Changing Flight Schools

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.

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.

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.


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.