The Doctor's Lair

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.

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.

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.

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.

After setting up the Control Tower feed, I am still waiting for it to show up on the liveatc website so I can hear myself. Well, that has not happened, so I figure out a way to record the feed on my server. The only problem is that if the feed breaks, the recording stops and does not resume. I did manage about 20 minutes of recording. I started the recording just before my flight. So you hear a couple of call from me. I am posting a bunch of files. The first is just the two calls from me cut out from the whole audio. The second is the full audio. My calls are at 12:15 and 19:45 in the audio file. The third is the full audio but the silent parts cut out. Its if you just want to listen how one of the controllers at Ann Arbor sound. In that file you can hear me at 4:05 and just before 5 minutes.

Here is the transcript:
1) Before Taxi -
# Ann Arbor ground, Cessna three three three Uniform Mike, northwest Tees, ready to taxi, information whiskey
# three Uniform Mike, Ann Arbor ground, taxi to runway two four
# Taxi to runway two four for three three three Uniform Mike

2) After pre-takeoff checklists and standing just short of the runway
# Ann Arbor tower, Cessna three three three Uniform, runway two four, ready for takeoff, northbound.
# three Uniform Mike, Ann Arbor tower, cleared for takeoff, right turn approved.
# cleared for takeoff, right turn approved, three Uniform Mike

Well, a little easier, but still something that gives most flyers some work to do. Flew again to Livingston County airport with a perpendicular crosswind of 12kts. This time, it was much better. I actually made a couple of smooth landings and did hold the nose up and not bang it down
on the runway. After 7 landings we actually did a full stop and went to the terminal building and got a soft drink. Ah, hopefully my first $200 drink. The original term is the $100 burger. Its when you fly some distance, eat a burger, have a picnic and head home.

Oh, how the seasons change! From the joyful colours of fall time to the silver cover of winter. See yourself and compare the view from our balcony.


Photos curtsey my roommate Somesh.

December 11th - Not fun at all. My first time in a decent crosswind. It was 15kts at an angle of 60 degress or so. Thats comes to a 13 knot crosswind. My approaches were not that bad, I just happend to throw the plane into the ground in the last final seconds. Everything goes haywire, I overcorrect and finally slam the mains followed by the nose on the ground. Not pretty and I am sure the plane does not like it too.

My checkride got preponed to friday and hopefully the weather will hold up. With the checkride out of the way, hopefully I will solo soon. Everybody keep their fingers crossed for better weather.