2/15/2008
So after far too long a hiatus from the controls, me and 2TA took to the skies with CFI. Ah, it was good to see her sitting on the ramp, looking all pristine. I almost feel like she's my bird. Obviously, she's not, but I tend to bond with machines and I really like 2TA.
Unfortunately, it seems other students in my club do not show her the respect I do. Her nearly new upholstery is already showing signs of wear and tear. Someone tightened an air vent so tight I couldn't get it to open until we got back on the ground and with some rather severe force I got it working again. This made for a very warm flight.
Tangent: I'm paying $75 hour dry for this plane, and as such, I treat her with respect. 1) My life is held aloft by her wings. If I don't take care of her, she won't take care of me, it's that simple. Ok, granted, I'm just a student pilot and I'm not an A&P, but to me if you're paying that much money for something, treat it with respect.
Anyway, I preflight my bird and all is going well until I check the sumps. Water in the gas. So, I keep dropping tester full amounts of $6.00 per gallon avgas on the ramp until there's not water. Oh, now we have small pieces of debris. After two tests, that clears up. OK. The bird's preflighted. I ask CFI to take the radios since I've only done it once and it's been over two months since I've sat in the seat.
Taxiing is still a challenge for me, I can't keep that plane going straight to save my life. Left hand turning tendencies and all that. Though I can tell the girl's eager to fly and she pops off the runway and we head over to the practice area. Climbing/descending turns which I actually did better than the last time we practiced.
There's something really awesome about seeing the Bay Area from a few thousand feet at rush hour. The line of cars on the freeway, the pastel shades of lavender, fuscia and orange on the horizon as the sun sets and you're in your own isolated yet connected world above it all. The steady hum of the engine your assurance that all is right with the world, the radio chatter as you hear voices over your headset that you usually only hear on the car radio talking to Oakland tower or ground. It's interesting hearing a traffic reporter call for ground clearance or approach asking someone if they're a traffic plane.
Far too soon, we're making the flight back to Oakland, the Mormon Temple a concrete bastion in my navigation before turning to wing over the bright red roofed McA....Oakland Coliseum. I line us up in the pattern at 2500 feet, fly the (downwind?) leg before turning base and have it lined up on final.
"My airplane" I wait for the CFI to say. That runway is looking rather big. Well, he didn't say it, so it was still my airplane.
200' and still no call for him to take the airplane.
100
50
20
So this is to be my first landing. Granted, CFI has been coaching me this way, and I have to say, I really fought the urge to nose up, it looked like we're getting ready to auger into the ground. The wheels make brief contact with the ground before the plane bounces up in the air that feels like a 200' bounce. I would have laughed if tower asked us if this was to be a touch and go, but they didn't. Now CFI took the controls and took the landing. Thankfully, 27R is a long runway (big jets can land on it) so we get on the ground and taxi to fuel which I notice is now "down" to $5.18 per gallon.
So, while I didn't strictly land the airplane, it was the first time that the wheels of a plane touched the ground with me at the controls.
Showing posts with label flight. Show all posts
Showing posts with label flight. Show all posts
Friday, March 14, 2008
Monday, November 19, 2007
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)
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.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
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.
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.
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.
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
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.
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.
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.
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.
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