIS, SAFEST, and got ready to go. I had forgotten my kneeboard, I thought I may have left it somewhere, so I didn't have my communcation scripts. I tried anyway. I did a pretty good job, and called Clearance, Ground, and Tower. We took off, and then headed south to the practice area.

On the way I noticed that it was pretty turbulent, but even with all the racket I kept it on course, and at altitude.

We got out to the practice area, and then began to set up for Ground Reference Maneuvers. It's at this point, right above 1000 feet AGL (above ground level), that we notice there is a significant wind sheer. The air above 1000 feet is moving completely opposite the air below it. Above 1000 feet AGL the wind is coming from the west.

When doing ground reference maneuvers, they basically all have the same concept. That is, you enter at 45 degrees midfield to your maneuver on the downwind. Your first turn is the steepest, then your next turn is a little more gradual, with your turn you make while upwind into the crosswind is the shallowest. Then, you begin to steepen up again on the turn from crosswind to downwind, and then steepen up again on the turn from downwind to the base leg.

The concept is very similar to what this link states, even though this link is helicopter oriented.

http://www.dynamicflight.com/flight_maneuvers/ground_ref_man/

We practiced the rectangle pattern several times, it was VERY turbulent. I think I might have had the hang of it by my third go around, but it was hard to tell.

We then got on target for "turns around a point", and I tried to make three, very unsuccessful turns. I asked Ryan to demonstrate one for me so that I might be able to feel what it was like, and he came up very sloppy because of the wind sheer. It was at this point that we decided to call it for the day, and headed back to the airport.

Coming back it was difficult to keep on course, and we crabbed most of the way in. I got us lined up and crabbing, and then Ryan landed us. I called communications back to parking.

This is the reason for the "half".

Oh I didn't mention I got my Third Class Medical! I almost passed with flying colors, but I had to go get a letter from Mountain State Tumor Institute telling the FAA to not stick their noses in my business because as far as they were concerned my cancer was cured. When I had that, my Doctor handed me my certificate.

My continuation of Lesson 5, and an introduction to Lesson 6 happens on Wednesday, October 24th, with Jim.

Lesson 4

October 13th

This blog post has quite a few pictures. I took the camera with me.

Oh, what a BEAUTIFUL day. I can tell I am going to like flying in the morning, whenever I can get it. Here's a video, and a couple of pictures walking on the tarmack to the plane. There was a few A-10s taking off, and a B-17 giving rides today.

This lesson was about stalls, and introducing an emergency procedure. Today I did the preflight, and then I did the checklists, SAFEST (which I still botch), and ATIS. Jim emailed me some documents, one of which is a communications script when talking to ATC, so today was easier for me. I called Clearance, Ground, and Tower.

We took off, and went to the south practice area to practice some stalls. Then, he introduced an engine quit emergency procedure. Basically I had to learn that when you're flying you should always look for a place to set it down, in an emergency, if you have to. Like, say a farmer's field, or a long road. The catch with the farmer's field is that you'd probably want to choose something that was either dirt, or a rectangular field with the rows running down the length, not across it. The catch with the road is the presence of power lines and poles, and the amount of traffic.

So for this time Jim demonstrates for me. We get an idea of a field to choose, and then he throttles all the way back to simulate an engine failure. The first thing you're supposed to do is get to the best glide speed for the aircraft. Which in the Archer II is ~76kts. Then, you pick a landing spot. After that, while you're setting up for it, you go through the flow of "trying" to restart the engine. Select a different fuel tank, turn the ignition to the R Magneto, then the L Magneto, and then to Both again, check the primer to make sure it is secure, play with the throttle and mixture, turn on the electric fuel pump, and then the carb heat. All the while you've got to watch outside and make sure you're setting up correctly. Once you reach the "point of no return", you put yourself on the emergency frequency and make a call out, then squawk 7700, make sure everyone's got their belts tight, make sure they take off their glasses, and prepare for a set down. You loosen the door to get ready to hop out of the plane if you have to.

After the demonstration, he pulls out and then it's my turn. I do pretty well, and after the sprinklers in the field that I chose are looking mighty close to me, we throttle up and climb back out.

I've got to get past the sensation of the ground rushing towards me. When you reach a certain point as you're descending, the ground really starts to feel like it's rushing up. I have to learn to not let that bother me.

Here's just a simple panoramic video of the cockpit in flight.

Next, Jim puts me under the hood for a flight back to the airport on instruments only. As we're flying I note that we're getting a lot of calls to watch out for traffic in our area. Jim calls out each one that he sees, and then he claps his hands and says, take off the hood for a second, you have to see this!


We got buzzed by a couple of C-130's going out to practice. They were a lot closer then they appear in this picture. (You can click on the picture to enlarge it, and then come back to my blog.)

After that, I put the hood back on and Jim directed my heading back to the midfield point in the pattern at the airport. I took the hood off and then snapped a couple more pictures as we were approaching.




We landed nicely, and then taxied back and tied down. Again, what a beautiful day. Hard to ask for a better one.

And thanks, Jim, for all your patience.


My next lesson was going to be the 17th, but when I got to the airport a storm cell was moving toward us, and it just wasn't good to fly. Jim showed me the flight planning room at the Jackson Jet Center, and then we talked about what the next lesson would be about, which was ground reference maneuvers. Ground reference maneuvers consist of rectangular patterns, S-turns, and turns around a point.

My Lesson 5 does start on the following Friday, the 19th, with Ryan Pike.

Lesson 3

October 12th

This lesson occurs on a cloudy day at about 11 in the morning. It's sprinkling softly, but otherwise, it's not too bad. The wind seems pretty calm. Today I meet Ryan Pike, another instructor. Before the flight we spend some time in the office talking about what was going to happen that day, basically going over what I had read and what Cammie had taught.

Now it's time for flight. We head back out to the plane, and I do the preflight pretty much on my own. I'm feeling great about it, and that I can accomplish the whole thing without needing shadowed. Ryan does still quiz me about some items on the checklist.

Next comes buckle in, checklists, SAFEST (which I'm still working on, for some reason I feel embarrassed to say the passenger checklist in front of an instructor... but I'll get it), ATIS, and then communications. This time I get to do Clearance, and then Ground. I managed to successfully pull off Clearance this time, but when it came to Ground, I botched it a little on the read back, and had to redo it. I'll get it!

Take off, which I'm doing more of by myself now, and flight to the south practice area. A review of slow flight and then on to the stalls. Now after reading about auto rotation in a helicopter, and thinking I WAS going to have to do that, I look at stalls in a fixed wing plane as no problem. And they aren't. Didn't even get nervous. After my third Power Off stall I managed to keep the altitude well enough to proceed to Power On stalls. (Power Off stalls mimic the kind of stall you might experience on landing, whereas a Power On stall mimics the kind of stall you might experience on take-off.) We never could get the Archer to Power On stall all the way, but we did get the stall horn to come on and a little tail buffeting to appear.

The whole idea about teaching stalls isn't about teaching stalls, it's about the recovery of the stall. I can tell we'll be reviewing this in lessons to come.

This had to be the smoothest flight in this plane yet. No turbulence today, the air was calm.

Flying back Ryan shows me a "Slip" upon landing, then we taxi back and tie down. No real surprises this flight. We then go back into the office for a post flight discussion.

Lesson 4 is the 13th, at 8 in the morning.

Lesson 2

October 3rd

Lesson 2 starts out well enough, but has an exciting ending.

Another fairly nice evening, with some Cumulonimbus cloud formations in the area. A very three dimensional sky this night.

I've now got most of my flight training books, and my own nice aviation headset. I picked up a 30 3G by LIGHTSPEED. Can you believe these newer headsets are coming with cell phone and ipod hookups? That's amazing. I like the color too.


Again, Jim and I meet and then head out to the plane. We walk through the Jackson Jet Center for the second time (which feels weird, it's a nice place), and out onto the tarmack. We get to the plane, and then I take the preflight checklist and go through it with him shadowing, quizzing me on why I was doing certain things. Next it's into the plane, buckle up, run the before engine start checklist, then the starting engine checklist, and get ATIS. Now it's my turn to try calling on the radio. I get to try calling for clearance. Of course I get nervous and botch it a little. "Boise Clearance, this is uh, Cherokee 43839, for VFR to... (mumbles to self where was I going? Oh, whoops, still have the radio keyed, unkey and look at Jim red faced) Jim looks at me, and says "To the south practice area with Information Echo". Oh yeah! I key up the mike again and say what I was supposed to say.

It does get a little easier in time, especially when I find out later that everybody makes mistakes.

So we taxi, takeoff, and get out to the practice area. Out here I get to learn about slow flight, and we have some interesting turbulence, but not bad. Slow flight is also called "Flight at Approach Speed" because you're basically practicing flying the aircraft if it were on approach, slowly, with the flaps down, in the maximum drag configuration. It was interesting experiencing the flight controls become "mushy". It also took less work to turn.

Now, time to get back to the airport. This is where things get interesting. All of a sudden little Boise Airport is pretending to be Seattle. Lots of traffic.

As we enter midfield the Air Traffic Controller tells us to do some 360's (turn small circles in the sky) until he can slip us in the line of traffic coming in. After several turns, he asks us to head in on the base following a Lear Jet. At this point I can see several more lights in the sky coming at me of which we would slip in front of, and some of them look big! The ATC continues to give us approach speeds and tells us to hang back, etc, and then all of a sudden he goes "Cherokee 43839, this isn't working, just get in here as fast as you can!"

Jim takes the controls as we're both a little nervous, and proceeds to try to run it in and slip it as fast as he can. However, when you're in an Archer and you have several airliners behind you, even though you're coming in as fast as you can it's like being on a motor scooter on an expressway.

We land, we breath a sigh of relief.

Now a small plane like an Archer can pretty much land and stop on a dime compared to the big jets, so we were taking our right off the runway in a jiffy. We pull up and stop at the next taxiway intersection, and listen to a 737 rumble and land behind us. We get clearance to turn left and head back to parking. Meanwhile the 737 makes HIS right turn near the end of the runway, and then gets clearance to take a right. Get that? We got clearance to take a left, he got clearance to take a right. We're on the SAME taxiway.

Next thing I know I'm staring down the barrel of a 737, going, "Uh, Jim? Shouldn't we contact Ground?" "Yeah, I think so." "Ground, Cherokee 43839, uh.... " The Ground ATC comes back, "Cherokee 43839, please pull off onto the ramp as soon as possible!! I appreciate that! Thanks for the heads up!"

We pull off, watch the 737 trundle by, and then continue on our way, with yet another thanks from the ATC. We taxi to parking and tie up.

Wow, what a night. At least I know I'm not the only one that makes mistakes. Everyone does and we're all in it together.

My next lesson is a Ground Lesson with Cammie on the 10th. We spend some time talking about slow flight and stalls before I would have my Lesson 3, which is on the 12th. She's a good instructor, and very matter of fact.

Lesson 1

October 1st

Wow, the big day. Lesson numero uno.

It took some time to figure out a flight school, but upon recommendations I interviewed and then selected Glass Cockpit Aviation. Mainly because of the stories I've heard about Cammie Patch, and I figured if she was good, then the instructors were good, and the school was good as well.

I had glossed over the idea of becoming a helicopter pilot previously, and I had taken an introduction flight as well as ordered the books for that. But, the time and cost it would take was something I just didn't have right now. Maybe in the future. For now, fixed wing it is. (FWIW, Aviation Specialties Unlimited would be a really good school to learn how to fly choppers!)

I met up with Jim Adkins, my new instructor at Glass Cockpit at about 5:30 in the evening. We filled some things out, and then headed out to the plane.

Walking out to the tarmack brought back some childhood memories, and woke some feelings as well. To be up close with a plane again. Nice.

My training was to be done in a Piper Archer II (Cherokee 181). A red and white plane with a plush red interior, where the front two seats were covered with gray wool seat covers.




I spent some time learning the preflight procedure and then got to sit in the left seat. I felt like a monkey crawling into the seat, then figuring out what to do with myself. We went through checklists, and Jim explained everything. Then the time came to turn the key. Whoa! There really is nothing quite like listening to the starter catch and the engine fire in a propeller aircraft. It even shook the plane!

I have to memorize something called SAFEST. It's the procedure you give out to passengers.

S - Seatbelts (..push tab a into slot b... need a script here)
A - Air Vents (...and here's our air vents. There's two here, here, here, and here. To open these on the top you push, and to close them you pull on this knob here..)
F - Fire Extinguisher (...our fire extinguisher is right here under the right side of the dash, you press on this red lever to release it..)
E - Emergency Exits (...to open this door you would push up on this lever and then turn the lever at the top to open, we can kick out the windows if we have to, and the storage compartment door...)
S - Sick Sacks and Safety Kit (... If you feel you are going to be sick, there's sick sacks behind the seat.... and the safety kit is in the storage area...)
T - Traffic (...I'd like you as passengers to help me identify traffic in the sky... please call them out in a clock style fashion, ie: 9 o'clock, 12 o'clock, 3 o'clock and if they're above or below the horizon...)

For this flight Jim managed the radios, and once he called Clearance, he said, ok, your plane. Taxi us out. Who? Me? What? Taxi? Ok, cool, I think I can handle this! I got us rolling and then realized the rudder pedals had a long throw. Boy, that takes some effort. (I figure out how to make this easier later on, by scooting my seat up and forward more, but I still need to work on better leg muscles.) We contact Ground, taxi for a run-up and then out to the runway, then get Tower to give us permission to take off, and we roll out. Jim helps me get centered on the runway, and then tells me to throttle up! Away we go! Rotate at 60kts. The wheels are off the ground! What a feeling.

This flight basically consisted of learning straight and level, and some of the other basics such as procedures and checklists.

The return to the airport came all too soon. He had me head back, and get lined up, and then he brought her in. I then taxied back to parking. Tying the plane down I kept thinking about what we did, and what I'd have to learn for the next flight, and how to work out my schedule to get the next one in the soonest I could. It was dusk now, and as we were walking away, I looked back, thinking how beautiful the planes looked in the dying light.

My first lesson went really well. My second lesson was October 3rd, the following Wednesday.

Prelude

Ok, so a recap.

In the beginning, there was air. Then, man created airplanes. Soon after, Heather was born.

Heh.

Ok, a little history.

I like anything having to do with flight. I've wanted to fly since I knew what flying was. I used to dream flying dreams (I still do) where I'd run as fast as I could, then jump, stick my arms out, and fly. I used to put plywood and wood 2x4's as wings on a push cart, and we'd take turns pushing each other as fast as we could down the road. My father made me a tall tree-swing down the drive at a house in Issaquah, and I'd spend hours just swinging and dreaming of flying around and visiting all my friends. I used to jump off the house with a sheet (don't do that, sheets ALWAYS come out of your hands, and you hit the ground).

I got into trouble once when I was about 8 or 9; I used to go to job sites with my father, who was a framer. There was a boy who used to go with his father, as well. Well... one day we meandered our way across the neighborhood and out to a field where we came across something out of a dream. Planes! Apparently this was a grass strip runway. Well, to get to the gist of it, later on we were inside a Cessna, buckling up, trying to figure out how to start it, getting out the maps, and I had just found the keys when a tapping comes on the window. Whoops! The man, also very furious at our attempt to use the Schweizer glider that was next to the Cessna as a teeter-totter, drove us sulking in the back seat to our fathers.

I built models, MANY models. I built RC planes. I used to climb to the top of a tree that was next to our house in Sea-tac with a world band radio so I could watch the planes take off from the Airport and listen to them.

Then...

Life priorities change. I got cancer. I grew up. I started working. I got married. I got into 4 wheeling, and many other hobbies.

Well, I couldn't stand it any more. I've let a lot of my life go by without pursuing my dream of flight. So, I decided to make it happen.

On October 1st, this year, I took my first lesson.

Wow! The journey of flight has begun officially!

Yay! A Blog!

A little late, I wanted to do this when I took my FIRST lesson, but I'm only halfway done with my 5th (I'll explain the half part later), so I have time to do some catching up. This is my first attempt at a blog, wow, time to catch up with the rest of the world, huh?

More to come soon!