My bird's sick

She's been squawked for maintenance. CFI left me a message stating it has something to do with fuel tanks. The online club info just says "fuel issue". I'm wondering if there's water in the tank or something. So, looks like no flight today.

Medical Setback

Due to some medications in my fairly recently medical history (that I'm no longer taking), I'm "deferred" for want of a better word and more work needs to be done. I'm fairly confident it will result in a successful class III, but it's just more expense added to an already expensive proposition.

For a while, I thought I'd discontinue training but then again if it gets resolved, then I've not lost time and if it doesn't, well, I'll enjoy the hell out of it as long as I can.

Physical Today...

Hopefully by 2000Z I'll have my Class III. I'm always a nervous wreck during physicals and hopefully it won't skew my numbers too bad. I'm in reasonably good shape, so I'm not anticipating any problems, but who knows.

I'm learning that aviation is a lot like photography. Put the word "aviation" or "photography" in any item or service description and the price inflation is pretty amazing.

Ah well, a small price to pay to be able to achieve flight.

Ground School

I decided to sign up for a local community college ground school. I'm really struggling with retaining the information doing self study, so hopefully a classroom environment will help. I bounced the idea off of CFI and he was all for it.

It doesn't start until January, but I should have a good head start by then at least.

The weather gods love me

Gorgeous weather for today's flight. Met CFI at 2PM did an hour of ground brief and he's satisfied with my ground learning progress. That's good, because I'm not, then again, I've always been my own worse critic. So I'm feeling pretty confident about the flight, climbs, descents, turns and climbing/ascending turns. He mentions that no student gets it right the first time, so don't be too hard on myself if I don't. Right, that'll happen. Then he drills me on radio and I seem to get the hang of it okay. Then he says, "You're handling radios for departure. This isn't normally until lesson 5, but I need to keep you under some sort of pressure." I ask him if we're slant uniform or slant alpha since I don't know if we have a DME or not. We're slant alpha, but we're actually whatever slant having a GPS is, but since I'm not using the GPS I'm not reporting that capability.

We walk to the plane to preflight it and all checks are fine. Though someone one dinged my baby! There's a very small dent in the leading edge of the starboard wing. That's OK, I was still glad to be seeing my girl. With a loving caress I feel her leading edges, prop and spinner. Let's get this bird in the air.

So here's a brief transcript of the radio calls:

"Oakland Ground, N972TA"

"N972tA Oakland ground"

"Oakland Ground, N9725a Cessna 1-7-2 slant alpha with quebec at Kaiser request taxi to runway 33"

"N972tA cleared to taxi runway 33, squawk (transponder)."

"N972TA cleared to taxi runway 33, squawk (transponder)."

CFI sets the transponder and away we go.

I taxi much better this time, staying pretty straight on center. The runup checklist is complete and it's time for round two of the coms.

"Oakland Tower, Cessna 972TA ready for departure runway three-three"

"2TA cleared for departure, traffic at 10, maintain VFR and don't cross the freeway, good day"

OOOPS, forgot to verify runway. Ah well. We taxi to the runway and roll. At 55 KIAS it's a much smoother take off and thanks to Aviatrix' advice, I've been applying slight back pressure and applying right rudder, we're off the ground.

"2TA say altitude". CFI said all of his students miss this call

"2TA passing 200" BOO YAH! Didn't miss it!

"2TA contact NorCal approach 1(garbled) , good day"

"2TA say again frequency?"

"One-two-zero point niner"

"2TA 120.9"

Passing through 1200 as the fuel injected engine pulls us ever skyward, "NorCal Approach, Cessna 972TA with you, passing 1200"

"Cessna 2TA NorCal approach maintain VFR, climb to 2500"

"Cessna 2TA, climb to 2500"

Once I get better at comms, I'm going to rig up a recorder so you all can hear what's going on.

After that, CFI took the com. Now, this isn't probably an exact typing of what was said, but the main thing is, I didn't make myself look like an idiot! One more little thing down. We fly over San Pablo Bay at 4000 and begin our maneuvers. I'm doing much better at straight and level flight and he shows me how to trim the plane. OH, what a difference that makes. The plane really does fly itself when trimmed, ah, how nice. I really felt like me and the bird were merging together.

Now it's time to do to the climbing turns, so I roll her to a 45 degree bank, back pressure on the yoke and I perform a pretty decent climbing turn, gravity letting me know all is well as I press into the leather seat, the engine's hum letting me know all is well in the world.

OK, here is where I need work, leveling out from climbs and descents. I need to know when to apply power first and pitch first. I also have the throttle backwards in my head, I keep thinking out to add power and in to subtract, when it's ass backwards. Still, CFI says I did an excellent job.

We do more maneuvers, and I'm reminded that there's more of the world than the instruments, that a VFR pilot has to scan both inside and out. Another one of the club planes was playing in the same area as us, and I really needed more situational awareness. Noted and corrected. He did comment that my plane handling was a lot smoother than before, so I'm progressing. This is a good thing!

Something that caused him amusement is the way I turn. Apparently new students turn shallow, about 15 degrees or so.

Oh, not me. I roll that puppy to 45 and turn like there's no tomorrow. Apparently he likes the fact I'm not afraid of the plane.

All too soon, CFI makes the call to NorCal approach to head back to Oakland. Flying back he has me parallel 27R and then has me do a descent then a descending turn and then a final turn and tweaking the power.

Next thing I know I'm looking at the approach for 27R, we have red over white VASIs and I let out a whoop. I flew the approach! The sneaky bugger had me do it without letting me know I was going do it. He probably figured that would be the best way to have me do it without nerves kicking in. He took over at about 500 feet and flew the landing then handed the plane to me for the taxi off runway.

We taxi past the hold short line, do our post landing checks then taxi to the fuel truck and do our final shutdown checks. We gas up, pay the bill (well, I pay the bill) and walk back to the school.

On the way there he said, "Your knowledge in your head is that of a 30 hour or more student. Your flying, though, as a 30 or 40 hour student would be pretty bad." Well, duh, "But for a second lesson student, you are doing an excellent job. You're flying better than I did at 2 lessons".

I guess it's in my blood, I love to fly.

P.S. No stiff right rudder today.


Doesn't look good for today's flight

KOAK 191553Z 15003KT 10SM FEW019 14/12 A3015
     RMK AO2 SLP208 T01440117

KOAK 192345Z 190024 27012KT 6SM BR SCT008 OVC015 
     TEMPO 0003 5SM BR SCT006 OVC008 
     FM0300 27008KT 1SM BR OVC004 
     TEMPO 0406 1/2SM FG VV001 
     FM0600 26007KT 1/2SM FG VV001 
     FM1500 27006KT 3SM BR SCT009 OVC012 
     PROB30 1518 -RA 
     FM1800 30012KT P6SM BKN012 OVC019

Methinks the bird may be staying on the ground. Ah well, should be able to at least practice preflight. With a scheduled TO of 2200Z weather right now is marginal (CFI likes a ceiling of 2500), but looking really bad around 2345. But, the wx report has been wrong in the past.

Edit: 1745Z

KOAK 191653Z 15004KT 10SM SCT019 16/12 A3015
      RMK AO2 SLP209 T01560117

It's holding. Maybe it will break before 1400 local. Dew point and temperature are widening, this is good.

Edit: 1910Z

The Mark 1A eyeballs are telling me the plane will remain on the ground. That's OK, as said in my textbook "It's better to be on the ground wishing you were in the air than in the air and wishing you were on the ground".

Learning radio procedures

Learning to fly at KOAK will be challenging and learning the radios even more so. I always tend to "pre-worry" and this is the latest thing. I goof up on the plane, only the CFI (and my loyal fans reading this) will know.

Cock up on the radios, and the whole world knows your an idiot...

I'd rather be flying

KOAK 152053Z 28008KT 10SM FEW250 18/12 A3001
RMK AO2 SLP163 T01830117 58013 $

I used to be able to decode these in my sleep, but now's as good a time as any to practice. So, what's this saying?

KOAK = Oakland Int'l Airport
152053Z = As of 11/15 2053Z (1253 PST)
28008KT = Winds from the west (280) at 8 knots (about 9 MPH)
10SM = Ten statute miles visibility
FEW250 = Few clouds at 25,000
18/12 = Temperature and dew point in Celsius
A3001 = Altimeter setting 30.01
RMK A02* = Automated observation station with precipitation discriminator
SLP163* = Sea Level Pressure in tens, units and decimals in hectopascals, so 1016.3 hectopascals (Corrected thanks to Aviatrix)
TO1830117* = Dew Point and temperature greater than 0C, Temp is 18.3C and Dew Point is 11.7C. If it said T11831117 it would be -18.3C and -11.C for temp/dew point
58013* = Pressure tendency 8=Steady or increasing, then decreasing; or decreasing then decreasing more rapidly, so pressure is lower than 3 hours ago by 013 tenths of a hectopascal (or .013)
$* = Station is due for maintenance

So, pressure is decreasing, but the temperature is nice, there's a few clouds at 25,000 feet and the winds are pretty quiet. In other words, a perfect time to go flying.

By the way, if I screwed up translating this, pilots, let me know :).




* I had to look these up.

Jumping the gun

Pull up a chair, have a seat, grab a beverage of your choice. I'd imagine most new students are looking forward to their first solo and their first solo cross country.

Not me.

Well, that is not entirely true, for indeed, those will be tremendous milestones and I'm looking forward to achieving them, but for me I'm looking forward most to...

Emergency Procedures

Now, this may seem a little weird. "Why, Scott, are you looking forward to such things?" And to answer it requires a little bit of history.

A fresh out of ground school gunner boards the aircraft for his "dollar ride". We do the brief, it will be a short flight (four hours) and back. I strap myself into my ejection seat, lock the inertia reel for take off and we lumber down the runway. No steam on this G model, we're going on straight air power.

Aircraft Commander: "Committed, your throttles".
Co-Pilot: "My throttles"

Committed is the speed at which the aircraft has to get in the air, it is now going too fast to stop on the runway. Shortly thereafter pilot calls for rotation and the big BUFF is in the air. Suddenly, my station gets a lot quieter and I don't feel this is any cause for alarm, I've never been in a B-52 before, so I don't know what "normal" is.

The A/C announces that we've had complete failure on the port wing, all four engines flamed out. We declare emergency and limp to holding altitude and circle for two hours as the B-52 is a greedy bugger, she doesn't have a fuel dump like a KC-135 has so we have to burn it off. The engines won't re-ignite and I admit, I'm not feeling too good about this whole flying thing.

Granted, we have four good engines each one pumping out 14,000 pounds of thrust or so, but in my mind, we've lost half our engines and thus half our capability of flight. We're asymmetrical as all hell and this is not fun.

The A/C lands the plane without incident, we deplane and all is well with my world. I've gone from "half our capability" to "I've had my one incident I'll have in my flying career" in that overactive mind I have. We get debriefed by the wing commander and part of standard procedure is that after a mishap, the aircrew is asked if they wish to stop flying. You can yes, and right then and there you are removed from flight status and given your choice of non-flying post.

I respond with a very enthusiastic and only somewhat forced, "Hell yah, I still want to fly." and I continue on with flight training and my spirits continue to soar as high as that iron bird will take me.

Advance a couple of years to my being the mission gunner. We're coming in for a landing and there's a hydraulic failure, this means we have no brakes. It also means the gunner has to unstrap from his seat, open the bomb bay access hatch, clamber to the forward port landing wheel and actuate this lever 100 times. This then gives the pilot 1 application of the brakes. Rinse and repeat. I'm pumping that lever like my life depended on it, because, well, it did. I'm straddling a wheel that's revolving at who knows what RPM and the runway is a scant two feet away, streaking by at nearly 110 MPH.

Pumpx100, I feel the brakes, pump x 100, brakes, finally the runway is actually taking on texture as the plane battles inertia and my right arm is providing the outside force to counter Newton's Law about stopping an object in motion. We come to a stop about ten feet from the end of the runway and I can no longer feel my arm, I know I have an arm, I can see it, but I'll be damned if I'm actually able of feeling anything. I scramble down the wheel well and run to the pilot side window so he knows I'm alright.

So, now the point: flying a solo will be awesome, flying my first cross country will be awesome.

But, those won't save my life.

Knowing emergency procedures will.

Opportunities

One thing I noticed during my first flight was that I was so focused on flying the airplane, I really didn't get a chance to appreciate the aerial view of the Bay Area. A tremendous opportunity was whisking by my wings at 120 KIAS and I didn't even notice it. Then again, I was doing my best to maintain situational awareness and not getting too euphoric over actually flying.

I know the rules are aviate, navigate and communicate so focusing on aviating was the absolute correct thing, I just hope that as I get more comfortable behind the controls I can spare a second or two to enjoy the beauty that is a few thousand feet beneath my wings.

Stiff right rudder...

This is more geared at the pilots who may be reading this.

One thing I noticed while taxiing and flying was the right rudder pedal was significnantly harder to push than the left. CFI said it was due to wind, but would that effect it even during taxi? I'm wondering if maybe he had his foot resting on the left pedal or if maybe something was wonky? He didn't mention anything while he was flying, so I doubt there's anything amiss, it just seemed interesting.

The Governator

Something that I left out of yesterdays post was the fact that after we had parked the plane and I was paying for fuel (ouch, yet again), we noticed a cavalcade of CHP officers arrive on motorcycle. So we asked the folks at the FBO what the story was.

Turns out the Governor had just flown in from Santa Monica. So we took off back to the school and about halfway back I realized I forgot the binder. DOH!

Walked back to the FBO, got the binder, saw the governor briefly and then headed back to school.

Pretty neat!

I slipped the surly bonds...

Yes, I love the poem "High Flight". I'm sure most everyone who flies or has a passion about flying has read it. Some hate it, but to me, it's awesome. If you don't know the poem, read it.

I'm looking forward to 1130, I'm going to fly. I get up at 6 and check the METAR and see that they're calling for scattered clouds at 2500, overcast ceiling at 3000. Not too promising and CFI is very conservative when it comes to weather, and I dig that. Sure enough at 1030 my phone rings and CFI cancels and we reschedule for Monday where he says "Worse case, we'll practice preflight and do some ground instruction". So, I suggest, "Hey, we've already booked the plane, why not do it today and if we're lucky the weather will break and we can fly." "If you're OK with that, that's great."

At this point my will is in overdrive trying to exert command over the inexorable forces of nature. Let me fly today, dammit! And lo, at 1100 the ceiling did disappear, and clouds evaporated and I was looking at a nice, azure (well as azure as the sky can be around KOAK) sky and I got giddy. I'm flying today!

I meet CFI (I was about 15 minutes late due to the unexplainable backups 880 has at random and that defy all laws of reason) and meet at the school. We talk and he shows me how to dispatch a plane, and he's quite happy to be flying as well. We head out to 2TA and begin preflighting it. One of the checks is "fuel selector both" as it should be in left or right after flight to prevent crossflow after parking, I ask him, "Hey, shouldn't we take off with it in left then switch to both after a while because of balance issues since I outweigh you by about 120 pounds?" He looks at me for a minute and is quite impressed by the question. Apparently, I ask smart questions.

Odds are, I'm his only 6'10" 320 pound pre-student student that happens to know that planes rely on CG to safely fly. Heavies don't have to worry about a 100 pound difference between left seat and right seat, but little 2TA sure as hell does. He states he prefers to use both and we move on. He's asking me various questions as we do the check, and if there's one thing I learned preflighting even the ass end of a B-52, tell the instructor what you're looking at and what you're looking for. Fasteners secured, no oil leaks, etc. We do the fuel sumps and he hands me the tester and tells me what to look for. I try not to think of the $5.99/gallon avgas that I'm tossing on the ground. But when I do, I use much smaller quantities in the tester.

I've been devouring any source of information I can find about general aviation and I'm excited about this, so yah, while I'm not out to impress the CFI, I want to demonstrate a willingness to learn and a high amount of enthusiasm.

Preflight of the plane goes smooth, we get clearance to taxi and he has me taxi to the run up area (and I managed to keep to the center line, mostly) I perform the run up checklist then he taxis to the runway and hold for incoming traffic. While holding he asks me if I know what rotation speed is, and I respond with it's the speed at which the plane can get airborne. "Right, and our rotation speed is 55 knots." Wow, that's slow. Then again, I'm used to the last plane I was plugged into the comms taking almost two miles of runway to get off the ground.

We're cleared for departure, he taxies to the runway then says, "Your plane".

WHAT!?

As calmly as I could with my heart pounding in my chest, "My plane". Right. Mixture and throttle set, max power and we're rolling down the runway. A few minutes prior he said, "Nice, smooth control movements", and now we're at 55 knots. "Rotate". I pull back, gently and smoothly. "ROTATE!" Right, apparently I'm being a bit too nice and smooth so I pull the controls back and get us off the ground and I feel the comfortable embrace of gravity pulling me back into my seat. I fly the departure, we steer around Alameda and we're climbing at cruise 80 knots to 1000 on our way to 2000. We cruise around San Pablo Bay, alternating control and I'm doing what I feel is a pretty decent job of maintaining straight and level flight, the plane is very responsive (well,to me) and I can feel when she's not quite level so I'm usually adjusting around when CFI says, "Nose too high, nose too low". I'm using the ADI, climb rate indicator and airspeed to verify I'm doing OK. Oops, we're at 2500, so we descend to our cleared altitude and head back to base.

Obviously, he lands it then taxies off the runway then we do the post landing checklist, taxi to the fuel station, do the final shutdown and gas T2A up, at $5.99 per gallon. OUCH! And we get the tow bar and pull her back to parking. During the flight he's complimenting me, and he's an instructor, he wants the job, but while walking back to the club he really made me feel good.

His comments were along the lines of being excellent in the air and I should have no problems if today's performance was any indication. It made me feel good. Sure, he's a salesman but I can tell a genuine compliment when I hear one. I just hope he feels the same way when I start performing landings...

I felt so proud, and I admit, when we said good bye and I shelled out money for my books, bag and stuff, I was a bit overwhelmed, and as I was walking to my car, I cried tears of joy.

I flew.

It ain't easy gettin' off the ground

Sherman, set the wayback machine to October 29th. I am scheduled for my "demo flight", I'm excited, I'll actually be up front and not facing backwards looking at radar sweeps painting the ground in yellow amorphous blobs or crammed into a seat riding coach feeling like a sardine being shepherded to a cannery (side note: being 6'10" tall is not conducive to comfortable flying in the coach cabin, unless one manages to get an exit row which is becoming increasingly difficult and some airlines now actually charge extra for one).

Well, I'm checking weather reports and it's not looking good for VFR. VFR is marginal at bet, and while the CFI is IFR rated, a demo flight in weather is not anyones idea of a good time. So, the flight is cancelled. No problem, there's next week.

Seven or so days later...

Phone: Answer me, someone's calling.
Me: This is Scott
CFI: Hi, Scott, this is CFI and I was out at the school for another flight and I thought I'd do a quick preflight on our plane.
Me: This isn't good news, is it?
CFI: No, not really. There's pretty bad oil leak, so I squawked the plane (I translated squawk to mean what in the Air Force called a red "X". Not safe to fly, kaput, it's no longer a plane, it's a car with wings, in fact, it's not even that. It's a really pretty ramp decoration until an A&P can get it signed off)"
Me: Right, no problem, we'll reschedule.
CFI: What's your availability like next Monday?
Me: I'm open after 4PM.
CFI: Great, meet me at the school at 4:30.
Me: Will do

Stuff happens, planes are machine, they break, but now I'm thinking maybe somebody is trying to tell me something. So, Monday arrives...

You want me to fit, where!?

The weather is stunning VFR, unlimited visibility, no clouds, winds at 6 knots. Sweet. CFI and I actually meet, we discuss what's going on, he asks me what my goals are and I tell him that I'm pretty much ready to learn to fly. We briefly discuss what I know about flying so I tell him what I did in the Air Force and we walk to the ramp.

I'm looking at this Piper Warrior and thinking "This is going to be festive". We preflight, everything looks good, and it comes time to get into the plane. Now, Warriors only have one door over the starboard wing. After ten minutes of getting into the plane, I situate myself on the seat, slide it all the way back and I'm surprised by the amount of leg room. I'm fairly comfy. Granted, CFI and I are shoulder to shoulder but it's OK.

Preflight checks are going smooth, he's having me run the checklist.

"Flight controls - movement free and clear"

Pull back, yup, push forward, yup. Turn Right, yup, turn left...uh oh. After about 1/4 rotation left, it's hitting me squarely on the left leg. Well, we can't fly all right turns, so, again, it's an abort.

Now, discouragement that started as a little seed has sprouted is now completely formed. But, all is not lost, he suggests a Cessna 172. They have an older one (circa 1966) on the ramp that I noticed and I say "Before we schedule anything, let me sit in that and see if it's even an option." I hate wasting my time and his time, so let's rule this in or out, quickly. I climb into it and it's a much better fit and we have "free and clear movement of flight controls" with a very slight grazing of my left leg.

We're in business. We schedule for Tuesday 11/13 and we're off to the races.

A History Of Me and Aviation

Like most kids, I had lofty dreams and ambitions. The first of which was to work at a car wash. Thankfully, I outgrew that one pretty quickly, but the love of machines carries forward with me this day. The one dream that pretty much stuck with me was the dream to fly.

A dream that included flying for the USAF on an A-10. I've always loved the Warthogs, probably always will (thankfully the plane I did fly on isn't the jealous type). By the age of 18 I was 6'8" tall and I had already realized that any chance of being a military pilot was dashed on the rocky shores of reality. Still, I had had a desire to fly and I figured if I couldn't fly, I'd get as close to a plane as I could so I enlisted in the USAF and had a guaranteed job as an F-16 avionics technician.

SWEET! It's not flying an A-10, but hey, I'm working on plane parts so it's all good. While going through MEPS (Military Enlisted Processing Station) I mention to the sergeant that assigns jobs that I want to fly. He mentions that there are two openings for a B-52 gunner and a KC-135 boom operator. Gunner!? Hey, that works! Visions of B-17s storming over Germany flew through my mind and I said, "I'll go for it!". His response caused me some concern, "You have to switch from guaranteed electronics to open general". In short, I could become a cook.

"I'll still go for it!", and with a swish and flourish of the mighty military pen, I was open general and hopefully soon to become a gunner. Which is exactly what happened, after basic training I went through a "Enlisted Aircrew Undergraduate Course" which basically teaches you a year of aviation theory and principle in six weeks. Forty airmen started the class, five of us graduated. The final exam was a three person oral examination consisting off 100 questions. You needed 100% to pass.

After EAUC I was off for survival training and then final instruction at Castle AFB. Upon arrival at Castle me and my buddy Mike were told that first term airmen can't be gunners, it's a reup job only. We produced our orders, and away we went. Well, away Mike went. They sidelined me while they researched flight regs as they were concerned about my seating height for the ejection seat. Well, USAF flight regs stated, "The seating height for an officer cannot exceed 36 inches". HA! I was enlisted, so through a loophole, I started training a few days behind.

After a couple of months and being very proud of the shiny silver wings on my chest I was whisked to K.I. Sawyer AFB (near Marquette, MI) and began my short but awesome stint as an AFSC 11170 (Air Force Specialty Code 11170 - Defensive Fire Control Systems Operator).

I was a gunner and I took my place in one of the oldest flying duties around, apart from pilot, of course. After racking up 5000 hours and a lot of stories that I will probably share to fill the space between my flying lessons, SAC decided to get rid of gunners and shortly thereafter my dreams of flight were again on hold.

Now, 16 years later the dream lives on in the form of one CFI and one Cessna 172 Skyhawk SP - N972TA.