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Learning to Fly
(Part 5: Wrapping Things Up)
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First Night Flight (August 1, 2007
9-11 PM)
I did my first night flight after Bible
Study Wednesday night. Met Matt at the airport a few minutes before
9 PM, and we discussed the evening's plans. I had forgotten my
flashlight (DUH) so he loaned me his and I pre-flighted the airplane.
Much to learn in the cockpit about flying at night- much of it is light
management. Keeping light out of YOUR eyes (to protect night vision)
and keeping it out of other pilot's eyes, too.
Hard when you need reading glasses like I do, plus having "old eyes" and
not seeing switches very well. Outside the aircraft- no problem.
First, we taxied down to the end of 22
for my first night takeoff. Winds
were calm, so we could have used any runway. But a plane
before us had landed on 22, so we taxied down and took off. My first
pattern was bad-- I couldn't see
the runways, which were very dim in the midst of all those bright lights
close by, but I kept looking until I finally saw them. So my first
landing pattern was way off, but I managed to muddle through a decent
enough first night landing. Full stop, then we taxied down to the
OTHER end of the runway for a takeoff in the opposite direction, this time
on runway 4. Stayed in the pattern again, doing much better.
Full stop, taxied back and took off again.
After leveling off at 3,500 we did a
slow turn to heading 172 to Winder, only about 15 minutes away.
The air was cooler, but still very humid. No moon, but plenty of
lights on the ground to use for navigation, as well as a compass and GPS.
About halfway there Matt had me practice high-power slow flight, as well
as a power off stall, both of which which were challenging but fun. Didn't
have any troubles there- which is good. High power, slow flight with
extended flaps can be tricky for dweebs like me. Hard to hold course
and altitude. Should have used more power on stall recovery, though-
don't know why I didn't put the throttle all the way in like I was
supposed to.
Found Winder's airport green and white
beacon (using my Mark II eyeballs) no problem, swung to the left while descending to 2,000 feet MSL
and entered a left pattern for runway 13. Could see the runway
lights very easily and had a pretty good landing with some excellent
coaching from the right-seat guru. Full stop, taxied down, took off
and did it again. Landing number two at Winder (#4 for the night)
was better yet. Full stop, taxied down, took off again- was hot and
humid on the ground, so we were sweating with the windows closed and at
low altitudes. Glad to be headed home.
Coming back from Winder he had me
practice steep turns, which was interesting in the dark. I held
altitude just fine- gave the plane a bit more power just as I entered my
turns and gave it plenty of back pressure on the yoke. "Good job."
(Whew.) At about 10:45 PM he turned off the GPS after practicing
maneuvers and said, "Take us
home." Hmmmm. I can do that. I think. So I flew north towards where
Gainesville should be, then in about the right spot I found a green and
white airport beacon. Was it Gainesville? Had to overfly the airport to
make sure. It was. About that time senior instructor Brad Griffin, called
us on the radio from the ground! "Skyhawk 21527, Gainesville Tower.
State your position." We had to laugh at that one.
Matt and Brad are great instructors-
very supportive, very interesting guys to learn from and to just talk to
in general. They take the important things seriously while still
making the learning process fun.
So we put it into a steep left-hand
slip, brought it to 2,300 feet, entered the airport traffic pattern and I
landed it normally at 10:58 PM. By 11:00 we were stopped at the ramp.
Total time for my first night flight- 1.5 hours. Five takeoffs and
landings. Plus some pretty tough maneuvers. I was tired, but happy.
We took a few pictures (proof for our parole officers), shot the breeze a
bit and headed home.
Solo Flight at Towered
Airport (August 3, 2007
7-9:45 AM)
Friday morning early was my first solo
flight into a towered airport (with air traffic controllers)- Athens, Georgia (AHC). Matt and I met
at the airport at 7 AM, and after an easy pre-flight we got off the ground
at 7:30 AM on runway 4, made a gentle turn to the southeast and headed for
Athens- an easy 20-25 minute flight. Winds aloft were forecast to be
a 12 knot headwind at our altitude, but there were none that we could
detect- our ground speed was a steady and respectable 105 knots according
to the GPS.
10 miles out I called Athens tower for
clearance to land, but they came back and said they would "open for
business" in the tower at 8 am. No sweat- just means I use the same
frequency as a common advisory frequency for other pilots in the area,
just like Gainesville. I can do that. Winds were calm,
visibility on the ground was reporting on their ASOS as 3 miles (mist) but
actually it was quite clear. I decided to use runway 9, entered the
pattern properly, had a nice landing and we taxied over to the FBO,
 We
got on ground frequency and told the guys in the tower that I had flown
over to take off and land three times solo at a towered facility.
They were great, told Matt he was welcome to come on up into the tower
while I flew the pattern. We were given a parking spot right next to
the base of the tower, where the guy helped us park and took our picture.
We went inside for a cup of coffee and
to talk for a few minutes about what I needed to do, then Matt headed for
the tower with my camera. I had a normal pre-flight, then started up
the plane and called the ground frequency. They directed me to taxi
down to to the beginning of runway 9, almost a mile away.
I taxied down, had a good engine runup
and check, then switched to tower frequency, called Athens tower and told
them I was ready to take off but wanted to stay in the pattern for three
full stop landings. They directed me to take off, gave me current
altimeter settings and winds, so I taxied on out to the end of the runway
and took off to the east. As you can see, there was plenty of runway
at Athens- I was already well off the ground by the time I flew by the
tower.
Winds were calm and it was an easy
morning to fly. I climbed normally, entered a crosswind and downwind
leg while briefly talking to the tower, flew almost to Sanford Stadium
before entering my final and touching down on runway 9. Cleared the
runway markers, switched to ground frequency and asked to do it again.
Performed my post-landing checklist, then taxied back down to the end of
the runway. Switched back to tower frequency, asked permission to do
it again, which was granted- same calm winds and altimeter setting.
Same easy takeoff, flight around the pattern.
So after a total of three circuits with
full stops I taxied back up to the FBO where I picked up Matt. We
got back into the plane, started it up and called the tower, told them we
wanted to head back to Gainesville. They asked if we wanted to use
runway 27- "Yes we would, thank you very much." (Will point us back
to the west, so all we had to do was make an easy turn to the right while
climbing and we'd be back in Gainesville in no time.)
On the way back the tower called and
told us we had traffic coming our way, at our 11 O'clock and at our
altitude. (Uh-oh.) But we spotted them and avoided them ok.
As I came back into Gainesville I entered the traffic pattern wrong, but
we overflew the airport, got into the downwind leg ok and I landed using a
short-field landing approach. Matt says, "We're going to have to
work on those some more before you finish up." Yep. Was ok,
but not great. Need some polish on my airspeeds and leg distances.
Two hours of flying this morning,
including three solo takeoffs and landings at towered airspace.
LONG Solo Cross-Country (August
6, 2007
3-8 PM)
With a stagnant (call it "stable" if
you'd prefer) and hot air mass staying around and around, it was a good
enough day to fly my long cross-country. I had planned to fly
Gainesville to Greenwood County, SC to Millidgeville and
 return,
but when I got to the airport, Matt said he'd prefer me to stay out of
south Georgia and instead go Gainesville to Greenwood County to Anderson
(SC) to Dalton and home. A longer flight, for sure.
Made sure the plane was full of fuel,
had a normal but hot pre-flight. Was 94 degrees at Gainesville when
I left on runway 29, before making a gentle right turn and getting on a
true heading of 91 degrees for a LONG flight to Greenwood County, 84
nautical miles due east. Everything was great-- climbed to 5,500
feet, dodged a few clouds en route. My charts and GPS made all the
difference, and I crossed I-85 ahead of schedule, crossed the South
Carolina border ahead of schedule and made the airport just north of
Greenwood just fine, landing on 27 after one go-around. When I
landed, the manager of the FBO said I had "bad weather coming in" and
insinuated that my instructor shouldn't have let me fly "in bad weather
like this." Yeah, right. I looked at the radar and it was NO
big deal- just a few rainclouds popping up as expected. No sweat.
Grabbed a Coke and a bag of peanuts,
took off on runway 27, turned right and climbed to 4,500 feet for my short
flight to Anderson (Google Earth image on the right). The CTAF
listed wasn't common traffic- I'll spare you the details. Dead
airport, too, which surprised me. I swung south of town, entered a
normal left pattern and landed. No one to greet me, park the plane,
nothing. But I did park it, go inside, spoke to a nice old fellah to
pointed me to the radar on a PC down the hall. After looking over
the radar again, (no big deal) this time I got a much BIGGER Coke (very
hot outside) for my flight all the way across North Georgia to Dalton.
About the time I was getting ready to call Matt on my cell phone, he
called me. He suggested I keep my eye on a cell that was developing
to the west of Anderson. But other than that, the weather was fine.
Normal takeoff, but a fairly brisk right
crosswind kicked me to the left of the runway as I climbed. Since I
had to cross 4,800 foot mountains on the other end of the state- and since
it was HOT- I had decided to climb to 6,500 for my long flight across.
I'm glad I did. Much cooler at that altitude, a breezy 70 degrees!
Sure enough, though, the rain cloud on radar was ahead and moving south,
so I was able to gently skirt it to the north no problem at all.
About 20 minutes later an even bigger cloud- a really tall (cumulus) cloud
that I knew immediately was nothing that I needed to be flying under or
even close to. So I gave it a wide berth as well. I had about
an hour of estimated flying time ahead of me at my estimated 105 knot
airspeed-- 124 statute miles or 108 nautical miles to Dalton (DNN).
 Visibility
was poor below due to the stagnant air mass and haze, but I could easily
see clouds and other land details to fly, of course. And I was able
to tune in Gainesville (123.075) and talk to Matt as I flew about 20 miles
north of Gainesville on my west-northwest course to Dalton.
Just before I got into the mountains I skirted another big cloud by going
south a bit, then back on course. And there it was- my old friend
Dalton, Georgia. I called 12 miles out as I began a slow descent-
there was one plane on the ground and none in the landing pattern.
I made a gentle approach to the south of
the airport, entered the pattern at 1,800 feet MSL, swooped over the water
treatment plant and made an easy landing. Went inside to Carpet
Capital Aviation to recycle that Coke I had bought in Anderson and to rest
just a bit.
Spoke to Matt briefly by phone from the
Pilot's Lounge to let him know I was alive, and ate a bag of Cheetos while
I talked to
Carpet Capital
Aviation owner Harvey Halman about
buying airplanes. But it was time to head back to Gainesville, so
back to the plane for another pre-flight, engine runup and takeoff.
Climbed to 5,500 in order to fly under some of the clouds and still miss
the mountains (always a good idea) and had a nice flight home while
watching the fuel. Landed on runway 39 with about 12 gallons still
in the tanks.
Matt was pumped. "Good job."
Total flying time: 4.1 hours of solo cross-country. Tired but
happy.
Written Test Complete (August
7, 2007
3-4:30 PM)
Took my written test for Private Pilot
this afternoon. I'd been hitting the books HARD the past month, and
had decided to study until I felt comfortable that I could get at least an
85%, if not 90%. The memorization was a real chore for me- it's hard
for guys in their 50's to remember all the nitpicky details required for
the FAA test. But it has to be done, which means much more studying
than when I was a young pup. Several mornings I got up early, took
my books to McDonald's for breakfast and a study session before work.
And of course, many evenings this past month with the Gleim Private Pilot
Study Book (right), which is excellent reinforcement.
 I came to realize pretty early on during
the training process that the flying wasn't going to be as big a challenge
as I thought it would be-- and that the ground school material was going
to harder than I realized.
Thank goodness for the King schools videos that I had bought at the
beginning of this process and been studying diligently since April, as
well as the study guides (especially the Gleim's) and other great
materials I've been poring through- not to mention the
Sporty's FAA
practice exams I practiced on line to get a flavor for the questions
and how they were formatted.
Got to Lanier Flight Center and Desiree
Arthur, my test Proctor, had me fill out the paperwork and ensure that I
was ready to test. I paid the $90, took my calculator, E6B flight
computer, two pencils, reading glasses and scrap paper to the LaserGrade
testing area. She set everything up for me, made sure I was
comfortable using the computer, and turned me loose, closing the door
behind her at about 3:30 PM. I had 2 1/2 hours- it only took me an
hour, though. The above excerpt is a good example- it's a facility
directory page for an air terminal, and the pilot is expected to be able
to use it to find the proper frequencies, runways, services and
navigation.
I felt that I had scored fairly well- I
figured about an 80% at least, and after an hour I had answered all 60
questions on the computer test. The result? A respectable
enough 92%. Yeah! Sure great to get that monkey off my back.
Night Cross-Country (August
8, 2007
9:15-11:30 PM)
Tonight's my second night flight, this
time a night cross-country between Gainesville and Clemson (52 miles) as
the second part to our first night session a week ago.
I came straight from Wednesday night
Bible study, and it was HOT (94 degrees at takeoff at 9:23 PM) on runway
4, so we decided to climb to at least 5,500 where it was cooler.
After a normal night takeoff Matt briefly took the controls and had me put
on the Foggles for simulated
instrument flight. I spent 25 minutes climbing to 5,500 and
maintaining my heading. Got some training on use of the autopilot,
too, which was very helpful. It was much cooler at that altitude
(74F), but we decided not to climb any higher than that due to the short
flight, and due to the oil temp climbing significantly due to the hot
weather and climbout at full power.
I had on my red LED headlamp the
entire evening. Worked superbly by protecting my night vision and
yet allowing me to read my checklists, see my light switches and work in
the cockpit.
I'd never been to Clemson before, but
their airport diagram looked simple enough: runway 7 & 25, field elevation
892 feet. It's where Matt learned how to fly, so he knows it well.
I was going to learn. ASOS (119.275) was reporting winds of 270 at 4
knots- almost straight down the runway! I began my descent from 13
miles out, entered the left pattern from the southeast (almost straight in
from Gainesville!) and had a pretty good first landing.
 We
had the airport to ourselves for the next 45 minutes while I practiced
short-field night takeoff and landing, normal night takeoffs and landings,
use of lights, cockpit management. I had four landings at Clemson,
all of which were fairly good. I can see it's going to take practice
to be more comfortable carrying passengers at night, however. My
second landing was marginal enough to have been a go-around on a shorter
airstrip, but with 4400 feet of runway I had plenty to work with and went
ahead and landed it.
If you click on the photo on the left
you can clearly see the "A" taxi-way marker, the "25" runway marker, both
upper left, as well as the clearly defined "Hold Short" line on the upper
right of the photo. This is where final checks are made on all
airports before entering the active runway (in this case, runway 25) and
taking off. On a towered airport, this is where you would hold until
you received takeoff clearance. Several lessons were reinforced to
me tonight: 1) after I leave an active runway, STOP and do my "after
landing" checklist; 2) don't get in any hurry, flying is not a timed
event; 3) if I have too much time on my hands, it probably means I haven't
hit my checklist as I should (as you'll see later); 4) light management,
both inside and outside the cockpit, is vital in night flights; 5) rely on
the altimeter when landing at night, because at night the runway looks
closer than it is; and finally, 6) did I mention to use the checklist?
After four landings and takeoffs it was
11 PM. During the last one I had Matt take the controls for a few
moments while I attempted a few photos. You can see from the photo
above the altimeter reads almost 1,000 feet at Clemson, and you can see my
clipboarded checklist on my yoke. Felt great to have him take the
controls for a bit.
Heading back to Gainesville we saw some
heat lightning to the southeast of us, but it didn't appear to be a
thunderstorm. Matt tried to call Flightwatch to report it (122.0)
but got no answer. I went back under the Foggles for another 0.3
hours of simulated instruments, giving me a total of 0.7 for the evening.
We went back at 4,500 feet and Matt directed me to make a simulated tower
approach into runway 22, with he acting as the tower.
Other than (1) swinging too far to the
left of the runway for a straight-in approach, and (2) my forgetting my
descent and pre-landing checklists, I did ok. The Gainesville
airport beacon is HARD to pick out in the lights of Gainesville.
There are several flashing lights up on top from any city, and the green
light was much dimmer than the white. But I had picked the beacon
out about 16 miles out and could fly to it no problem.
Fairly good landing (not particular bad
or good) on runway 22, and we taxied and parked the bird at 11:35 PM, and
would you believe it was still 90 degrees outside? Unbelievable.
But I have now completed a total of 10 night takeoffs and landings and am
much more comfortable flying at night, thanks to Matt.
Short Field & Soft Field
Takeoffs & Landings (August
11, 2007
8-9:45 AM)
Another hot August Saturday in the
eternal heat wave- fortunately, some clouds had formed at 6,000 AGL,
shading the airport nicely and keeping things still in the low 80's (by
lunch it later got to 100). Winds were light from the
northeast, so looks like good old runway 4.
 My first four takeoffs and landings this
morning were short field-- these are for runways where there are shorter
runways, or where there's a tree or other obstacle at the end of the
runway. Short field takeoff's pretty easy- first notch of
flaps, rotate at 51 knots, climb at a steep 56 knots. (The graphic
on the left shows a grass strip with trees at the end- so this type of
takeoff would be a short AND a soft.)
Setting up for landing's just a bit
different with a short- land a bit further down the runway, flying about 5
knots slower, and therefore, a steeper descent on final. My first
few of these were flaky, but I kept polishing airspeed during subsequent
practice runs. Last two were pretty good. Matt said, "You've
got these pretty much nailed."
Interestingly, a flock of Canadian GEESE
decided to park out on runway 4 during most of these- I ended up taking
off and landing right of center line to avoid them. Definitely
didn't want hit one of those during takeoff or landing! Quite a bit
of radio chatter about them as they lingered for about 40 minutes while
Matt and I were at work. Oh, well, one more for the story board.
Soft field take offs and landings
simulate soft grass or other soft surfaces. Critical to these
maneuvers is to keep the nose wheel (carrying the weight of the engine) as
high as possible during both takeoffs and landings. Takeoffs
are interesting- one notch of flaps, a "forced" early takeoff then hold
the airplane in ground effect until it builds up airspeed for a short
field-type continued climb. Landings are also similar to short field
landings in that they are slower and further down the field, then right
before touchdown add just a touch of power to keep the nosewheel high- and
a continued HARD holdback of the yoke.
Did three soft field takeoffs and
landings, and did ok by the third one. So I've got a bit more work
ahead of me yet.
Ground School Review &
Preparation for Orals (August
13, 2007
4:30-7:30 PM)
Matt and I had a great three-hour
session discussing what would be on my "orals" during my practical test
(hopefully coming up some time next week). In addition to my Gleim
that I'd already studied, he strongly suggested that I go ahead and get
the 948-page (light bed time reading) 2007 FAR/AIM (Federal Aviation
Regulations / Aeronautical Information Manual. It's not a book you
have to read from cover to cover, but it IS the "Bible" of all things
pilot's are expected to know, what pilot's are expected to be at least
aware of, and what aircraft owners and operators are required to do.
Any practice materials (Gleim, videos, etc) that anyone produces come from
the FAR/AIM, so it's always best to be able to go to the source.
Yours truly thought that when I passed
my written test with flying colors, that would be "it." Wrong.
During my four hours with an FAA examiner, I will be tested continuously
via discussion AND application while flying on all aspects of flight
knowledge as well as details on the regs. So in short, passing the
written test is just another step in the process. (Sound familiar?)
I was having a problem getting a real
handle on the types of airspace in the US (A,B,C,D,E & G), and in
particular, trying to really understand the differences between E & G.
As always, Matt was a real help to me, and we pulled out a chart and went
through many of the particulars. As you can see from the chart
below, Class A (18,000+) is out of my league- it's for high altitude
commercial flights primarily.
Class B is for large airports like
Hartsfield in Atlanta, or DFW, or the New York area. Class C are
smaller airports, Class D are smaller still. Class E is "everywhere
else" and is still tightly regulated, and Class G refers to non-towered
airports (like Gainesville or others.)
Notice how B and C airspace are like
upside down wedding cakes? That's because the closer you get to the
airport, the area is reserved for large airliners to descend from on high
and land at the airport. And yep, small airplanes like mine,
provided I'm using a
transponder and a radio, can fly into and land at most Class B and all
Class C airports.
Other areas we worked on include weight
and balance, use of light signals, documentation, flight planning, charts
and especially WEATHER. Aviation weather is critical to flying, of
course, and they want to make sure I know how to use weather briefers, use
the tools available to me from the National Weather Service and fully
understand the dangers and problems associated with the weather.
It was a very productive but tiring session. Came away with a list
of things I need to focus on for our second and final major ground review
session.
Tweaks in the Heat (August
15, 2007
2:00-6:00 PM)
I had two rides scheduled today- one
with Matt from 2-4, and my final progress check ride with Brad from 4-6.
My first ride with Matt stunk.
Seemed like everything I tried was just off-- couldn't hold altitude,
heading, and was just having trouble staying continuously ahead of the
airplane. It was a tough, strenuous ride where Matt checked many of
my "problem" maneuvers in preparation for my check ride with the FAA
examiner next week (one week from tomorrow). Ok, I wasn't terrible
per se, but I sure wasn't even close to being at my best. I hadn't
studied some of my standards ahead of time, and it showed in execution.
But you know, that's why we go up and practice before the check ride- to
find the problem areas and work to fix them.
I don't know how much of the problem was
the heat-- because it's about the hottest I've been flying. It was
100 degrees on the ground and wasn't much better (93) at 3,500 feet.
The air coming out of the air vents felt like a hair dryer during takeoff.
Yuck.
After 1:20 of flying, two go-arounds to
try to fix a lousy couple of approaches and a final pretty decent soft
field landing, I parked the plane in front of the open hanger at Lanier to
go inside and get a Coke.
After a Diet Coke, returning a few phone
calls and cooling off for about a half hour, I was feeling goofy enough to
set up the photo on the right, which I've entitled "Zen Cessna 172S on
August Afternoon." (Assume that Lotus position, Private Statham!)
Must have worked. Went up for my
third and last check ride with Brad Griffin, who was ensuring I was truly
ready for me to take my "Practical Test" with the FAA examiner next week.
Wasn't a perfect ride, by any stretch of the imagination, but it went
hugely better than my previous ride with Matt. What ever he did to
me must have worked! First thing we did was a RIGHT pattern
soft field takeoff and landing (since I'd never flown right pattern at
Gainesville) with a soft field landing. Wasn't perfect- I'd give it
a B.
We took off again and headed north, and
Brad tested me on most of the same things that Matt had. And I did
fine.
After testing me on diverting, flying a
VOR radial ("from" and "to"), power off stall, power on stall, steep turns
to the right and to the left, and quite a bit of practical discussion from
Brad, he told me to return to Gainesville and perform a short-field
landing, regular left pattern. Since I was at 4,500 feet and needed
to drop 2,200 feet, Brad showed me how to do an honest-to-goodness slip
over the lake. Fun! Watched the altimeter unwind like a clock
spinning backwards. Yeeahaa! Entered in on my "45" for a
downwind leg, except that Brad had bumped my radio selector (of course!)
which I had missed. But I finally righted it, flew my downwind leg,
base leg and final. Did a very nice A- short field landing in spite
of coming in on final too high (I slipped at the end to fix the problem).
Only 2.4 hours of flying, but about 3
hours in the heat. As I drove home, my thermometer in my Explorer
read "99", even though it was 6:15 PM. That's HOT.
 Trying
out a Piper Cherokee (August
16, 2007)
Had a nice flight from Mathis Airport (a
private strip in southern Forsyth County) to Gainesville with Mike
Mayberry, who owns a nice little Piper Cherokee 140 that was upgraded to a
160. Mike and I had been talking about my potentially buying a half
share in his plane, so I met him at Mathis and we decided to take her up
for a spin. Mike's an instructor already, so my flying with him was
no problem.
I had never flown a low-wing aircraft
before, and this is an older model with an engine upgrade to 160 HP.
The plane has an autopilot, is IFR certified, just not a huge amount of
horsepower. Mathis is a very small airport-- only 1800 feet of strip
with trees not far off the end of each runway.
The thermometer registered 100 degrees
F, a VERY hot day even for a "short field" takeoff. No way would I
have attempted it, but Mike was the man for the job. He gave her 25
degrees of flaps, throttled up to full, released the brakes and it climbed
like a champ. But I gotta tell you- it was hairy just barely
clearing the trees at the the north end of runway 210. We missed the
trees by about 40 or 50 feet. Yowza.
I very quickly took the controls from
the right seat (first time I'd flown from the right) and we decided to fly
to Gainesville. I made some test turns after we climbed to 3,500
feet, and the plane handled very nicely. Mike gave me the right
heading from the GPS and I flew right over. We switched to the
Gainesville frequency (123.075) and over Lake Lanier I started my descent,
entering my 45-degree leg for my downwind on runway 4. Mike said
he'd help me with flaps, so I flew the plane, made my radio calls from the
right seat. NO problem! Way cool.
After landing, we taxied back for a
normal takeoff, and after waiting for Troy Wheeler to finish his engine
runup, I took off on runway 4. Didn't give it enough back pressure
when I rotated, but with 5,500 feet of runway, who cares? After we
crossed 2,500 feet I swung the plane gently southwest to return to Mathis
with Mike. The air was still hot, and the air was very humid
and thick.
Visibility was probably only about 5
miles, and since Mathis doesn't have lights, we needed to get back before
dusk. I took quite a few photos from the air, knowing that they'd
show very little ground detail. The photo on the right I took
from the right seat as Mike was lined up for final shows about the last 20
seconds or so of flight before touchdown. We had taken off coming
this way- you can see the trees we had to skirt!
Mike did a beautiful short-field
landing, and he taxied to the end, headed downhill and parked the plane
underneath the large open shed you can see on the right side of the photo.
We went inside and had some cold bottled water and chatted a bit before I
had to leave and head back to North Forsyth County. But I had told
Mike "NO way am I qualified to take off or land at Mathis until I get a
whole lot more hours!" He agreed.
Polishing Steep Turns &
Slow Flight (August
17, 2007
5:00-6:30 PM)
Was a hot, late Friday afternoon (99
degrees F) when I got to the airport. Matt wanted to work on steep
turns and fully powered slow flight. I did my own pre-flight
and taxied down to pick up Matt, we did our run-up and did a short field
takeoff on runway 4. "Climb to 6,500 and let's practice some
maneuvers." As we climbed to the north through 5,000 and then
6,000 feet, the temperature dropped-- and by the time we leveled out at
6,500 feet it was down to 71 degrees. Much nicer!
"Let's practice steep turns." The
air was thick and it was hard to see. But I'm still supposed to be
able to use my instruments to help on this maneuver. But this
time I remembered to use my pre-maneuver checklist and to do my clearing
turns, call on the radio, use my taxi and strobe lights.
My first turns were pretty weak.
Marginal at best. But as always, Matt was full of practical advice
on making it much, much better. A bit more power. More
backpressure on the yoke earlier on. Staying better ahead of the
airplane.
After a dozen steep turns, I was getting
better, but it still wasn't where it needed to be. Matt said, "Steep
turns are your weakest maneuver. Let's keep practicing them till you
get them right OR you think you're going to puke." (He said with an
evil grin!) (I vote for getting them right.) And you know, we
DID keep working until I got them much, much better. First my steep
turn to the right got right-- then my left one got pretty close to "pretty
good."
 Next,
Matt wanted me to work on slow flight. Not bad, but not great.
Had some tweaks to make it better, in particular gentle bank angles when
changing headings. An hour of steep turns and slow flight and I was
pretty whipped. "Let's head back and practice a couple of landings."
Nice enough approach and short field landing until I dumped it on the
ground at the end. Oh, well. "Let's go." Took back off
to try again.
Two more landings, one more short to a
full stop, with a soft field takeoff. Not bad. Soft field
landing to follow wasn't bad either. Needs a bit more honing, but
not too bad at all. But after 1.3 hours of that, I was wrung
out. Wet, tired, but feeling pretty good.
Solo Tweak (August 20, 2007 5:00-6:00 PM)
Waited until later in the day when it
would be cooler to work some more on my steep turns as well as soft field
and short field landings. Productive session on my own- Matt's last
lesson had been very helpful, and I worked pretty hard at it for 8/10 of
an hour on the Hobbs meter.
Last Ground School (August 22, 2007
1:00-7:30 PM)
Wow. VERY full day of my final
ground school with Matt, working to get ready for my "orals" at my FAA
Practical Test (my "test ride" for the FAA) tomorrow in Andrews, North
Carolina. Six and one-half hours with Matt planning my
cross-country, planning weight and balance, working to polish my
understanding of charts, weather, rules, regulations, and the thousand
other details to satisfy the tester tomorrow. After five hours
of solid one-on-one, I had started to get close to my limit and started to
shut down. But we kept on keeping on until we'd been at it for 6 1/2
hours and were both getting loopy. Tomorrow's the big day.
FAA Practical Test (August 23, 2007 6:45 AM
- 4:10 PM)
On the plus side, I passed my "orals"
with flying colors and almost all of the areas of my test. However,
on the negative side, I failed three areas of my test ride: soft field
takeoff, soft field landing and emergency landing. Those will have
to be re-tested tomorrow.
Got to Gainesville early, and we picked
up the maintenance records for the aircraft we'd be using (FAA tester had
to see current maintenance records). We left Gainesville by 8:15 and
headed almost due north for Andrews, North Carolina and my meeting with
destiny. (By the way, the score ended up Destiny 1, me 0.)
Got to Andrews in time to practice a few
circuits in the pattern-- let's just say it had a few challenges since it
sits tight on the north side of the valley in between two ridge lines, and
just west of the Smoky Mountain National Park. Always a challenge
landing at a new airport, with new visual references and different landing
characteristics.
 We
met Don Jones, a retired teacher and avid commercial pilot. REALLY
super guy. We went through some paperwork preliminaries, then Matt
left us and I was on my own for 2 hours of oral examination. Matt
and my hard work and preparation paid off well-- I wasn't flawless, but I
was knowledgeable and well prepared. I had a well-prepared
cross-country plan laid on, had done all of my weight and balance work
very well, and was prepared for a planned flight from Andrews to
Nashville, even though I would only be flying the first portion of it.
Poor Matt- he had to abandon me, so gave
him my camera so he could do SOMETHING to relieve the stress!
Let me tell you right now, we talked
about EVERYTHING in FARS/AIM (see above) and then some. He
asked questions about the chart on items that weren't even described in
the margins! Good discussion about runway signs, weather, airplane
handling characteristics, principals of flight, recovering from unusual
maneuvers and a host of other detailed questions that required detailed
answers. No "multiple guess" questions here, folks.
By now it was 1 pm and I hadn't had
lunch, but it was time to go flying. So we went out to the aircraft
and he watched me do a complete pre-flight, then we fired it up and he
told me to perform a soft-field takeoff, then a soft-field landing.
They were both "ok" but nothing to write home about. As we were
taxing back, he asked me to describe how they should be performed, which I
did, and he told me that he had to fail me on both of these, but asked me
if I wanted to continue the test. I did, of course, so we continued
on.
He next tested me on soft field takeoff
and landing, which I performed just fine, then we took off and headed out
on my cross-country portion. We leveled off at 4,500 feet, came over
Murphy and headed for Nashville on our heading. As we were heading
for our next checkpoint, he "diverted" me to Blairsville, saying that
weather was too
bad up ahead to continue and that we needed to divert. "What do you
do?" My chart was already on my kneeboard so I looked and saw that
it was on a course of about 170 degrees. I checked my area, then
turned the aircraft around to a course of 170, and noted the time on my
clipboard while headed for Blairsville.
I took my plotter and noted the
distance, found landmarks and told him I could easily fly it using my GPS.
He said, "What about using this VOR?" Would you believe that I
properly tuned the VOR behind Blairsville, but it was off the air?
Amazing. But I discussed the VOR to where he was comfortable that I
knew it and knew how to use it. He said, "Ok, any other ways to now
find Blairsville?" I noted that we were over easily found landmarks,
including a large lake below, and that I could easily follow the arm of
the lake towards Blairsville and land on runway 26. (Note: I took a
photo of the lake the next day, above.)
"Good," said Don. I could tell he
was pleased. "Let's practice some maneuvers. I'd like to
see your steep turns." (Ah, can do!) I ran through my
pre-maneuver checklist, cleared the area, and went into a steep left turn.
Lost a bit of altitude, but kept the plane under firm control and stayed
ahead of the airplane. Rounded out on course, did a steep turn
to the right next. Like all my steep turns, right was better than
left. Next we practiced slow flight, which is a tough maneuver due
to having full flaps and full power on the aircraft. VERY hard to
control, and has to be done with hard right rudder. Of course, he
had me perform some course changes to show that I knew how to do it.
From that same configuration he had me do a power on stall, which was
fine. Finally, he had me set up a power-off (landing) stall and he
checked me on that one as well. All were done just fine.
He next had me drop down to 3,200 and
demonstrate S-turns, then left turns around a point, and right turns
around a point. I did them all pretty well, if I do say so.
Not perfect, due to a bit of cross wind, but pretty good.
"Return us to Murphy" he said. I complied.
As we were abeam of the numbers on
runway 26, he pulled all the power out on my plane and informed me that I
had lost my engine and my electrical and had no flaps, either.
"Please land it for us" he directed. Unfortunately, I decided to
kick my leg out just a bit too far and I was unable to make the field.
I would have had to have put it down in the grass or on the roadway, so I
gave the engine power enough to make the field. Sooooo... he failed
me on that one. Hmmmmm.
Parked the airplane and we talked it
over. Bottom line, there's supposed to usually be a 24-hour minimum
to test on the areas you fail, but Don wanted to talk it over with his FAA
supervisor while Matt and I ironed out my "difficulties." But when
we came back, she had not called him back. "She must be on vacation"
said Don. We all looked at our calendars and set it back up for
tomorrow (Friday) at 11 or 12, depending on when we could get back up
there. Fair enough. But looking outside, the weather was
starting to look pretty flaky, with huge weather systems building to the
south of us. But in looking over radar, we saw where we could avoid
it, and we took off and headed for Gainesville.
Another 45 minutes of flying and I was
pretty whipped. My total flying time was 4 hours, with 10 landings.
I was wrung completely out, especially since I hadn't slept that well the
night before, due to the butterflies.
 DONE!!!
(August 24, 2007 10 AM - 2 PM)
Had to do some major schedule shuffling
at work (had a Vistage meeting this morning) but I got to the airport at
10 am, made a couple of much improved soft field landings with Matt, then
headed for Murphy at 11 am. Matt was a nervous wreck after
yesterday, and wanted my stuff to be perfect. (Hey, he's
right!)
The flight back up to Andrews was easy,
and I was able to take a few photos as we flew over the Appalachian Trail
and over the cumulous clouds below at 6,500 feet. Nice and cool
where we were up nice and high.
We got to Andrews and practiced
emergency landings. Took me three approaches before I had them
right, but I did have them "good enough" for Matt eventually and we landed
and came inside. Don was waiting for us upstairs and he had, bless
his gentlemanly heart, bought us a couple of the most delicious hamburgers
known to mankind. Bubba, these things were some kind of WUNNERFUL.
Good? Oh, Mama, freshly ground meat on a soft white bun, very
flavorful and cooked to perfection.
Yep, my first $100 hamburger, and with
my instructor and check ride guru, too. How cool is that?
Don Jones did his paperwork again, and
we were ready to fly. Back out to the aircraft, and this time I did
my soft field takeoff and landing just great, thanks to Matt (and some
pre-coaching by Don). Don asked me to do another soft takeoff and
landing, which I did for him, and he gave me a few more tweaks to help me
in the future. Very nice of him to do that. (Like I said, a
prince of a guy.)
 Finally,
time to demonstrate that emergency landing. My first one was pretty
good, and earned me a "pass." But Don asked me to take off again and
do another, which I did not as well, but again good enough.
Interestingly enough on the second one I had too MUCH room to play with
and was too high coming on to land, since I didn't have flaps to slow me
down. But I was able to slip hard on both landings and gently place
it on the runway without bending the airplane. SUCCESS!
Matt was as relieved as I was! So
we talked a lineman into taking our "success" photo (left). Matthew
Perrer, Ross Statham, Don Jones. Went inside, I got my private
pilot's certificate and endorsement in my logbook. Huzzah!
Time to fly back to Gainesville, but
this time as a private pilot.
Lessons Learned
Here it is late evening on August 24,
2007 and I'm trying to decide what's on my mind. I guess here's what
I learned during the process of learning to fly:
- I really don't learn quickly anymore.
It's harder to teach an old dog new tricks. Not impossible, but
harder.
- Chase your dreams. Make them
come true. It's worth it.
- Put your trust in good people, and
listen to them. (Matthew Perrer is worth his weight in gold.)
- Don't give up when things don't go
well. Perseverance over little things will yield success in big
things.
- Don't feel overwhelmed when you think
"I'll never learn all of this!". Find the areas you're struggling
with and tackle them head on.
- Talking about flying to non-pilots
drives them crazy. Zip the lip.
- Tackling things in smaller blocks can
help, and focusing energy on the "problem" areas helps make them to
eventually become "non issues." (Case in point: landings, which
drove me crazy.)
So that's all I'll post for now about
flying. I'm now a VFR Pilot, and as my buddy Norm Rich (pilot
extraordinaire) said to me this afternoon, "Now you know enough to go out
and learn how to fly."
Sounds reasonable enough. I think
I'll go flying!
Ross's Private Pilot Weblog
(BLOG)
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