The Doctor's Lair

I have made it to a blogroll. How about that? I have been added to the crew members of ifrpilot. Do check out his blog!

The Chief CFI of our club was talking about relations between CFIs and students. His point being that they may both be very nice people but just might not get well along together. The teaching style might not suit the student, the learning style might not suit the teacher. Whatever the reason might be, he said, its your money and if you are not doing well, change your instructor, etc. etc.

My reply,

"Can I please change my weather god? We don't go well together."

As promised in the solo post, here is the details for the single laps trips we did and
also for the mis-spellings of weeks in the previous post. I was scheduled for my pre-solo checkride december the 16th(friday). That din't happen! It was the weather god. I finally got through the pre-solo checkride on monday the 19th. The next thing offcourse was the solo. I schedule for the 21st. Conditions really early were ok to good but they were deteriorating slowly. Anyway we go up hoping to beat the weather. Right on the climbout, the ceiling goes IFR. You can hear the full version here or the cut version here.

Then came the christmas break and I had a nice trip to chicago. Coming back monday, I scheduled every day of the week to get something in. All wiped out. Friday was a chance. Up we go again and it happens yet again. Hear it again. Full and cut.

Finally it happens, after weeeks and weeeeeeeeks of dismal poor visibility low ceilings weather. Not to mention two single lap flights that we did(details on those in some future posts). This time, a picture perfect day, a bright n sunny one sandwitched between days of gray. Looking at my previous luck, chances were good that a cloud would settle just over the airport just as we took off for the first time. That din't happen and neither did I crash, so I made it thought my first solo alive and a fuel spill. Here is the full tale:

Weather looking good, I reach the airport and spy at least two aircraft in the pattern,so I guess it is going to be busy up there. I drive in to the club following N333UM, the very plane I was going to fly(see the photos). The first part of this flight when you go up with your instructor and do four landings to a full stop. My awesome instructor is Brian Lantis.

Up we go without too much fuss. Going around, there is a slight crosswind but nothing too much to worry about. The landings are not that bad: at least they would have been ok with Brian because he let me solo. On the fourth circuit, I was fully expecting an engine out and a short approach, but that did not happen, it was just another normal landing(actually no landings are normal). We then taxied back to the hangars where Brian signed the required paperwork and off I went. Quite apprehensive on the taxi, I forgot all about it when I opened the throttle for takeoff. But before that, there was this Bonanza behind me who called for takeoff before me. Pray how was he going to get to the runway before me. So I caused a hetrodyne on the frequency and said I am before on the Bonanza holding short on runway two four. Oh! hear it all on the recorded audio, links and details are below.

First circuit, was told to extend downwind for a Bonanza coming from north somewhere; I just played it safe and asked the sweet controller to call my base. A minute or so later, I see this plane do a nice turn off my left wing. For a few seconds I just watch the beautiful sight on the nice sunny day and then it hits me: This is the traffic I have to follow! So I call the traffic and behind it I go. Coming in to land, its right in the sun and I have a little difficulty seeing the airspeed. The hard part is seeing the glideslope VASI, I cannot make out the red from the white in the glare. So I just keep it high glancing now and then at the trees below me. Making sure that they are down there and not next to my wingtips. Landing into the sun I level and flare a little high, get hung up there and come down with a bang. A little shaken, I go wow! My first all me landing! Not pretty at all. Taxi out and do the checklist, thinking whether to go again or back when the controller says to taxi runway two four. In a way she made the decision for me.

Being sunny I had kept my sunglasses with me and I swapped them on while taxing. That did help with the sun a lot and the next two landings were much better. I was very high on the second approach so pulled power back, put in all flaps and dove for the numbers. The flare and touchdown were non-life-threatening this time. On the third approach, the sun was much lower and right in front. But this time the approach was good, a little high, but good. There was another cessna that had landed right in front of me. I heard the controller call them to clear the runway, no delay. On short final, they were still on the runway and I was all prepared for a go around call. They turned off when I was maybe 40-50 feet and air and I landed.

It all happened very quickly. Before I knew it, I had managed to do three landings. Interestingly, all apprehension left as I hit the throttle. From that point it was all concentration. Time flew by! I felt working all the time, but surprisingly did not feel rushed or overworked. Previously there have been times when things happen to quickly, but not today. Hurray!

I taxi back to refuel and I actually did not feel anything. It took quite a while to hit me that I had flown alone. Well the fun started when I was refueling. Filled in the left tank without incident and on the right tank, my finger gets stuck on the nozzle. I pull the nozzle out and its still spewing avgas all over. Wasted a gallon of avgas I guess, do you see that small pool of liquid in the photos? That is not melted snow, it is aviation gasoline! I am just glad the incident was on the ground and not the air.

That is the story!

Oh the audio files, I put them up. Again several versions. The full uncut 90 minutes of drama can be found here. The full but without the silent parts is here(21 minutes). If you want my calls and a few other highlights, here is a 6 minute version. My solo begins just before 3 minutes in the last file. Before that I am with Brian.