Virtual Pilotage

So here I am, in between lessons, thinking maybe I ought to share one of the things I do in my spare time. I fly virtually, using Microsoft Flight Simulator X. My flight controls are a CH Products Flight Sim Yoke, and their Pro Pedals.

FSX is a good tool to learn instruments with, as well as some ATC methods and ideals. It's not so good to learn VFR with because you can't "feel" anything, but it CAN help get your steps down for pattern flying, ground reference maneuvers, etcetera. If anything, you can get a little bit of "armchair" flying out of it.

But you have to have a good model to use in the game. Since I fly an Archer II, I wanted something realistic, something where my checklists would work, I could transfer over what I used in the game to real life.

After trying several "free" downloads of Piper Archers and Cherokees, I came across the "payware" Carenado Piper Archer II. This is a great model. Everything works. Click on a picture for a larger size.





This model is 17.00 from Carenado. It's worth it. You do truly get what you pay for. Sure, free models are good for the most part, but finding free "complete" models are few and far between.

Ok, now back to our regularly scheduled studying and working.

More Review

November 23rd

I was able to turn in my first multiple choice exam - and received a 91%! I know it should have been 100%, I mean, it was open book and all. I just missed a couple of concepts.

Well, it was still cold, but we met at noon, and by then most of the ice was off the Archer. We were going to fly! Whoohoo.

Today was going to be a review - slow flight, stalls, steep turns, and then touch and goes. Because the last three times I had seen my instructor had been on the ground - today was a bit difficult. It really DOES make a difference to make sure you have lessons as often as possible. Things stay fresh in your mind.

Preflight. Today the Archer needed a quart of oil, and it was my job to put it in. Ryan said there was a funnel in the back of the plane, in the storage box in the baggage compartment. So in future, a funnel consists of another old plastic oil quart, cut in half, then attached to something that looks like one of those old McDonald's Popoids happy meal toys. You then put this popoid and half bottle into the spout where the dipstick is attached (taking out the dipstick first of course) and then pour in said needed quart of oil. This works well, except, don't cut your finger on the access door on the cowling in the process. (Actually, whoever thought up reusing an old quart as a funnel came up with a pretty darn good idea.)

SAFETY, checklists, and then the engine doesn't turn over. Ryan has to go out and attack the starter with a bit of WD-40, and finally we're ready to roll. We taxied, performed the run-up, and took off. Today was one of those rare days that we were able to take off to the west - from 28R. Maybe it's not so rare, but I don't get to do it that much.

Well, things were going smoothly until my steep turns. I got a little anxious and couldn't perform them correctly. It seems when I get anxious, I get behind the ball, and I can't catch back up. The rest of the flight lesson is pretty much shot for that day. All of a sudden it seems like I have too much to do, and I fumble around figuring out how to put it all back in order again.

So of course anxious steep turns begets botched engine out emergency procedure training, which begets disoriented touch and goes in Nampa.

One GOOD thing came out of this, I figured out how to self announce on Nampa's CTAF.

At the end, when we were landing back in Boise, Ryan decides to try a sort of "test" with me. He manages the throttle, tells me I'm managing the yoke, and the idea is to keep afloat as long as possible before touching down. "Don't touch! Don't touch! Don't TOUCH!"

And here Heather manages to oscillate up and down and up and down until about halfway down the runway when she touches down because she went back UP too hard.

GAH. I thought this whole learning to fly thing was going to be easier for me. Any one out there got any meditation or thinking-straight tips for when I get behind the ball? Maybe a little Rob Schneider:

"You can do it!"

Uh huh.

Ryan says next time is ground on Chapter 6 in the book, and then maybe some more touch and go practice. I'm not sure when my next lesson will be, but I assume it'll be the week of the 26th through the 30th.

Darn Frost.

November 21st

Yes, I knew it would be cold. Yes, I had an idea that the airplane would be frosty... but I didn't think about how long it might take to clean off... or any other complications thereafter.

Look! Brrr!




Anyway, we used some de-icer in a weed sprayer bottle, some rags, and a squeegee, but it was so cold that when wiped, what was wet was freezing. When we finally got it cleaned off good enough, we climbed in thinking I might have some time for a couple touch and goes, and maybe a stall or two.

But, it appears the Archer was still asleep this morning. We couldn't get the engine to fire. We got it close a couple of times, but soon we were dumping fuel out the exhaust and since we'd have to wait for it to evaporate, we had to call it. Oh well.

I'll get a flight on Friday, November 23rd.

More Ground, Chapters 4-5

November 20th

Well I didn't get to go flying today, all because of these guys:



Sooo... we did some more ground. We covered the rest of Chapter 4, and then went through Chapter 5. These went pretty fast for me.

An old acquaintance of my husband's was there today, Mike Spinosa. Mike worked with my husband at an internet service while he was in the early stages of his flight training. He took us both up once a while back, and then took my husband up to tag along for a bumpy IFR training flight. Mike has since progressed to flight instructor stage, and is working at Turbo Air flying King Airs currently. It looks like he's working on some more instructor time. That's cool. Maybe I can get an hour or two with him sometime.

Before leaving today I was given one of a few multiple choice exams to complete. No written yet, soon, I hope!

I failed to mention that I went to my first meeting with the Ninety-Nines local chapter on November 8th. I'm excited for future meetings with them, it was very neat to be able to talk to other women in aviation and share experiences, as well as learn a bit about them.

My next lesson will be tomorrow, November 21st in the morning. I'm pretty sure we'll be flying. And I'm pretty sure it's going to be COLD!

Postponing the solo??

November 15th

Ryan and I talked about how the training was going to advance from this point. We decided to get all caught up on Ground before I'd solo. So, using the Jeppesen Private Pilot textbook, we covered Chapter 2. It took me a little bit for this, even though I had re-read the chapter before we met.

I have to figure out how to re-train my brain to retain information out of a textbook like I did as a kid in school. Also, when asked a question I could see it in my head but I couldn't get it out.

Today we spent almost two hours going over that information, and then we were able to go up in the air.

We practiced more ground reference maneuvers and I got some more under the hood time. The landing and flare today back into Boise was beautiful. Ryan helped a little, by only putting a little pressure on the yoke at the right time.

So now, Ryan says that my flying is coming along fine, it's just the ground I need.

Friday the 16th

This time I spent my lesson on the ground, it was a gloomy rainy low cloud day anyway, and I got lesson 3 and most of 4 covered and out of the way. Today was better. I had spent more time at home preparing myself for the chapters and the review with Ryan.

My next ground, possible flight lesson will take place on Tuesday, November 20th. I'm to study the rest of Lesson 4 and Lesson 5. I also have to study the FAR's, areas of parts 61 and 91.

Kudos to BFG Tech

I just wanted to say before I head out to my flight today, that I appreciate BFG Technologies customer service and RMA department.

I have been held up from playing my Flight Simulator X because of a crazy video card. I had a BFG NVIDIA 7900 GT OC, and recently I started noticing weird artifacts and polygons in anything intensive. I had problems with Battlefield 2, Supreme Commander, and of course FSX. What really irritated me was that in FSX it got to the point that it was unplayable, sometimes I'd see half my plane, sometimes I'd get a big black polygon right outside my window. Of course, maybe I could have used it to my advantage to learn more instrument skills, but that's not the point. Hah.

Then the straw broke the camel's back. I got artifacts on my POST screen, when I rebooted my computer. So I called up BFG, and after hearing that, had me send my video card to them via RMA. The guy on the phone was NOT from India! And he was very nice and understanding.

Well yesterday I got a package from them, and they sent me a replacement card. But the new card is an 8600GTS OC! Yay! It's a tiny step up, but at least it's this year's model. And I could run Direct-X 10 on it if I had Vista. Cool.

Thanks BFG! You did good work!

Lesson...?

OK, so I guess I should stop with the "Lesson numbers" for now. Basically these next few sessions are supposed to just be all about getting me ready for my solo endorsement.

Another issue has arisen, and that is that Ryan is going to be my new main instructor. Ryan has quite a bit more availability, and that will help me to get my license faster. I will miss flights with Jim, and hope I can gather some in the future.

Because of this Ryan will have to do a review of my skills, and we've also decided to do some ground lessons before our flights in the future. I think I'll appreciate this as it will help some of the ground items that I learn stick in my head better.

As for progress, I think I'm about 3 flights away from my solo, so I'll of course keep you updated on that.

I had a flight with Ryan (before I knew about the instructor change) on November 7th in the middle of the day. Let's go to that.

November 7th

Today I met Ryan at the Archer. We were going to practice steep turns, more pattern work and landing approaches today. Preflight, SAFETY (which is going better), checklists, ATIS, radio work, taxi out. Here's a neat picture of us holding short on the runway.


We took off and headed out to the practice area to work on "Steep Turns". Here's a couple of pictures from today I snapped while heading out to the practice area. Yes, another nice day!



I had taken some relatively steep turns when I was practicing my ground reference maneuvers, but today we were going to focus on it. The idea is to do a steep - 45 degree banked 360 rotation, holding the same altitude, and rolling out on your same heading that you started with. It's not as easy as it sounds. When you reach the 45 degree mark on your bank, the plane wants to keep rolling over. You have to put a little back pressure on the yoke. The issue is that when you put back pressure on the yoke, you might shallow your bank, and you will start to climb in altitude. When you steepen your bank, it's possible that you pass up 45 degrees and get to 50, and then you lose altitude. Not to mention that there are about 1.5G's pushing down on you from time to time. This can get a little interesting feeling, although it didn't bother me too much. What you want is to complete the 360 smoothly, without a lot of up and down oscillations.

Here is a bland video showing a complete steep turn to the left, and then one to the right.

After the steep turn practice we headed to Caldwell airport to practice landing approaches and touch and goes. This was just more of me behind the ball. I still had trouble with the flare, and I still had trouble with my climb airspeed. Pattern work is tough for me. It seems there is so much to do, then you just get done doing what you were supposed to do, then it's time to do it again to land, then time to do it again to take off again and go around the horn. Practice, practice, practice! I also set the camera on the dash for some touch and goes. Here's the video.

Next it was time to head back to Boise. I actually pulled the flare off in Boise pretty much by myself, and I have video of it, but the camera is in a bad spot and you see more dash than nose of plane or runway. I'll get better video next time.

We did have another lesson on Thursday, the 8th, but it ended up being ground, and we played some "catch up" as that was when I learned that Ryan would be my new main instructor.

I think my next lesson will be this coming Thursday, November 15th, from 11-2.

Landing Approaches

November 2nd

I DID try to get a lesson on Thursday, the 1st, but when I got there the Archer was MIA. It was still in for maintenance. So, I had to wait until Friday.

On Friday, when I got there the Archer was just coming back into it's service and the owner was taking it for a test flight. It was a pretty day, and we walked out on the tarmac to wait for the owner.

Here are some pictures and a simple panoramic video of the ramp area that I took when it arrived. Yep, more A-10's playing around today.






Today (Friday) was going to be all about landings. Setting up in the pattern, and then landing. I had practiced most of this with Jim on Monday, but I have to keep practicing until I can get it down, so I can get an endorsement to Solo.

We got ready to go, and I picked up a different version of SAFEST called SAFETY, which is what the FAA uses, and I felt more comfortable doing that. I added seat position information, as well as the rules for talking, and the "sterile cockpit environment" information to my passenger brief. I like the Y part in SAFETY because it helps me remember to ask my passengers: "anY questions?"

We cleared an issue we saw during the run-up dealing with too much loss of RPMS on the left magneto, and then we took off and headed to Nampa. I called almost all radio, except for the Nampa traffic again because I was too focused on getting my steps right and flying the pattern.

We ran the pattern, did approaches and touch and goes. I think we went around about nine times. Each time I felt like I was getting better in one thing, and then messing up in another. For example, at first I had issues with flaring. I got that right, and then I couldn't quite get my climb airspeed correct on the way back out. Then, I got that right, and then I messed up on my altitude and didn't turn in time, or I got that right and messed up on my turn from base to final, or something else. I even brought the camera to get some footage in the plane, but I didn't even get it out.

At the end before Ryan said "let's head back" I was getting fairly mentally tired. I felt like I was fighting myself too much. What a tough night. At the second to last climb out from the touch and go I found myself too focused inside the cockpit and not enough outside.

I can tell I need more practice, maybe next time I'll get it straight.

I haven't scheduled my next lesson yet, but I'm going to assume I'll have to fly during the workweek this week.