I feel bad about this, as I do like CFI. However, I found out quite by happenstance that as a veteran I have access to military aero clubs. The advantages?
$15 per hour savings on instructor time
~$0.75 on avgas
The practice area is almost literally off the end of the runway, so no longer a half hour to the practice area and a half hour back.
Also, the plane is a USAF T-41 which is a Cessna 172 built in 1967 (so not as new inside as 2TA) with a Cessna 182 engine (210 BHP) so I'll also get a high performance rating. But, 2TA is like any first love, you never forget your first. I am also planning on flying with CFI at least once a month so I can work the Oakland comms.
Still, I hope CFI doesn't take it personally but I feel like it would be stupid to not take advantage of the opportunity.
Showing posts with label musings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label musings. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Friday, March 14, 2008
Any landing you walk away from...
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.
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.
Thursday, November 29, 2007
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.
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.
Thursday, November 15, 2007
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...
Cock up on the radios, and the whole world knows your an idiot...
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
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.
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.
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.
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