February 16, 2006
Under the hood!
I don't like it! At least not any more. Earlier on it seemed easy enough. On the recent lessons, I got a terrible case of leans. I felt that the plane was tilted a lot towards the left. Interestingly, this feeling was not present before; I only started having it in the recent flights. I also came to know that my instructor carries a barf bag in his flight bag. He tells me stories of a poor chap who lost it on short final. The poor fella went 'your plane' on short final and made a mess.
For me, the unusual attitudes ones was really bad. With eyes closed and chin on the shoulder, I just could not tell where we were headed. Not to mention that staying under the hood my mouth goes ultra dry. I've heard that it goes away with practice. The body gets used to the upheavals and stops complaining. I guess that is still quite a way off. Any advice on how to cope till then?
The unusual attitudes lessons was an interesting one. Its only the second time that I have been in a rapidly descending scenario, the first being emergency descents. Well, in an emergency descent you initiate the dive. In the unusual attitudes, you look up, still disoriented and see the plane going down. To save yourself, you have to the save the aircraft, so in the nose down scenario, you take care that the load factor does not exceed the limits. Power to idle gets rid of the thrust which is increasing your velocity. Then the wings are leveled since any bank adds to the load factor. Finally, you gently pull up or let the plane come up on its own and resume level flight and climb(if required). The other scenario, nose up, comes down to preventing a stall. So full power and lower the nose at the same time as leveling the wings out. The only catch to both these scenarios, you only get a couple of seconds when you look up to react. Practice, practice, practice!!!!!
For me, the unusual attitudes ones was really bad. With eyes closed and chin on the shoulder, I just could not tell where we were headed. Not to mention that staying under the hood my mouth goes ultra dry. I've heard that it goes away with practice. The body gets used to the upheavals and stops complaining. I guess that is still quite a way off. Any advice on how to cope till then?
The unusual attitudes lessons was an interesting one. Its only the second time that I have been in a rapidly descending scenario, the first being emergency descents. Well, in an emergency descent you initiate the dive. In the unusual attitudes, you look up, still disoriented and see the plane going down. To save yourself, you have to the save the aircraft, so in the nose down scenario, you take care that the load factor does not exceed the limits. Power to idle gets rid of the thrust which is increasing your velocity. Then the wings are leveled since any bank adds to the load factor. Finally, you gently pull up or let the plane come up on its own and resume level flight and climb(if required). The other scenario, nose up, comes down to preventing a stall. So full power and lower the nose at the same time as leveling the wings out. The only catch to both these scenarios, you only get a couple of seconds when you look up to react. Practice, practice, practice!!!!!
February 11, 2006
Solo Solo
My first Solo Solo. That is the one where I pull the aircraft from the hangar on my own. Brian was flying with another student that day, so I met him in the morning and got my clearance to fly. The day was another of those rare events where you can see till infinity. Being the first, I decided to just go to the practice area and fly around looking at the map. The air was silk smooth and I flew hands free. Did the checklists!!! For a change it was nice to do everything right(since there is no one to tell me otherwise). After a bit of fooling around the area, I decided to practice something. Did some clearing turns and enter slow flight, follow that up with more clearing turns and a power on stall. More clearing turns and end with a steep turn to the left.
Next came some ground reference maneuvers. The turns around a point is still something that I find quite hard to do. In variably I mess something or the other. I am at point where I am little scared of them. Hopefully more practice and I should improve. Ended this flight with a nice landing. Oh yes, I had fun! About 20 minutes after me, Brian landed with the other student. I had to push the 152 out for them to park next to the fueling rig. Looking at me, he says,"So I take it that your flight was a success." That sums it up for me.
The second solo solo was just the next day. A nice day with high clouds and visibility (infinity-1). Brian was out of town so I got my ok from another CFI who took a mini interview and checked my paperwork. Up I go, do the checklists, clearing turns and a power off stall. Oops! A little too much nose down. More clearing turns and steep turns. Both sides. Down to the points around a turn. Today they are worse than ever. I give up after a while and head back. Nice landing, so I decide to do one more. Tower tells me to switch to ground. I tune the frequency, but do not switch yet because I am still on the active. Cross the hold line and do my checklists. Call ground, but am still on the tower frequency. Even as I am talking, I realize I am on tower and end meekly with a 'sorry tower.' Without giving them a change to say anything, I switch to ground and call them. Offcourse from my ATC trip, I know that they sit right next to each other.
Taxiback and around the patter we go. Come back, refuel and notice Aaron is preflighting the 182. I ask him if he is alone and does he mind company. So I get to ride in the 182. Park the 152 in the hangar and buckle up in the 182. Just as the engine starts, I realize I have forgotten to inform the CFI that I am back safely. Aaron helps me and switches off, so I go inform the CFI and up we go. The 182 has so much more space than the 152. I could actually flex my legs in there. We fly a short hop to a grass strip and land there. My first experience of landing on a grass strip. Back taxi on the grass and up we go again. A roundabout route back home. A touch and go and around the pattern. The pattern is crowded like anything. We extend both out upwind by 2 miles and downwind by 5 miles. No fun, so we make a full stop landing.
Flying is fun no doubt, but there are times when I enjoy sitting in the best seat and not have to think about anything. Just enjoy the view.
Next came some ground reference maneuvers. The turns around a point is still something that I find quite hard to do. In variably I mess something or the other. I am at point where I am little scared of them. Hopefully more practice and I should improve. Ended this flight with a nice landing. Oh yes, I had fun! About 20 minutes after me, Brian landed with the other student. I had to push the 152 out for them to park next to the fueling rig. Looking at me, he says,"So I take it that your flight was a success." That sums it up for me.
The second solo solo was just the next day. A nice day with high clouds and visibility (infinity-1). Brian was out of town so I got my ok from another CFI who took a mini interview and checked my paperwork. Up I go, do the checklists, clearing turns and a power off stall. Oops! A little too much nose down. More clearing turns and steep turns. Both sides. Down to the points around a turn. Today they are worse than ever. I give up after a while and head back. Nice landing, so I decide to do one more. Tower tells me to switch to ground. I tune the frequency, but do not switch yet because I am still on the active. Cross the hold line and do my checklists. Call ground, but am still on the tower frequency. Even as I am talking, I realize I am on tower and end meekly with a 'sorry tower.' Without giving them a change to say anything, I switch to ground and call them. Offcourse from my ATC trip, I know that they sit right next to each other.
Taxiback and around the patter we go. Come back, refuel and notice Aaron is preflighting the 182. I ask him if he is alone and does he mind company. So I get to ride in the 182. Park the 152 in the hangar and buckle up in the 182. Just as the engine starts, I realize I have forgotten to inform the CFI that I am back safely. Aaron helps me and switches off, so I go inform the CFI and up we go. The 182 has so much more space than the 152. I could actually flex my legs in there. We fly a short hop to a grass strip and land there. My first experience of landing on a grass strip. Back taxi on the grass and up we go again. A roundabout route back home. A touch and go and around the pattern. The pattern is crowded like anything. We extend both out upwind by 2 miles and downwind by 5 miles. No fun, so we make a full stop landing.
Flying is fun no doubt, but there are times when I enjoy sitting in the best seat and not have to think about anything. Just enjoy the view.
Modeling for the Flyers
Once bright sunny clear day(a rare event), just before we were about to cram in out 152, me and Brian got a chance to model for the Flyers. There was an aviation convention in Lansing and the club needed some pictures to put up on the booth there. Well, after a dozen or so poses to me trying to look like I am learning something and Brian like he is trying to teach something we were finally let off. A few days later, I actually got to see the large 8x10 prints and boy, they looked nice. The professional photographer, Aaron is also a club member and some days later I got a ride in a big comfortable 182 from him. Here is one of the pictures. Aaron is actually lying flat on the tarmac when he snapped this. Thanks Aaron for the beautiful snap.
February 07, 2006
Using Deepest Sender
Deepest sender is an extension for Mozilla Firefox that lets you post on the most common blogs in a breeze. I am using it for the first time and it really is nice. Saves a lot many clicks to go to the blogger site and post it there. I just dont see a spell check in this window, so please pardon any spelling mistakes. Oh! ... and if you are asking what Mozilla Firefox is, what world are you living in? Get it here, NOW!
February 03, 2006
Progress Check
Now that I got to pull the airplane out of the hangar on my own, I naturally schedule a solo flight. Guess what happens? Ah, you got it, the weather god showed his wrath again and I had to cancel. Thinking back, I guess this one was a nice cancellation. The solo is followed in the Cessna Private Pilot syllabus with a progress check. It is there for a reason. To get the rust off. What happened with me was that after hours and hours in the pattern practicing crosswind landings and preparing for the solo, my skills in the other maneuvers got rusty. So when we went out on the progress check, I was again in the thinking mode where I had to do everything by thinking about them. The natural movements were gone. Off-course I knew what to do, I just had to think harder. Practice, practice and more practice: thats what it comes down to.
Signed off!!! The Supervised Solos
The club requirements require three supervised solos to be signed off. They were literally the same with 4 landings to a full stop with the instructor followed by yours truly attempting the controlled crashes. During my second solo, just turning final I saw a helicopter just off my right wing. I thought that it was pretty close and the controller actually called out traffic for the helicopter. She then called the traffic for me when I was trying to establish myself on the final. A little shaken, I could have still made it but I called a go around. I do not fancy landing with a helicopter going parallel with me. I guess that was probably the most interesting incident of the second solo. I did asked whether I needed assistance as I called my go around.
The day of my scheduled third solo, the wind were cross with me and the runway, so instead of going out for my solo, we went to Plymouth and did some soft and short field takeoffs and landings. This time I was comfortable doing the
radio calls as well as flying the plane. Last time at an uncontrolled field, I stalled on the mike and kept flying the plane with the finger on the ptt. The poor radio had to be rescued by my instructor.
Finally the actual day of the third solo turned out to be very nice. On my second approach, the aircraft just dint want to come down. On short final, I was a little high and plane just hung up there, power to idle had no effect. I thought about going full but by that time was almost over the touch down point, so I called a go around. A nice touchdown a little later and I was signed off to pull the aircraft out of the hangar on my own.
The day of my scheduled third solo, the wind were cross with me and the runway, so instead of going out for my solo, we went to Plymouth and did some soft and short field takeoffs and landings. This time I was comfortable doing the
radio calls as well as flying the plane. Last time at an uncontrolled field, I stalled on the mike and kept flying the plane with the finger on the ptt. The poor radio had to be rescued by my instructor.
Finally the actual day of the third solo turned out to be very nice. On my second approach, the aircraft just dint want to come down. On short final, I was a little high and plane just hung up there, power to idle had no effect. I thought about going full but by that time was almost over the touch down point, so I called a go around. A nice touchdown a little later and I was signed off to pull the aircraft out of the hangar on my own.
Moving along...........
In between my last posts, quite a bit has happened. Looking back it took ages to log the first 10 hours. The total on my (now) fourth page of my logbook is nearly 40 hours. That is quite a bit. Off-course the money added up quickly too. I got through with my two others supervised solos unscathed with decent to good landings. I thus got signed off for unsupervised solos and did venture out twice on my own. I thought I would be scared, but I was not. Details on these coming in individual posts.
