Eblo

Boo!

Yet again, it's been far too long since I've posted here. Oh well. Blame Twitter and/or Facebook if you must. Quick hit-and-run run-down:

A) Em's great. I love that little girl. Words and photos fall miles short of describing her awesomeness.

B) I ran a marathon in April and I'm supposedly training for the Chicago Marathon in October, but I haven't run in almost 2 full weeks due to a creeping illness which has taken away all of my energy. Need to shake it off soon.

C) I never wrote a proper Illinois Marathon wrap-up. I thought I had one well underway, but all I can find now is my 'notes' file. Here it is:

<Quote>
What went wrong:
Inconsistency in first 10 (and throughout). a) Should have had 1-mile paces. b) park route was slow and passing was impossible c) 2nd half was hillier than expected.
Calf cramp - pre-race stretching? Water/nutrition?
Hip fatigue - stride?
Wind/uphills = mental. 9MPH headwinds on the uphill stretch around Mile 18-19.
Tingling in last 2-3 miles.

What went right:
Tim, Chris, Dennis.
Had gas left to sprint the end.
Weather (other than wind).
CROWD/VOLUNTEER SUPPORT!!!

Other points:
The Champaign Country Club mile SUCKED! My slowest mile.
Garmin was good, but it disagrees with reality. It gave me about 0.01 mile extra per course mile. At the end of the race, that added up to over a quarter mile of difference. It's minor, but noteworthy. Also, for whatever reason, my watch time differs from the official chip time but nearly a minute. I'm not sure how to resolve that.
<EndQuote>

My photos from the event.
Tim Borbely's photos from the event.

Oh and here, listen to this PODCAST about the Illinois Marathon: 061_2009IllinoisMarathonPodcast.mp3

D) Motorcycling:
i) Not ONLY motorcycling related, but everyone who drives should visit The Black Nail Brigade web site and in particular, read The Black Nail Brigade Manifesto. This is no joke. This is not a fashion statement. This is about life and death and the preservation and prevention thereof. Go. Read. Now. I'll wait for you.

ii) Been doing a bit of riding. Not much on the dual sport, but some here and there.

iii) Got waylaid by a minor accident in May when an ignorant woman pulled in front of me. You can search out details in my Flickr photo stream. I am well or at least really close to it, the bike is well, damage insurance has been settled, injusry insurance is still outstanding.

iv) Just bought tickets to the Moto GP races in Indianapolis at the end of August. This will be my first race experience ever, believe it or not - car, motorcycle, whatever. Should be a blast.

E) Computers - I've been burned out on technology lately in part because a seriese of hardware failures have just beaten the crap out of me both at home and at work. But I've lately heard about some interesting projects which have rekindled a bit of a spark. I no particular order of usefulness to my life, examples are: Xen, eyeOS, Evernote (used it before, using it more now), a cheap analog to digital video capture device from Woot!, some stuff with MythTV, and a few other things I've forgotten already. OLPC or something like it for Emily? Anyway, yeah, tech = cool.

F) Pets: Harrison died back in November. Not sure if I ever posted that. Also, a few months back we got fish. Now we have a TON of them. And a snail. I love watching them.

G) Flying. Have done NONE in a long, LONG time. Doesn't even look like I'll make it to Oshkosh this year. A bummer, but oh well. *sigh*

Ok, I'm running out of steam on this latest hit-and-run. As I always say, I'll try not to be such a stranger. Yeah, right.

Later.

AOPA Town Meeting Tuesday April 22, 2008

FYI, I plan on attending the AOPA Town Meeting with President Phil Boyer in Arlington Heights, IL on Tuesday, April 22, 2008. If any of youse guys are going to be there, send me an e-mail or let me know via twitter, username: Oblivion.

The Chicago Aviation Meetup Group is trying to meet and greet at the event, though I haven't seen specific plans yet. If you're local and haven't joined, look into it.

Hope to see you tomorrow!

Night Flight Debrief

The other night, I went for my first night flight in a while. The flight was uneventful in the good way, but while Monday Morning Quarterbacking it since then, I've come up with a few decisions that might not have been the wisest. They strike me as the kind of things that taken one at a time are/were no big deal, but easily could have become links in an 'accident chain.' If you're not familiar, the "accident chain" is a concept that is oft-used in hangar-talk discussions regarding aviation accidents/incidents. The theory is that a crash is seldom/never an isolated event - there is a traceable chain of events that directly leads to the smoking hole in the ground. If the pilot(s) can break a link anywhere in that chain, the results are much less grim, so it goes.

Lets take a look at a chain of events that lead to a perfectly safe and happy flight and question what may have gone wrong and what may have gone right. This is a long narrative, so I'll bold the main points.

First off, the initial leg of the flight was 54.6nm from Westosha Airport in Wilmot, WI (5K6) to West Bend Municipal Airport in, you guessed it, West Bend, WI (KETB). I departed about 6:45 P.M. I didn't much 'plan' the trip, since it's a trip I'd made 3 previous times (albeit during the day). I mean I got my weather briefing, checked for NOTAMs (Notices to Airmen about airport/runway/airspace closures, unlit towers, radio frequency changes, navaids out of service, etc.), ran a weight and balance check, estimated my fuel needs (I had a good margin of safety there) and had my current charts and A/FD with me. But up until half hour before I launched I wasn't sure of my destination since my passenger wasn't sure if he could join me. So I wasn't as fully immersed in the route as I have been in the past nor as I would be if en route to a new airport. I did not, as is my usual practice, list out the frequencies I'd need in the order I'd need them - not only for my destination airport, but for airports/facilities along the way. I relied on the chart (which I had at least marked up with a route line and circles around the freqs), a bit on memory, and the fact that, technically speaking, I didn't NEED to talk to anyone on the flight.

So here's Potential Accident Link #1. I put myself in a situation that, by itself was 'not a big deal,' but overall set me up to be behind the airplane, as they say, if something 'eventful' had happened. I HAD all of the information, but my cockpit was not organized for optimum efficiency.

I picked out KETB in the darkness with the help of the ADF, VOR, and GPS (yeah, I was being a bit sarcastic when I dialed them all in :) ), announced my entry on the 45 to Runway 24, made a standard pattern and landed with no worries. The winds were calm, so I moved over to Runway 31 to take advantage of more length and better lighting (I had considered making a straight-in approach to 31 on my initial landing but opted for the standard pattern and the comfort it provides) and did 2 more take-offs and full-stop landings. I made my first base turn WAY too soon and ended up about 500' high when I crossed the fence, so I opted to go around on that one. I adjusted from there and the landings were pretty smooth.

I taxied over to the ramp and after some chit-chat and briefing, I took off with Drew for his first night flight in a light airplane. We checked out the usual sights up in that area. First we headed east to the lake and Port Washington (Lake Michigan looks like a black hole sucking in all light from the air at night) and checked out the view of Milwaukee. I thought about requesting flight following and doing a tour down the lakefront, but I got a little distracted by noticing the air was getting a little hazy down low by the lake. I called up the ATIS for KMKE, KENW, and KUGN and they were all still reporting clear skies, but the temps were starting to creep a little closer to the dew point which was generally 9 degrees C. What had been a 10 point spread earlier was down to about 5 degrees. Clouds and fog can form when the temperature and dew point converge. I figured I'd still be good to make my return trip, but I didn't want to linger too much longer. From the lake, we headed back west towards Hartford, WI. We were trying to figure out what a string of bright lights was illuminating and settled on the idea that it was a driving range. From there I winged us north over the DnD Farm and with an amazing bit of luck circled the farm just as Dawn and her sisters were getting home from Wal-Mart. Drew saw them pull into the driveway and later they reported seeing us overhead.

This whole time a bit of doubt of maintaining VFR on my return trip was growing in the back of my mind, though the weather briefings I had gotten called for VFR all night. As subtle as it was, I know this introduced a bit of urgency to getting home - a mild case of 'Get-There-Itis' which I'll revisit later. Again, taken by itself, perhaps this was just healthy caution/suspicion but that gentle nagging at the back of the head may distract ma pilot from the primary task of flying the plane. Let's call this Potential Accident Link #2.

I made an uneventful pattern entry and landed back at KETB, dropped Drew off, and waved good bye.

Photo by Drew Domkus - Used under CC - Some rights reserved

I got a bit frazzled by a sudden rush of helicopter training traffic as I set to depart, but I waited my turn and launched without issue. My route home had a bit of a kink in it. As I departed 5K6 earlier, I was informed that our tank was our of fuel at the airport and asked if I could stop off at Burlington, WI (KBUU) to top off on my way back. KBUU is 11.5 nm North-North-West of 5K6 so this diversion was really minor. I'd landed at KBUU once before and had flown over it a few times, so armed with my A/FD I felt confident in going in there at night. I dialed it in on the GPS and VOR (to keep the practice sharp), climbed to 4500, and headed for KBUU. I dialed in KMKE Approach to keep my ears out for other traffic that might be crossing my path. About 5 times I considered requesting Flight Following and as many times I decided I "didn't need it."

No beating around the bush here, that was Potential Accident Link #3. Flight Following is a service offered to VFR pilots (workload permitting and clearly not an issue on this dead-quiet night - I only heard one IFR flight the whole time) to help us keep from running into other airplanes. It's not a guarantee of flight safety, but nothing is. Why I didn't opt to use this service, I still don't know. I'm confident in my radio work and my ability to hold an altitude. I had the frequency dialed in. There was NO GOOD REASON not to use radar separation, especially at night. I just plain bone-headed this one and the only thing I can chalk it up to is poor decision-making brought on by fatigue (perhaps exacerbated by slight hypoxia). At that point I had over 2 flight hours under my belt - that after a full day at work and a motorcycle ride from work to the airport.

So without the extra set of eyes Flight Following would have provided, I ambled towards KBUU. At one point, I heard the controller call me out to a Columbia aircraft which passed ahead of me a few miles, but other than that, no one was around - lucky for me. As I approached KBUU, I dialed in the AWOS at the field to check conditions. The temperature and dew point were both being reported as 10 C. In the back of my head, my worries of fog grumbled a little. The winds were still reported as calm, so to be a good airport neighbor, I landed on Runway 11 - the runway which did not take me over town. It also, conveniently, meant I didn't need to back-taxi to get to the fuel pump. I took some time figuring out the self-service pump, grounding the plane, filling it up, etc. As I was up on the wing strut filling the tanks, I noticed that quite a bit of dew had settled on my wings.

Here is Potential Accident Link #4. Getting fogged out of 5K6, or any other airport in the area was becoming a very real possibility. Visibility was still quite good, but there was no guarantee of that lasting. Even if the fog never came, my sense that I had to "get back home," was growing. That's never good. Since the refueling stop was really a matter of courtesy and club policy, and NOT a matter of safety (I had plenty of gas to get home), it may have been wiser to skip it entirely.

At that point I fully realized I was feeling rushed to get back home (Get-There-Itis in full swing) and I mentally and perhaps verbally told myself to slow down. Seeing the moisture on the wing reminded me that similar moisture could very well condense inside my fuel tanks. After I filled up, I took a moment to collect my thoughts for the last little hop home, let the tanks settle, and sump them to check for any water in the gas - always a good practice after a fill-up, but especially on such a damp night. Taking that breather may have actually broken the chain that I had been building. But I wasn't home yet.

I announced my intentions on the radio and taxied out to hold short of Runway 29 - again to avoid overflying town - and did a full run-up check. Just as I was about to call my departure, another aircraft, a King Air, came on the frequency and announced an 11-Mile final for Runway 11. I immediately noted that was the opposing direction I intended to take off. I immediately spotted the oncoming landing lights and announced that I would hold short of 29 for the landing traffic. Now an 11-mile final, even for a King Air, is a long way out. As I sat there waiting, I went back and forth about 10 times on whether I should have just taken off, or maybe taxied down to the other end of the field and taken off on 11. The GOOD thing is that as I was debating my decision to hold, I had resolved that I would continue to hold - even if it had been a silly, overly cautious decision in the first place. I'm still not certain if my initial decision to wait was the best decision, but I am happy with myself for having stuck with it once made. If this was an error in judgment, it was clearly an error on the side of caution - a Potential Accident Link avoided. Another positive of that part of my adventure was that I realized my long idle-time may have lead to some spark plug fouling or perhaps even carburetor ice. So as the King Air finally touched down and rolled out, I did another full run up which, incidentally, was a bit rough at first but did smooth out.

The hop home was not the end of my story either (though it does end soon, I promise). In the 10 or so miles from KBUU to 5K6 - even with the GPS pointing the way - I got turned around in the dark. I generally have a good sense of direction and know the area well, but fatigue combined with night time visual cues and perhaps some winds aloft conspired to make me think that I was heading southeast when, in fact, I was flying due south. I kept looking for the airport where I expected it to be and couldn't pick it out from the other lights. The runway lights worked when I left, so I assumed my microphone clicks had reactivated them. I thought I was chasing the GPS needle to the left with left turns, but despite my apparent corrections, the indicator kept drifting off course. About 7 miles from home, I finally cross-checked the compass and directional gyro and found I had only corrected to a 150 heading when I was convinced I was flying due east at 90 degrees. The disorientation was brief, but profound. Once I got realigned, the sight picture snapped into place and I entered the pattern and landed without incident (I did have to slip down to the runway a bit, but it's always wiser to be too high than too low at 5K6).

3.0 on the Hobbs. 2.8 at night with 6 full-stop night landings.

The fog I kept fearing never did roll in. But when I got to my bike, it looked like someone had soaked it with a hose.
I still had a damp, cool (51F the bank said) motorcycle ride home. I slept well that night, let me tell you. I think I rolled into the garage at 11:30 p.m.

One final point I'd like to address is the fact that in addition to shunning Flight Following, I never filed a VFR flight plan on this flight. For some reason, I often go back and forth on the practicality of doing that around here. On the one hand, the population is so dense that if I were forced to the ground sooner than anticipated, SOMEONE would see it. Then again, that's not as likely at night. Like Flight Following, there is no good reason not to use the service (especially while it's still free to use). I think I just get lulled into a false sense of security since the flight was relatively short over a known route. I know I've told myself before that I WILL file more flight plans, but yet again I have not seen that through. While that's not directly a link in the potential accident chain, the planning/thought required could help avoid adding a link along the way (see Potential Accident Link #1).

I hope to post some audio from this flight (I haven't checked the recording quality yet), including the "eureka" moment when I realized I was turned around. That should be amusing if not interesting. At the very least, Drew said he's going to make an episode of Dawn and Drew TV out of the footage and photos he shot.

If you have any thoughts on what I should have done differently, I'm open to hearing them. Have I learned what I should from this experience or is there something you see that I've missed? Am I being too hard on myself? Comments are still disabled on this site, but if you e-mail me at oblivion at ratula dot net, or call (206) FEW-EBLO/339-3256, I'll be sure to include them in a future post (unless you don't want me to).

All's well that ends well, especially if you learn from the experience.

Berk Snow - Model Human?

Want to be humbled by how one person can touch many lives for the better? Google "Berk Snow." For good measure, add "Burningman." Really too bad about that box canyon :(

RIP Jim Leroy and Gerard Beck

I recently posted about a photo I took in '05 of airshow performer Jim Leroy and his plane "Bulldog." According to Aero News Jim died en route to the hospital after a crash during the Dayton Airshow. The report that he hit flat at the bottom of a loop doesn't entirely surprise me - Jim's shows kept you biting your nails wondering if he'd pull up in time. An excellent showman gone west.

In other sad news, a landing accident at EAA Airventure Oshkosh 2007 claimed the life of P-51A pilot Gerard Beck. A P-51D flown by Casey Odegaard was also involved but Odegaard exited his aircraft without major injury. Again, Aero News has more details.

Finally, I'm still looking for details on this landing mishap at Oshkosh on Wednesday, July 25.

We didn't witness the accident but heard that the plane had cartwheeled on landing. i'd like to know if the pilot was OK if anyone has any information.

Aside from all of that - Oshkosh was fun (though I got deathly ill). Photos and video forthcoming (I think I botched any and all audio recordings).

Bulldog and Cloud Dancer

IMG_1408_edit, originally uploaded by oblivion9999.

I was just flipping through some of my photos on Flickr and spotted this one. It's really pretty damned cool. This was taken during the Saturday airshow at EAA's Airventure Oshkosh, 2005.

Bulldog is a highly modified Pitts S2S flown by owner Jim LeRoy and is shown here doing a ribbon cutting about 20' off the runway.

Cloud Dancer is a P-51D Mustang owned by Jimmy Leeward. I don't know for certain if that is Mr Leeward looking on from the wing.

Airbus A380 Heading to ORD

It's coming into Chicago today, the world's largest passenger jet. Although I can't really skip work to go watch it land in about an hour, I'm sitting here with my radio scanner tuned into ORD Approach in hopes of hearing a German accent announcing Lufthansa flight DLH8941.

I'm also tracking the flight's progress near real-time care of fboweb.com and Google Earth. Right now - or a few minutes ago, it was over the north shore of Lake Erie.

Depending on its approach routing, I may step outside to see if I can catch a glimpse of it, though I'm pretty far north to get a good chance.

Interestingly, though unrelated, I just heard a United flight report then resolve a mechanical issue prior to landing. Just another day at the office.

[Update 11:50 CDT]
Looks like they're just crossing into Michigan northeast of Detroit.

[Update 12:14]
They're crossing Lake Michigan.

[Update 12:34]
Bah, they routed the aircraft way south of the airport, so there's no way I'll see it unless I drive by O'Hare tonight.

Takeoffs and Landings

047_takeoffs_and_landings - 33.6MB - 35:52

I went flying. I recorded it. Nothing too exciting, just trying to get back into the flow of podcasting. I left the silences in the recording so it is real-time as far as when I made my position reports on the radio, etc. I banged out 6 takeoffs and landings in 0.6 hours. That's one every 6 minutes.

I did create some new background music. Please let me know if it's good or bad to have in there. Entertaining or distracting? Don't worry, I'm not quitting my day job any time soon, so please don't judge the music itself too harshly. Then again, if it really does suck, I'd like to know that. Thanks.

Enjoy!

Oh, BTW, thanks to Nintendo Freak for your voice mail regarding MemTester. I don't know offhand what version I had, but it was a newer rewrite. I have since replaced that motherboard, and run the RAM through the memory test 150 times. The RAM is good, and the new motherboard is good. The old one was crap.

BTW II, I tried to ride my motorcycle today since it was so nice out. The front brake is seized up. Damn. My usual fix of beating on the cylinder with a hammer didn't free it up this time. I'm pissed since I just rebuilt the brakes last year. I didn't feel like monkeying with it today, so I picked up 15 pounds of dog shit in the back yard, instead. Talk about a buzz kill.

On the upside, I spent some quality time with my wife and daughter today, and cooked out on the grill for the first time this year. Spring is on its way!

Ok, NOW I go. Goodnight.

Please note: Comments are not being accepted by the web server at this time. I'm working on that. Please use one of the other contact methods below. Thank you.

Contact info:
- email: eblo at ratula dot net
- call: 206-FEW-EBLO (206-339-3256)
- skype: oblivion9999 - now with voicemail!
- Subscribe to my podcasts via RSS:
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I've Got Wings!

045_ive_got_wings - 14MB - 19:40

At the title implies, I am no longer grounded from flying! My 3rd Class Medical has been renewed! In just under 2 months, I lost between 10 and 15 pounds, got my blood pressure, and presumably my cholesterol down. Listen for the details.

I plan to fly on Saturday morning. I intend to grab audio - and possibly video.

I hope you enjoy. Thank you to all of you who supported me through this stumbling block.

Please note: Comments are not being accepted by the web server at this time. I'm working on that. Please use one of the other contact methods below. Thank you.

Contact info:
- email: eblo at ratula dot net
- call: 206-FEW-EBLO (206-339-3256)
- skype: oblivion9999 - now with voicemail!
- Subscribe to my podcasts via RSS:
- Add yourself to my Frappr Map.
- Friend me on MySpace.
- My banners and promos

Grounded

044_grounded - 18.1MB - 25:46

At the title implies, I am currently grounded from flying. My 3rd Class Medical expired at the end of October, and I can't currently renew it. Listen for the details.

I did manage to squeeze in one more flight before the clock ran out on me. It wa a great night flight with my buddy Art. I didn't record the flight, but I do a recap in the audio.

Click here for the full photo set.

Someone's upset that Daddy's grounded.

Somewhere in these recordings, I mention The Ungodly Hour podcast. Definitely check it out. Cool stuffs.

No voicemails in this show. All you get is li'l ol' me.

I hope you enjoy.

Please note: Comments are not being accepted by the web server at this time. I'm working on that. Please use one of the other contact methods below. Thank you.

Contact info:
- email: eblo at ratula dot net
- call: 206-FEW-EBLO (206-339-3256)
- skype: oblivion9999 - now with voicemail!
- Subscribe to my podcasts via RSS:
- Add yourself to my Frappr Map.
- Friend me on MySpace.
- My banners and promos

BFR/172SP Checkout

UPDATE: Here is a Magnalox log of my fligt. If you haven't checked Magnalox out and you're into GPS/mapping geekery, you should really check it out. The logs can be viewed standalone, in Google Maps, or, most wickedly, in Google Earth. I have added descriptors of the mauevers along the route, and if I had any, I could even link in photos, or with a pay account, audio clips. Most cool.

Speaking of audio clips, I did NOT record this flight - for a few different rasons.

This is a entry that is more just a 'notes to self' about my recent 172SP checkout and not so recent BFR (Biennial Flight Review).

So my BFR was due in June. I got the ground portion done - reviewing FAA regs, stuff on sectional charts, airspace considerations/limitations, etc., and also went over the specifics of the 172SP I was going to be checking out in - but before we could do the flying portion of the review, a storm blew up. Since then, I've been on vacation, weathered out, and otherwise buried by life, so I didn't get to do the actual FLIGHT review until this past Tuesday, August 1.

The difference between the 172Ps the club has and the newer SPs is that the SPs are fuel injected and kick out an extra 20 horsepower. In addition to that, they have better (leather) interiors, awesome avionics (not full glass, but nice moving map and an autopilot), and still a slight hint of that 'new airplane smell.' Ok, maybe that was just in my head.

I got practical experience on how easy it is to flood a hot fuel-injected engine, so I also got practical experience with the 'Flooded Engine Starting Procedure." ;)

Once running, we ran though the GPS setup and the autopilot testing checklist (can you overpower it, and disconnect it if needed, and does the electric trim work properly). I have to say, I really couldn't feel the 20 extra horses from the engine, but I'll blame that on the 4,000' density altitude (yes, it was very hot and muggy). I can't wait to test it out on a 20F day in the dry winter air ;)

Anyway, the flight review was pretty 'easy.' There were a few things I stumbled on from not performing in 2 years. E.g. setting up for the stalls had me confused regarding flap and power settings, etc., though the actual stall recoveries were still well-engrained. That's why we review, I guess.

We started with steep turns then went on to stalls and slow flight. Due to healthy winds aloft, we were clocking a ground speed of 26kts on the GPS - not the slowest I've been, but still pretty cool. It was then on to some basic hood work including standard rate turns and unusual attitude recovery. To brag a bit, CFI Greg had me get myself into the first unusual attitude by having me close my eyes and make different turns and climbs with my head down - he said I lasted much longer than a lot of people before I let the plane get away from me. I have to say I was using my ears a lot to make sure I wasn't climbing or diving on the turns. It was only when he had me do a climbing turn that I 'lost it.' Recovery once told to open my eyes, however, was quick.

After that, I took off the hood and got a crash course on the operation of the GPS and autopilot. Very cool stuff, but I can definitely see how it could make you complacent in your flying. The two obvious pitfalls are a) keeping your head in the cockpit playing Nintendo with the screens instead of looking outside for possible traffic and terrain conflicts b) not adjusting power correctly when changing altitude with the AP. You could easily overspeed the engine or climb right into a stall if you're not paying attention. Additionally, if you set a decent rate and/or an unrealistic altitude, the AP will happily follow your directions and fly you right into the ground. And finally, I can see where letting the AP fly for you too much could really cause your hand flying (altitude and course holding) to rust up. But it is a great resource to have available in high workload situations as long as the limitations are kept in mind.

The AP tracked the BUU VOR flawlessly and after that, we headed back home to Westosha (5K6) for some landings.

The first approach was a straight-in, which I haven't done in a long time. I wasn't very confident and was certain I was going to botch the glideslope/flap extensions, but everything worked out fine and I preformed a nice soft-field landing complete with a tiny burst of power right at touchdown. After stumbling over these a bit on my Private checkride two years ago, I've practiced them a bit going into a few turf runways.

The ensuing short-field take-off was a little weak - I didn't keep the airspeed nailed to 55kts or so for a good steep climb - instead it was more like a soft-field take-off. Abeam the numbers on my downwind for what was to be a short-field landing, Greg, not surprisingly, pulled the power on me to simulate an engine failure. He did this right after I'd lowered 10 degrees of flaps, so it upped the challenge of making runway 21. I wasn't sure I was going to make it at first, but I nailed the best glide speed, and by truncating my base/final, brought it over the runway right above the numbers, and brought it down and got it stopped before the second turn-off.

For the third takeoff, I nailed the short-field and though I bounced a little on the short-field landing, I still got it down and slowed before the first turn-off. Not the shortest it could have been, but given the trees off the end of 03, we tend to implement an unofficial displaced threshold, so based on that, the stopping distance was respectable.

So that was it. 1.5 hours of ground time, 1.4 hours flying, 3 T/Os and landings, and I'm signed off for another two years. Additionally, I can now fly all 6 airplanes our club currently owns.

The next bit of administrivia will be to renew my 3rd Class Medical Certificate in October. That shouldn't be a problem, but I SHOULD shed a few pounds and work the heart to make sure my B.P. isn't too high - not just to pass the medical, but, you know, to live longer and stuff.

BTW, as of today, we're 2 weeks away from babyness (according to the ultrasound dates). Here so soon, and yet not soon enough. Crazy. My Darling Rose has been miserable with the swelling and kicking, so hopefully that has earned her an 'easy' labor. News as it happens (yeah right - expect posting delays).

On the podcast front, though I went to Oshkosh for a day (Saturday), I didn't record much. I still have a bunch of material I want to get out, but haven't yet. Maybe I can get some out while I'm on paternity leave - yeah right! Oh, BTW, at Oshkosh, I met Jason Miller of The Finer Points Podcast (if that link doesn't work, try this one. He was hanging out at the ZuluWorks booth with his guitar and even had one of his podcasts playing on an iPod dock. I recognized his voice immediately. I chatted with him for a bit and he said he knew of me/my podcast, so that was cool. I guess he's getting married in a few weeks, so congratulations to him. If you haven't checked out his podcast, it's worth a listen. He's a CFI with some good 'points' to consider regarding flying, safety, etc. He's definitely more of an authority than I am!

One more thing I want to link to: How NOT to Arrive at Oshkosh. There's a recording on that page of a pilot doing EVERYTHING wrong, short of crashing, while flying in to some of the world's busiest airspace. As a pilot who has read the Airventure NOTAM even though I had no intention of flying in (yet), the recording is painful to listen to. To the controllers' credit, as bone-headed as this guy was from initial contact to final handoff to ground flaggers, they maintained professional decorum and went well above and beyond to help this guy get in to Wittman Regional before it closed.

Thanks, all, for the feedback. And BTW, yes, web site comments are unofficially closed - you can thank the spammers. One day I'll upgrade MT.

That's it for now - thanks for sticking with me during the non-productive times. I'm not going to make any promises of content other than to say "eventually," since I seldom deliver anyway. Besides, there's plenty of other stuff to listen to, so I'm sure you don't miss my voice too much.

Later, gators.

She's ALIVE!!!!

039_shes_alive.mp3 - 20MB - 28:37

I got the motorcycle running like a champ. BFR (two-year flight review) and Cessna 172SP checkout is today if weather holds - don't expect audio from that.

7 weeks to baby!

Thanks for staying tuned.

Contact info:
- email: eblo at ratula dot net
- call: 206-FEW-EBLO (206-339-3256)
- skype: oblivion9999 - now with voicemail!
- Subscribe to my podcasts via RSS:
- Add yourself to my Frappr Map.
- Friend me on MySpace.
- My banners and promos

Flying With Myself

036_flying_with_myself.mp3 - 7.5MB - 21:27

I squeezed in one flight in March. The weather was marginal, so I just did some basic training. This is a shorter show than my usual becuase the battery went dead on the iRiver. Enjoy.

Contact info:
- email: eblo at ratula dot net
- call: 206-FEW-EBLO (206-339-3256)
- skype: oblivion9999 - now with voicemail!
- Subscribe to my podcasts via RSS:
- Add yourself to my Frappr Map.
- Friend me on MySpace.
- My banners and promos

Flying with Drew - A Video

Flying_with_Drew.m4v - 8.8MB - 3:51 - video

This is going to be the last video for a while, I promise. It's old footage Drew took when we went flying back in May, 2005. The audio is a mix from the video and the iriver recordings Drew did for Flying with Drew Part 1, DnD #103 and Flying with Drew Part 2. I did the editing, Drew, again, did the m4v encoding. Drew rocks.

To recap, I flew up from Westosha Airport (5K6), picked up Drew at West Bend Municipal Airport (ETB), we flew to Watertown, Wisconsin (RYV) for lunch, and then headed back to West Bend, dodging rain on the way back.

Enjoy. Blue skies!

Contact info:
- email: eblo at ratula dot net
- call: 206-FEW-EBLO (206-339-3256)
- skype: oblivion9999 - now with voicemail!
- Subscribe to my podcasts via RSS:
- Add yourself to my Frappr Map.
- Friend me on MySpace.
- My banners and promos

1st Passengers - A Video

1stPassengers.m4v - 101MB - 16:52 - video

This is a video of my first passenger-carrying flight from June 13, 2004. My dad and wife were onboard - very fitting, as they were my two biggest supporters in getting my license. I would not have done it without them.

Special thanks to JVonD Radio for the music and Drew Domkus for converting the final video to ipod-happy m4v format and for testing it out on his video ipod.

I hope you enjoy.

Contact info:
- email: eblo at ratula dot net
- call: 206-FEW-EBLO (206-339-3256)
- skype: oblivion9999 - now with voicemail!
- Subscribe to my podcasts via RSS:
- Add yourself to my Frappr Map.
- Friend me on MySpace.
- My banners and promos

Birthday Surprises

032_birthday_surprises.mp3 - 17.5MB - 48:30

I went for a solo flight in a C-152 on my birthday. The following Saturday, Rose and I went out to a meat-fest dinner at Fogo de Chão with a bunch of friends. She then surprised me for Valentine's Day by checking us in to the Hyatt Regency Chicago for the night. She had one of her sisters pet sit for us. She's a sneaky broad.

Flickr

By the way, I threw together a Google Map of the 23 airports I've landed at so far. I made it with help from MyFlightBlog.com and GPSVisualizer.com. Definitely check out GPS Visualizer - it's got some very cool tools for importing GPS tracks into Google Earth without having to pay for the Pro version. When I get more time, I'll make some of my tracks available.

Contact info:
- email: eblo at ratula dot net
- call: 206-FEW-EBLO (206-339-3256)
- skype: oblivion9999 - now with voicemail!
- Subscribe to my podcasts via RSS:
- Add yourself to my Frappr Map.
- Friend me on MySpace.
- My banners and promos

Bliv, Rose, and Junior - Mish Mash

031_bliv_and_rose_mish_mash.mp3 - 14.4MB - 42:00

This was delayed by a server crash. Please forgive. It's a ramble-fest. We went flying (Junior's first flight), but coudln't take you with due to a dead battery in the spare intercom. Here's an attempt at notes.

5K6 - UGN - (BUU) - 5K6
Click for more.

0:00 - Intro 1.
1:29 - Intro 2 and my new Lappy.
2:32 - Agility, Rose, radio emulating podcasting, adding to the DVD collection, weather chat, lookin' at baby stuff.
8:18 - Rose's tip to expecting fathers and 'Bliv tries to crawl out of the dog house.
11:40 - Rose gives a solo intro to our flight, sounding a little bored/frustrated.
13:48 - Accompanied by the whine of gyros, Rose wraps up.
14:50 - Oblivion's Redundant Wrap-up, complete with wacky radio voice.
22:50 - Speaking of sleeping with someone. . . A shoutout to Brian Ibbot of Coverville.com.
27:06 - A discussion of aerodynamics and engine performance in cooler air.
28:36 - Meta - VIDEOS COMING SOON!
30:16 - Big news - We heard the baby's heartbeat!!!!!!
32:50 - Contact info.
33:12 - Voicemails from me about the crappy weather (resulted in 10" of snow) as well as voicemail comments from The Flying Vealchart Company and Nlinus (formerly of several different podcasts).
41:36 - The Rose Remix

Contact info:
- email: eblo at ratula dot net
- call: 206-FEW-EBLO (206-339-3256)
- skype: oblivion9999 - now with voicemail!
- Subscribe to my podcasts via RSS:
- Add yourself to my Frappr Map.
- Friend me on MySpace.
- My banners and promos

Flying Videos

I don't think I ever linked to this page of videos Drew Domkus took of me and Art dropping in to his R/C club's annual cornroast: Cornroast = Buttroast.

Also, here is a video I took of Drew flying R/C: drew-flying.avi - 23.1MB.

I combined these two into this, hopefully my first video podcast: HahnsLandings_online.m4v - 36.5MB.

What Kind of Airplane are You?

A little something silly:

You are a DEHAVILLAND BEAVER. You love
adventure. You are a person of the outdoors,
very in-tune with nature and your surroundings.
You enjoy communication between people, and
also your alone time. You are not afraid to
take risks. You aren't afraid of sucking up
some of the pleasures that life can offer. You
are a well-rounded individual, who puts your
passion in to almost all you do.


What Airplane Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Pissed Off and Inspired

024_pissed_off_and_inspired.mp3 - 8MB - 23:11

A beautiful sight.
An unanswered message.
A fledgeling pilot.
I'm going to jump!
Riffraff.

Some URLs:

• JVonD Radio


• Comment_on_DSC-269.mp3 - My message to Adam Curry


• Thread on PodcastPickle.com about my comment


• My Finding a Flight School podcast


• Skydive Radio podcast


• Podchick Show podcast


• DropZone.com - big/popular skydiving website


• Skydive Chicago website


• My banners and promos


• Casey Neill's website

Contact info:

• email: eblo at ratula dot net


• call: 206-FEW-EBLO (206-339-3256)


• skype: oblivion9999


• Subscribe to my podcasts via RSS:


• Add yourself to my Frappr Map.


• Friend me on MySpace.

Flying Rose

023_flying_rose.mp3 - 13MB - 35:15

"Rose" and I headed out to the airport and the weather turned to crap. I had hoped to capture getting my preflight weather briefings on this one, but didn't have a rig to record the phone conversation. It would have made a good example of tough go/no-go decisions pilots need to make when the weather is borderline. After talking with a briefer and a few pilots who had been flying before us, including the clubs chief instructor, I decided to launch and stay local to the airport. We just did some pattern work, a little sight-seeing, took a few pictures, and then got chased by a thunderstorm back to the airport. Once on the ground, the rain AND HAIL caught up to us. On the way home, we stopped for some late lunch and caught Northwestern's miracle 1-point football victory over Iowa.

Some URLs:

• directwfc.com - Westosha Flying Club, Wilmot, Wisconsin.


• Airnav entry for Westosha Airport (5K6).


• Coverville podcast.


• Flickr photos from the trip.


• The Nate and Di podcast.


• The Podcast Pickle.

Contact info:

• email: eblo at ratula dot net


• call: 206-FEW-EBLO (206-339-3256)


• skype: oblivion9999


• Subscribe to my podcasts via RSS:


• Add yourself to my Frappr Map.


• Friend me on MySpace.

Flight School Advice

022_flight_school_advice.mp3 - 12MB - 34:11

A neighbor (losely applied) found my website and e-mailed me, asking if I could answer some questions for him about the airports I did my flight training at. I put together this podcast outlining some general thoughts on both Campbell Airport and Westosha Airport. I believe we're going to try to match up on the phone tomorrow so I can answer some more specific questions he has. Since much of what I put in this audio could be applied to anyone starting to seek out a flight school, I decided to post it.

Something I forgot to mention in the audio, though I'm pretty sure I've podcasted before, is one of the major differences between Cardinal Aircraft Services at Campbell and the Westosha Flying Club at Westosha - Cardinal is a full-service FBO whereas Westosha is a self-service club. What this means is that as a customer at Campbell, you get the keys for the plane, go out to the tie-down or perhaps the hangar in the winter (no more than a hundred paces away), pre-flight, hop in, fly, come back, hand the keys to the guy behind the counter, and pay. That's it.

At Westosha, you have to get the aircraft keys from the lockbox, walk 0.15nm out to the planes, hope you didn't forget anything in your car, preflight/untie the plane, hop in, fly, come back, taxi to the fuel pump, top off the gas tanks (yes, after every flight), taxi to parking, tie down the plane, recheck the oil, walk 0.15nm back to the clubhouse, hope you didn't forget anything in the plane, return the keys to the lockbox, and whew, you're done. Sure, you get lucky sometimes and the person who has the plane after you will be waiting for it at the pump, so you won't have to taxi to parking, tie it down, and hoof all the way back to the clubhouse, but that's the exception rather than the norm in my experience.

Heaven forbid there be snow or ice on the plane when you want to fly. At Cardinal, they could probably squeeze the plane in the hangar for a while before you even show up. At Westosha, you're pretty much on your own. I don't mean to paint a grim picture at Westosha, the experience is much like owning your own plane without the maintainence bills, which is great and who can't use the exercise of a good walk? It's just good to know what you're getting into and to realize that an hour-long flight lesson at Westosha is going to take a bit longer than a hour start-to-finish.

Just more food for thought.

This is from the comments, but I wanted to add it to the main body of the post:

1) I picked Campbell to train at because I work less than 5 minutes away and it worked out well with my schedule to fly around work. As a result, I flew 100% during the week for training, so scheduling was really easy.

2) We did NOT use a syllabus. At the end of one lesson, he'd tell me what we'd be working on next. I could have been better informed about what was coming each day, but I don't think it really got in my way. When we were going to be working on VORs, etc., he let me know to brush up on those sections of the books. I think I was a pretty non-demanding student and had I requested/required more preparation and feedback, I'm pretty sure I would have gotten it. Though, to be honest, there were a few times I think he lost track of what we had and had not done. So there is something very positive to be said for having a lesson plan.

3) The lessons very much fit my style. Whether or not other students got the same style, I can not say, but his style worked for me. I was pushed, but not in a bad way, and the only time I felt held up was by the instructor availability issues I mentioned.

4) There is not much I would have changed about my training. When scheduling got sticky, perhaps I should have changed instructors or gone to using two different ones, but it all worked out in the end. It was a very positive experience throughout.

Best of luck in your decision!

Some URLs you should be familiar with:

• directwfc.com - Westosha Flying Club, Wilmot, Wisconsin


• Airnav entry for Westosha Airport (5K6)


• Cardinal Aircraft Services, Grayslake, Illinois


• Airnav entry for Campbell Airport (C81)


• beapilot.com - home of the $49 "Intro Flight" coupon


• Cessna's learntofly.com


• National Association of Flight Instructors' learntofly.org


• AOPA's Learn To Fly page - www.aopa.org/learntofly/ - Check out the free 6-month membership for students


• Great articles and forums for students and veterans alike (a good pilot is alway learning) at studentpilot.com

Contact info:

• email: eblo at ratula dot net


• call: 206-FEW-EBLO (206-339-3256)


• skype: oblivion9999


• Subscribe to my podcasts via RSS:

Flying with Art Part 1 of 2

flying_with_art_part_1_of_2.mp3 - 21.5MB - 62:55

More notes to come - this post has been too long coming to hold up for notes.

I took my friend Art for his first general aviation airplane ride. Art is one of my longest-running friends. We met my freshman year of high school and have been buds ever since. After more than a year of flying, his wife (who I've also known since high school) finally trusted me to take her baby's daddy for a ride. We flew up to Hahn's Sky Ranch by invitation from Drew Domkus to partake in the Sky Ranch Flyers' butt^h^h^h^hcorn roast. Hmmm, corn.

A few photos posted on Flickr.

Stay tuned to the end for two PSAs re: Katrina.

Contact info:

• email: eblo at ratula dot net


• call: 206-FEW-EBLO (206-339-3256)


• skype: oblivion9999


• Subscribe to my podcasts via RSS:

EAA AirVenture, Oshkosh - 2005

eaa_airventure_oshkosh_2005.mp3 - 20MB - 57:42

Rose and I drove up to Oshkosh, Wisconsin last weekend for EAA AirVenture, a large, week-long fly-in/airshow/pilot convention. A main theme of AirVenture this year was the new "Sport Pilot" pilot certificate the FAA approved last September. This is an exciting new ticket intended to make recreational flying cheaper and more accessible. AirVenture showcased a lot of new low(er) cost light sport aircraft which this ruling enabled. EAA was also giving away free Student Sport Pilot certificates to motivate people to get out there and start learning to fly. It and exciting time in recreational avaition. If you've always wanted to learn to fly, now just might be the perfect time (or at least once Sport Pilot schools get established).

In this show, my wife "Rose" makes her podcasting debut, gives me a hard time, and enjoys her first airshow. I didn't do any interviews, but I captured a lot of audio from the show itself as well as a bit of radio traffic off the scanner. I included some of that in this recording, but if you're interested in more, let me know - I may post an additional file with the departure radio traffic in real-time just to give a sense of how crazy it is flying in and out of there at peak times. With the small amount of radio and show chatter I included, in addition to our road-tripping and story telling, this show comes in at just under an hour. For the trip, the weather was perfect, if a little too sunny, and a good time was had by all. We drove up Saturday morning, stayed in a rented house overnight, and drove back home Sunday afternoon. Driving time was only about 2 hours each way and traffic was light.

Enough typing - Join us in Oshkosh!

Some notes and links:

• 00:00 - Intros - EAA AirVenture - 7600 On Air interview - Flickr Photo Set - Oshkosh


• 02:11 - Inrto II - and it's 'wife and ME', not 'wife and I.' UGH.


• 02:43 - Ready for departure


• 03:16 - Hello to "Rose" - my fanbase - soundseeing to an ATM in Zion - Shakespeare in the Park II - murder


• 06:48 - On the road! - shout out to the peeps - Bristol Rennaissance Faire - we never hit any traffic, it took less time than anticipated - what's in a name, AyM? - dead air, um, dead air - bodyart


• 15:12 - Training at KENW - Now It's Overhead - Rose by any other name - I break(sic) for phone calls


• 18:27 - Dawn and Drew drive-by - holy crap! - roadside fireworks and pr0n - I've been to West Bend before! - Cornhole = Butthole / the drewhole - interactive porn? - tilting at windmills (photo)


• 30:32 - Radio chatter


• 31:02 - Fond du Lac pit stop - pictures of leaves - actually, there's a lot out west, I just haven't gone that way for some reason


• 35:52 - Arrival radio traffic (slightly accelerated, but not by much)


• 36:44 - Our arrival - stealing Nick Cave - bad South Park rendition - know when to say when


• 37:27 - P-51 climbout


• 38:04 - P-51 startup and taxi - Sweet and Lovely starts up (photo) - I rescued a guy's hat


• 40:51 - Waiting on the flight line - exciting announcements and missed pictures


• 42:10 - "Remove your cover" for the National Anthem (photo)


• 43:32 - Crank it up (photo) and get it started (photo)


• 44:52 - Wrapping up the airshow


• 45:15 - Recap and planning at IHOP on Sunday morning


• 47:21 - Departing the seaplane base - silly accents - don't go home on 45 - putting the 'flash' in flash drive - soundseeing without pictures - why do I like the word 'glorious' so much? - the sign-off


• 51:06 - Good-bye, but don't go away


• 51:39 - Dedication - NTSB report


• 55:33 - The Missing Man (photo) - Taps

Contact info:

• email: eblo at ratula dot net


• call: 206-FEW-EBLO (206-339-3256)


• skype: oblivion9999


• Subscribe to my podcasts via RSS:

Going to Oshkosh

My wife and I are going to the EAA Airventure, Oshkosh this weekend. Oshkosh is a HUGE flyin/airshow - I think the biggest in the world. There will be plenty of photo ops and I'm sure more than a few opportunities to capture some audio. I'll take the iRiver and the Canon and see what I can capture. Maybe I'll even work up the guts for my first interview. If any of my fair readers are going to be there and want to try to meet up, drop me a note by Friday night at the latest. Otherwise, just look for the audio and pictures next week.

Contact info:

• email: eblo at ratula dot net


• call: 206-FEW-EBLO (206-339-3256)


• skype: oblivion9999


• Subscribe to my podcasts via RSS:

oshkosh_promo.mp3 - 337kb - 00:57

Flying to Hahn's Part 2

Last Thursday, I went flying again for the first time in several weeks. This was an evening flight from Westosha Flying Club at Westosha Airport (5K6) to Hahn Sky Ranch (2T5) to try to meet up with Drew Domkus and see if any of the Sky Ranch Flyers were flying their R/C airplanes. I brought the iRiver iFP-899 and recorded some audio along the way which I'm posting here. I split the flight into two parts to keep each around 30 minutes. The in-flight audio isn't as good as it could have been - I think I had the output level on the intercom too high. If you want details on the recording setup, check out my Flying to Alaska post.

Part 2 - flying_to_hahns_2_of_2.mp3 - 10.4MB - 30:28

• Return flight home


• Night landing practice including 3 night landings


• 1.0 nighttime flight hours


• Debrief on the drive home


• Shout outs


• Almost killed a family of 'coons


• My second comment line voicemail (Walter from the K9 Cast)

Contact info:

• email: eblo at ratula dot net


• call: 206-FEW-EBLO (206-339-3256)


• skype: oblivion9999


• Subscribe to my podcasts via RSS:

Flying to Hahn's Part 1

Last Thursday, I went flying again for the first time in several weeks. This was an evening flight from Westosha Flying Club at Westosha Airport (5K6) to Hahn Sky Ranch (2T5) to try to meet up with Drew Domkus and see if any of the Sky Ranch Flyers were flying their R/C airplanes. I brought the iRiver iFP-899 and recorded some audio along the way which I'm posting here. I split the flight into two parts to keep each around 30 minutes. The in-flight audio isn't as good as it could have been - I think I had the output level on the intercom too high. If you want details on the recording setup, check out my Flying to Alaska post.

Part 1 - flying_to_hahns_1_of_2.mp3 - 10.2MB - 29:54

• Intro from the car


• Flight to Hahn's including 3 day landings


• Discussion of landing at Hahn's and missing Drew


• 0.9 daytime flight hours


• My first comment line voicemail (Jessie from The UFN Show)

Contact info:

• email: eblo at ratula dot net


• call: 206-FEW-EBLO (206-339-3256)


• skype: oblivion9999


• Subscribe to my podcasts via RSS:

Flying to Alaska

My latest audio post is a collection of recordings I made on the Alaska Airlines trip to Anchorage a few weeks ago. The recordings were made on the iRiver iFP-899 which was plugged into the aux out on a Sigtronics Transcomm II portable intercom. I used the mic on my LightSPEED 20XL2 ANR (Active Noise Reduction) aviation headset, which was also plugged into the intercom. I also used the headset to monitor the recording by jacking the iRiver's out into the 'music in' jack on the LightSPEED control box.

The topics covered range from the scenery outside, the amount of daylight in the middle of the night, the recording setup, a new aviation podcast, 7600 On Air, the first mashup I ever heard, etc.

Some of the first recordings were lost as I was getting the setup right, so there's no inline intro. There are also a few dropouts, but overall, the audio is pretty good.

I end on a silly note, with my first Skype voicemail, care of Nate and Di.

Thanks again for stopping by.

Other links:

• Culture Cafe with nLinus and Wife


• K9 Cast with Tara and Walter


• The Nate and Di Show


• Urban Family Night, The UFN Show


• The Dawn and Drew Show


• Podcast 411


• The Podcast Pickle - thanks for the free hat!

Contact info:

• email: eblo at ratula dot net


• call: 206-FEW-EBLO (206-339-3256)


• skype: oblivion9999

The recording is: flying_to_alaska.mp3 - 9.3MB - 26:29 total.

Subscribe via RSS:

Fireworks!

Last night, we got to a good spot to watch our local fireworks display just in time as they were starting. The whole show lasted about 25 minutes, and for a small city, I must say we represented. This grand finale rivaled anything we've seen in Chicago - perhaps made more spectacular because we were so close, but as you can hear for yourself, it lasted about a minute. I've don't know if I've ever seen so much phosphorus burning at once before. Impressive. And parking was a breeze- we were home in about 5 minutes. Small towns do have some advantages.

Other random, cool things I saw in the sky this weekend included an F-4 Phantom flying into KUGN on Friday evening (not sure what was up with that, but it was very cool to see), what I think was the Lima, Lima flight team flying formation over our house (I think they were performing west of us earlier in the day - they flew from the west, made a fairly sloppy 180 to the right, and headed back west. There were 6 of them, and though they were high, looked like what I remeber them flying), and 3 Wacos playing tag around Campbell Airport (C81), sometimes with smoke on. Oh, and a botched banner pick-up, that was kind of cool. I need to get flying again.

Otherwise, it was mostly a working weekend. A. had to do work work, I added another gate to our fence, painted the hinges on the other gate, put down the timbers around our garden and a flower bed, and did other general putzing around. We swam quite a bit, too. And I had to run in to work on Sunday to kick a persnickety machine. So we worked, but in a very laid-back manner.

And hey, I broke my laptop. I dropped it off the couch right onto the power plug. The plug broke and afterward the laptop was not fully recognizing the AC. It'll run the lappy, but not recharge the battery. So I took the plug apart and rewired it. Same deal. I brought it in to work today and plugged in the adapter I have here. Same deal. So it looks like I busted the connector on the motherboard for the second tie in about 6 months. I'm getting a lot of use out of this warranty, let me tell you. . . ..

That's all the babble for now. For today's podcast rec., check out K9Cast with Tara and Walter. Tara saw one of my posts talking about hearing protection for Martini in the airplane and took it upon herself to do some more research for me. In Show #3, she gave me some great suggestions on alternative earplugs to try. They've also discussed training, picking up strays, etc., so if you like dogs at all, definitely give them a listen. Thanks for the tips, Tara and Walter.

Thanks again for stopping by. You can still be the FIRST to leave a voicemail comment at:

206-FEW-EBLO (206-339-3256)

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Flying With Drew - Part 2

I know I'm blowing my wad here with a third audio post in four days, but I've been stashing up this stuff for a while, so now I want to get it out. Today's bit of audio is actually the continuation of Flying With Drew, the first part of which was on the Dawn and Drew Show #103. If you haven't listened to that yet, you might want to check it out first. However, be warned that their servers have been getting hit hard due to new iTunes traffic, so if their links time out, try them again later. Drew's also got pictures and videos of the flight posted up there as well, so it's worth a click or two. As cool as we both thought it was, Drew didn't really get a major response either way on the first flight, so he didn't plan on posting the second part. I recently asked him for permission to post it here, and he graciously and enthusiastically agreed.

A few notes about the recording (external links should open a new window or tab):

• What's posted here is the flight from Watertown (KRYV) back to West Bend (KETB), Wisconsin.
• The previous show is here.
• Drew's photos and videos are here.
• Silences as well as some idententifying material have been cut out.
• At the end of the first recording, I went back and forth on refueling in Watertown. I did top off before we left, "Just to be safe." My plan was to drop off Drew and then top off at a cheaper local airport, but decided I wanted to head directly home after, not make another stop.
• To the unicom operator at KRYV, we kid about your accent because we love. I really do appreciate the friendly greeting and good-bye. Any pilot looking for a friendly pit/lunch stop in south central Wisconsin, check out Wisconsin Aviation in Watertown. Sadly, their fuel price was one of the highest around.
• In my focus on flying the plane, I oversimplified and somewhat mis-stated the use of flaps on a shorft-field takeoff (we weren't doing a short-field, but I alluded to one). They help you climb quicker in relation to your forward movement, but there are a lot of tradeoffs to weigh there. And you don't just 'throw them in,' you set them as part of your pre-takeoff checklist.
• 100 knots = 115.077945 miles per hour.
• The automated voice you hear is automated weather (AWOS) from West Bend.
• As an example of radio range, Hartford to Galt is about 57 nautical miles, 65 satute miles, and 105 kilometers (never mind us as we look at the map).
• Turns out we did NOT see Showbiz Dad from the air.
• I squeezed in an Area51 Show plug. I'm not affiliated with them, just dig their show. Check them out. Prepare for strange.
• Sorry for referring to visuals that don't work so well on the radio. . . .
• Again, we talk about radio range. West Bend to Poplar Grove is about 72nm. I'll leave the conversions up to you.
• Loche Ness Monster and submarines - I swear, we weren't smoking anything, just babbling.
• I know, I know, I should keep a more sterile cockpit (no talking) while in the pattern. One of the advantages to listening to a recording of yourself is that you can pick out your own mistakes.
• So, too, can others. Dear FAA, if I did anything wrong in the course of this flight, this is only a reenactment, not an actual flight recording. . . .
• This recording was made by jacking an iriver IFP-899 into a Sigtronics portable intercom with an aux out jack. We were both using LightSPEED headsets, which I love to death.

If you are interested in learning to fly, check out:

• AOPA’s Learn to Fly page - http://www.aopa.org/learntofly/
  
• $49 intro-flight coupons - http://www.beapilot.com
  
• The Student Pilot dot Com message board (not just for students!) - http://www.studentpilot.com
  

If any pilots, pilot-wannabes, or plain ol' folk want to comment on, or ask a question about anything in this post, feel free to leave a comment below, or call the brand spankin' new comment line:

206-FEW-EBLO (206-339-3256)

I hope you enjoy!

The recording is: flying_with_drew_part_2.mp3 - 11MB - 30:36 total.

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P.S. to kmitzel, CONGRATS on your FIRST SOLO!

Catching up.

I suck. Way behind on posting. A few things:

• Going to Alaska soon. Woot! I need more Compact Flash memory.
• I met Drew of the Dawn and Drew Show podcast and took him for an airplane ride. We recorded the intercom and radio traffic, and he made a show of it. Listen here. Usually they're rated R, but this one is just PG.
• For your dose of gay culture and other sex talk, make sure you check out Urban Family Night, especially Episode #17. Think an audio gang-bang version of Savage Love. Rated R.
• Another great laugh, even if somewhat offensive, is Keith and the Girl. God, they make me laugh. Also rated R.
• Also, I recently bought an iRiver iFR-899 1GB mp3 player/recorder a) for the upcoming trip b) to perhaps start podcasting on my own.
• Tonight we read-through this year's Shakespeare in the Park. A. gave me a LOT of lines this year. Wow. It'll be fun.
• I know there's more, but off to work I go.

Later.

Flying Puppy!!!

While dodging raindrops today, we took Martini for her first airplane ride!!! Even though we have a harness for her, Amy sat in back with her and she did GREAT!

More pictures here.

She was having fun looking out the windows, but she stayed very calm. After a while, the continuous loud noise seemed to get to her, so it we went back to the airport and landed. She wasnt really anxious, but was snuggling way into Amy's lap and seemed to get better when Amy covered her ears. It wasn't a very long flight, but to have the whole family up was very cool.

Anyone know of a way to protect her hearing? We thought of putting a bandana around her head, but didn't test it out this time. Other thoughts welcome.

More pictures here.

Good Weather and Long Days

I went flying on Sunday and yesterday. First time in a few months. I went up with an instructor so I could get checked out to fly the club's 152s, which are just 2-seaters (as opposed to the 4-seater 172s I usually fly). It was a TON of fun, and the instructor repeatedly complimented me on my skillz, which was damned cool, especially since I've only logged an hour in the last 5 months. But I was humbled a little yesterday when I went up solo, because I realized at one point that I had forgotten to do something fairly important - not life-threatening in this case, but in another situation, could have been. So, two steps forward, one step back.

But on Sunday we did a few landings at a grass stip by Genoa City, WI. Damn, that was fun. I think that was the single most fun flight I've had to date. Taking my dad and A. up was cool. But this was just plain fun. The difference between flying a 172 and a 152 is like the difference between driving a sedan and a slightly underpowered sport coup. What it lacks in power, it also lacks in weight, so although it doesn't go fast, it's really responsive. And it's TINY. The wings are lower, it's actually a chore to climb into, and you're shoulder to shoulder with your passenger. But damn, is it fun.

Anyway, I could go on and on, but I won't. All I'll say is, thank god for nice weather.

Weekend Update

It was a busy but fun weekend. It started on Friday when I headed out to Campbell Airport to meet up with a friend from ground school and go for a ride in her and her husband's new used airplane, a 1981 Piper Archer.

On the way to the airport, I stopped to shoot a few of the locals. Click for a larger version and you'll see that there are some nice racks out there.



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There was a ton of commercial traffic heading out west for the evening. Check out all of the contrails in this picture.



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Since sunset was coming up quickly, we weren't up long, but it was a nice evening flight. I have over 70 hours of flying, and believe it or not, this was my first time as a passenger in a light airplane. It's nice, there's a lot more time for looking at scenery and taking pictures. Here's where we went.







SATURDAY


It had been a few months since I got some stick time of my own, but the only time I was able to reserve an airplane at Westosha was on Sunday, and the weather was looking to not hold out for me (after a mostly gorgeous week). On the way home from my flight with Lindy, I decided to call the scheduler again, and to my surprise, someone had canceled their flight for Saturday morning. I booked Cessna 172, N9815L from 11:30 to 1:00 P.M. It ended up being a beautiful day to fly. I didn't get to take too many pictures since I was busy flying and stuff, but I snapped a few of where A. and I were married.



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After that, I turned towards my old home base, Campbell Airport (C81) and realized just how strong the wind was coming out of 180. I was bearing about 100 degrees, though the heading out the nose of the airplane was more like 140 degrees. WINDY, but incredibly smooth, considering the forcast said it'd be a bumpy day. I did one landing at C81 and while I was waiting my turn to take off, I snapped a picture of a few other people taking advantage of the beautiful break in the weather.



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After an uneventful takeoff and a short hop, I was coming up on my current home base of Westosha Airport (5K6). You know you're close when you see Wilmot 'Mountain' ski hill.



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I shot two landings back at Westosha refuled the plane and handed it off to the next guy. I only logged 0.8 hours, but I got in three landings to refresh my 90 day currency so I am able to take passengers again.





It's amazing how happy flying makes me. I smiled like an idiot the whole way home. Getting to have the top down on a 50+ degree day in February didn't hurt, either.



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All of that by 1:00 P.M., and I wasn't even done yet. After this, A., the wunder-hund Martini and I went and found our first geocache, but that write-up is going to have to wait for another day.

Night Time

I finally got some air-time last night. Went up just before sundown, launching right around 6:15p.m. Did 3 trips around the patch, then got gutsy enough to leave the pattern. I say gutsy because it was starting to get dark and this was my first night-time in about 220 days. I had intended to go up with a CFI for a refresher, but while I was in the plane and it was getting dark, I was confident I could handle it. I never had any problems with night landings, my only real concern was a) finding the airport and b) the non-standard lighting at 5K6. But, we now have landing lights on BOTH sides of the runway, they were just on the south edge before. So I made the calculated decision to keep flying. I was prepared with three flashlights and if I needed to, I could always divert to ENW or UGN which I could light up like a Christmas tree.

I just flew around a bit, enjoying the smooth air and beautiful lights, and eventually decided to drop in on good ol' C81, where I did my training. My first night landing (now it was good'n'dark) was back at 'home.' It was nice to see a few much-needed improvements, like new taxiway pavement, and I think a new wind sock. It was kind of strange to land back at C81 - it was like going home for the first visit after going off to college. It was familiar, but slightly
uncomfortable.

I took off out of there, then ambled back to 5K6. I think I heard about 3 other planes during the duration of my flight. Despite warnings and my concerns, I had no problems finding Westosha. Before I left the area, I had marked it well in my mind. There's a well-lit quarry and at the time, athletic fields (but I know I can't always count on those being on), that help pick out the airport. I did three more trips around the pattern and actually had some of my best landings to date in the 172. On 03 at 5K6, the tendancy is to go long, because you come in RIGHT over some houses. No matter how hard you try to fight it, your subconscious keeps you higher than you should be. At night, you don't see so much, so you're more inclined to be lower where you should be. But hopefully not TOO low.

Anyway, it was a great relaxing flight which I really needed. I had been getting
really frustrated with various things getting in the way of flying.

1.5 hours and 7 landings in the log book, including 0.8/4 at night.

It was a trifecta. I LOVE flying. I love flying the 172. And I love flying at night. It doesn't get too much better than that.

Where the Hell Have You Been???

It's been far too long since I've written anything here. Time and attention never seem to coincide. Here are a few things in no particular order:

If trying to upgrade the firmware on a Linksys WAP11 v2.6, the firware upgrade sceen is located in the "Help" tab of the configuration of all places. That's trick #1. Trick #2 is that the upgrade won't work if upgrading with Netscape (as of 7.1). I finally got the upgrade to go through via IE.

But that's not what has me up at 4:40 a.m. I think Martini woke me up. I think my lines kept me up. Yep, my lines. I have lines. I'm in a show. Ac-TING! In an Amy Rath production of a William Shakespeare mélange including me as Puck. I've also got a few sonnets, a scene with Amy from Taming of the Shrew, and play two of the players of the play within a play in the play Hamlet (yes, that was intentional). For those of you keeping score at home, yes, this is my first acting since I was Santa Claus "On the Beach at Waikiki" in 6th grade. Yes, my goal is to not suck. It is quite intimidating working with real actors. "Real," if by no other definition than that they have been on a stage and gone through the process more recently than 18 years ago. There is some little comfort, though, in knowing right out that you are the weakest link. I'm enjoying it, don't get me wrong, it's just a strange situation to find myself in. But I've always been a fan of strange situations.

So that's been taking a decent amount of time, though perhaps not as much as it could. My impression is that you can always throw more time at learning lines, thinking of your blocking (where you're going to stand, how you're going to gesture, etc.), or even your costume. But to be honest, I think my brain can only handle so much at a time. Thank god Amy's handling most of the rest.

As for flying, I've been doing a fair bit, though never as much as I want to. I recently joined the Westosha Flying Club and got checked out in a Cessna 172. I LOVE the view out of a 172. To me, it feels much more like flying than driving, which is how I mostly feel in the Pipers. On my first liftoff, watching the ground fall away from under the left tire, I thought, "Now THIS is flying!" After the checkout, I've only rented from there one other time so far. Amy and I went on a nice 1-hour sunset cruise (yes, we were back before I had to land at Westosha in the dark - I think I'm taking an instructor up on the first time I try that, since there are only landing lights on one side of the runway and it's been many months since I did my night training). I love how much she likes to fly. I don't think it's a passion with her, a love, but she does enjoy it. So while she may eventually get bored coming along with me, right now she goes ever chance she gets, and that just tickles me silly.

Last weekend, we were Up North because a bunch of my cousins were together and around for the first time in a few years. I rented the Warrior out of Rice Lake again and offered rides, but not a lot of people were terribly interested in going. So on the first trip on Saturday, I took my dad and Mike (bro-in-law) up for a little bit. I let Dad take the controls for a little bit. I think that made his week. I'm not sure Mike was so happy about it. Dad shot a lot of video. The cool thing was that I had jacked the camera right into my intercom box, so this time we didn't have all of the engine noise on the tape. Always thinking. After going over the requisite landmarks with them, we landed at Cumberland and swapped passengers.

They got off and I picked up Amy and Aunt Jean. She had been in small planes before, so it wasn't entirely new for her. But it had been a while, and she thoroughly enjoyed it. I would have liked to stay up longer, but there were some impending plans for an outing to Hayward, so we buzzed the lake and houses again, took a wide tour of Rice Lake, and landed back at Rice Lake Regional. 1.2 more hours in the book.

When we got back to the lake by car, a few other people had decided they wanted to go for rides the next day, when I had the plane reserved again. When it came down to it, though, only Ryan's wife, Keesha, got up the guts. It was her first time in a small plane, and she had no problems with it at all. I was tired of the same old tour, so I took her and Amy out west and flew over Taylors Falls on the St. Croix river.

For fun, we landed in Amery (AHH) on the way back to Rice Lake. Keesha really seemed to enjoy the trip. I don't think she's going to start taking lessons or anything, but at the very least, maybe she'll convince Ryan to go up next time.

That same weekend, Martini got to play her little heart out. There ware 7 other labs around at various points, as well as a 3 month old Cocker Spaniel. "She swam and swam and swam and swam," (if anyone can name that reference, they get a shiny new nickel - the one with the new 'tail') and ran and played until she finally dropped like a rock right in front of the patio door in the middle of a party. There was no waking her at all for the better part of an hour. It took her until this Thursday to fully get her energy back! I also played a little bit and got to water ski for a while. Dad's boat was on the fritz still/again, so we used the jet ski. Amy was hoping to try skiing this year, but it's pretty tough behind the wave runner, so that was a no go. We also canoed a little bit, and I took the little sail boat out for a few minutes just to see if I could manage it. It was too short of a weekend and I ended up pretty sore from the skiing, but it was fun, and great to see everyone. Delaney is cute as ever. She's still a tiny little peanut, but she's got the brightest little eyes. Awwwwww.

The next trip I make up there, I hope is in an airplane. We're going to try flying up for the Rutabaga Festival (no, I'm not kidding) and Pancake Breakfast Fly-In in a few weekends. Amy's taken to calling it, "The Vegetable Festival."

Another planned flying excursion is to rent a plane while we are out in Portland in September for a friend's wedding. I already have a 172 reserved at McMinnville Airport, which is supposed to have a decent air museum attached to it and houses the Howard Hughes Spruce Goose. That should be fun. We're making a mini-vacation out of the Portland trip since Amy loved the area so much when she visited Ret out there, and I suspect I'm going to love it as well. I'm finally getting to the Pacific Northwest. Sweet.

We were also recently (well, over a month ago now) in Los Angeles from Sarah's wedding. It was a crazy trip, but it had some relaxing moments as well. Thumbs up. We saw some folk we hadn't seen in a long time and had a lot of fun. It was a nice wedding at a cool place in Malibu, with a swank after-party. I should link to pictures, but my battery is going on my laptop.

Let's see, what else. Oh yeah, MJ had Marisa!!! She and Don made one hell of a baby. I should have pictures of her somewhere, too. Marisa, not MJ.

So, I didn't get to the intended point of this post, so I'm going to change the title and save this one for later. Anyway, it was good to catch up, so when I'm old an senile, I can read about what I did on my summer vacation, 2004. I know there's plenty more I could write about, but my battery level is waning, the sun is rising, and my head is aching. Oh, and the outside lights just turned off. That's a sign. Maybe I can finally fall back asleep? Ta.

First Vict. . . er, Passengers

The plan was to take my wife, Amy, up as my first passenger on Saturday morning. I had reserved one of the Warriors for 10:30 a.m. Then my sister had her baby early, and the weather went to pot, and suddenly the flight was scratched and we were planning a blitz-trip to see the new bambino.

A few weeks ago, when I was hoping to have my license just before Memorial Day weekend, I had called around to Cumberland (UBE) and then Rice Lake (RPD) airports to see what kind of rental options there were for when I was visiting my family. It turned RPD has a Warrior II, which I have done all of my training in. I had talked to the chief flight instructor about checkout requirements, pricing, availability, etc. I didn't get my license on the 27th as I'd hoped (the ride was scratched due to weather and incomplete preparation), so the research just got filed away in my brain.

As we were heading up on Saturday, I was hit with a notion - I wonder if I could get checked out and fly Sunday morning? I ran the idea past Amy, and I saw her eyes light up - she's been as anxious to fly with me as I have been to take her. I love that woman. Ok, maybe the notion had actually hit me a little earlier, since I had just so happened to bring all of my flight gear with me ;-) When we made a pit stop, I dug the phone number for Rice Lake Air Center out of my flight bag and called to check on availability.

I spoke with the chief again, whose name is Kyle. I asked how long the checkout would be and he answered by asking me how much I've flown lately. When I mentioned that I'd just had my checkride a week prior, I thought that was going to be then end of the conversation, but on the contrary he said we should be able to get through the checkout pretty quickly since I had just been checked over by the FAA. I also asked about headset rental. It turns out that they actually provide 3 headsets (and a built-in intercom) with the aircraft - something you don't see at my home FBO. As an aside here, when you rent an airplane from an FBO (Fixed Base Operator) you've never rented from before, you have to go through a check-out process. Basically, you fly with one of their instructors so they can judge if you should be trusted with their plane - a certification from the FAA isn't good enough to appease the insurance companies, it seems.

So the check-out was scheduled for 10:30 and was told I'd be able to use the plane until about 1:00 p.m. The last obstacle was the weather - there was potential for showers and thunderstorms all morning. I called up to my folks to let Dad know that, weather permitting, he'd get to be one of my two first passengers - something he's been waiting for since I've been waiting to fly! That night, a big storm rolled through, and The Weather Channel and DUATS charts were still putting bad weather in our area in the morning. However a text briefing I got around 11:30 p.m. Saturday night showed some promise - 4,000' ceilings and decent winds - so I was able to go to sleep optimistic that one more part of my flying dream would come true in the morning.

One of my main reasons for learning to fly, even when I was 12 years old, was so that I could fly up to "Grandpa's," which has always been a 5.5-7 hour drive away. And part of that dream was to I fly over Grandpa's house, lake, and woods and see it all from the air (another part of that dream is to land on the lake with floats in the summer and skis in the winter, but that's got to wait a bit longer). Now that my parents live in "Grandpa's House," the dream was as strong as ever.

Sunday morning, I woke up and the overcast was a bit lower than 4,000'. It was closer to 1,500'. I wasn't optimistic, but I decided to wait until about 9:00 and then call for a weather briefing. When I did, the briefer basically echoed what the forecast had said the night before and actually improved on it a little bit - skies clearing to 4,000' scattered. I made a nice breakfast of scrambled eggs with bacon, green peppers, and cheese, which I wasn't able to finish because I was getting nervous about the checkout and the prospect of taking up my first passengers. It was really silly nervousness, but it was there all the same. 10:00 rolled around, I rounded up the two most supportive people I've had in my corner during flight training, they rounded up a camera, a few rolls of film, and a camcorder, and we were off to the airport.

The plane and instructor were supposed to be available at 10:30, but they didn't show up until about 10:45. While we were waiting for them to get back, one of the guys at the FBO, Adam, I think, showed Amy and Dad the pilot's lounge, and took me out to the hangar to see the King Air they use for charters. As I climbed up into the $800/hour aircraft, I was struck by an interesting contrast. The exterior was shiny and spotless, and the passenger cabin was very rich looking with creamy leather seats, and yet the flight deck looked like it belonged in an old bomber - paint was nicked up and labels were a bit worn. Form AND function.

Eventually, Kyle, the CFI showed up but the plane didn't stay around long. It turned out to be such a nice morning that the student in the Warrior was doing his first solo. I could definitely wait for that. While the student did three circuits (he actually squeezed in 4 :) ), Kyle talked to me about my training, currency, etc., what the checkout would consist of, and then he made a copy of my PPL and medical certificates. He also let me know about the Citabria and Socata Trinidad they have, in case I ever want to get my tailwheel or high performance/complex endorsements. It's really a nice full service FBO they've built "In the middle of nowhere, Wisconsin," and their rates are great compared to what we see around Chicago ($79/hr wet on the Warrior II, $89/hr for the Citabria, and $99/hr for the Trinidad).

Eventually, the student came back and I preflighted a very nice, clean looking Warrior. As I climbed into the cockpit, I was hit by the first big difference to hit me about renting as a different FBO - and unfamiliar checklist! I'm used to the one my FBO had put together, and the one in this plane was quite a bit different and I had a hard time getting into my usual flow. There were also a few small procedural things that I was informed they do differently than what I'd been taught. Whatever, I though, it's your airplane! So I need to develop (or copy) my own version of the Warrior checklist to keep with me so I never have that lost feeling again.

The next thing that hit me about this cockpit was how clean and fresh it looked. The planes back home, got to love 'em, are worn and tired. The seats are mis-matched, the windows are hazy, and things are just worn. This aircraft, 58L, had leather seats (which I don't like functionally, but aesthetically, are very nice), very clean/clear windows, and the instruments looked like they were built in a recent decade. One thing that disappointed me was the radio stack. It has the same analog, no-standby radios as we have in 78U back home. The one other panel extra was a LORAN unit which came in handy when giving position reports at an unfamiliar airport.

I got settled in, fumbled through the checklist, and got 58L out to the end of Runway 31, announced my departure on the CTAF, and we were off. Kyle had me turn to the north, climb to about 3,000 MSL, and do a steep turn each way. We then went into slow flight with the horn blaring and did a 90 degree turn to the east, and then a 180 to the left. Next was a power-off stall followed by a banking departure stall.

After that we headed over to Cumberland (UBE) for a few landings. On short final, I noticed what looked like a dust cloud ahead of us and before I knew it, we flew through, and slaughtered, a swarm of some kind of large insects. It was almost surreal. Kyle asked for a soft-field landing, and just like on my checkride, it wasn't very soft. This time, I bumped in a little too much throttle right at the flare and ended up floating and then thunking a little. I executed my first touch and go (they aren't allowed at C81 where I trained), and mentioned that I wasn't happy with that landing and that my DE had had me repeat the soft-field on my checkride. Kyle laughed and said, "Yeah, I was just going to tell you to do it again, too." So we did it again. The second one was better - good enough - but there's still room for improvement there. This landing was full-stop, I back-taxied on Runway 27, and then took to the grass for a soft, short take off on Runway 36. We were both expecting to launch off the turf when we hit the pavement of 9-27, but it was just hot and humid enough that she wasn't quite ready to fly yet. Eventually we rotated and headed to the northeast to clear some trees.

At that point, Kyle asked me what I'd do if I lost power right then - I think it was a quiz to see if I'd try turning back to the airport. There was a nice long field in front of me, so I said I'd secure the plane for an off-airport landing in the field. He seemed happy with that. After I'd climbed a few hundred more feet, he pulled the power and told me my engine was out. I ran though my mental checklist and picked out a field, but forgot to trim back for best glide. It wasn't a big deal since I'd have made the field I picked out, but it's something I shouldn't forget. He told me to bring the power back up and we headed back to RPD. Back at the airport, I came in steep and hot, blew a short-field landing, and side-loaded a little bit on touchdown. I felt like a real ass at that point, so I offered to do it again. Kyle said no, he didn't see a need to keep my passengers waiting any longer, but suggested I might want to stick to normal landings with my passengers. *gulp* 0.7 hours, and I was checked out to fly someone else's plane.

I pulled up in front of the FBO, let Kyle out and waved to Amy and Dad to come out. We got settled in, I did a passenger briefing as Kyle cleaned the bugs off the windshield, sparked up my GPS which I'd forgotten to turn on for the checkout, and we were off. We launched without a problem and at about 300' AGL I was hit with, "I'm a real pilot with real passengers!!!" Moments after that, my dad said, "Son, I'm so proud of you." I had perma-grin all over again.

We headed north and did a few turns around a point where the point was my sister's house and we could see my brother in law mowing the lawn out front. After two passes and a few photos, we headed west towards Mom and Dad's, pausing for one circle around my sister's old house. We flew over the town of Cumberland and marveled at the sheer size of Beaver Dam Lake. Out of the trees up ahead, I picked up North Lake and then their house. I circled a few times (never getting below 1,500' AGL - I was being very cautious) as we checked out the new horse pastures, the round pen they'd recently built, the weed lines in the lake, and my mom out on the pier waving a beach towel at us. We then headed out towards our friends' farm and a few of our common deer hunting grounds. There was a ton of water out in the fields from recent heavy rains.

We then headed back to the lake for one more pass, back to my sisters for one more pass and then flew down Rice Lake back towards the airport. Kyle had warned me that around 1:00 p.m., there was going to be a lot of traffic from people coming in for Young Eagle flights. He wasn't kidding. As we were 4 miles out inbound on the 45 for Runway 31, I head a Maule give a very similar position report. None of the 6 eyes in our plane could find him. His altitude report put him below us somewhere, so I decided to let him be #1 and I looped back around to the north to get away from where he said he was. Shortly after I turned away, he announced his mistake - he was looking at Runway 01 as if it were 13, so he was a good distance away from us the whole time. I saw him correct to 13 and then make his short final, so I got back into the pattern.

With all of the commotion, I ended up forgetting to pull the power back to 1500 RPM when I was abeam the numbers on my right downwind, so I ended up being very high when I turned base. I put in my last notch of flaps, let my passengers know to be ready for a 'roller coaster ride' - which I knew they could both handle - and put in a full slip to get down to the runway. It was a beautiful slip and got me right down to the numbers, but sadly I had left my airspeed up around 80 knots. I saw this, knew I was going to land long and opted for a go-around. I'm certain I could have stopped before the end of the runway, but the gut said to go around, so I did.

Just after I announced and made my crosswind to downwind turn, an Archer who had approached from the south called "overflying and joining the downwind." My head was swiveling around, but I couldn't find the guy and I was just about to ask where EXACTLY he was, when Amy said, "There he is," and pointed up and out her window. I had to crane my neck way down and look up out the window to see him (I really needed a sunroof), but there he was, right in my way, right above me. I announced that I had the traffic and that I'd widen my downwind and be #2 behind him. At the time, it didn't bother me much, but the more I thought about it afterwards, the guy really pissed me off. He knew where I was, knew I was going around, and opted to put himself right above me as I was climbing back to pattern altitude, for what - just so he could be #1? What an idiot.

Anyway, I finally greased a landing and had the stall horn go off just as the mains were kissing the pavement. I delivered my passengers "Safe and sound, on the ground." 0.9 hours on the Hobbs.

My dad got some cool video, which I'll need to steal from him at some point. I still need to take in the film from the 35mm my wife was shooting.

One thing I need to remember the next time I take people up to stress to them that they should let me know if they don't like something. I guess the turns were a bit steeper than either of them were expecting. I think the big slip in for the landing surprised my dad - I could have explained that one better, or just gone around sooner. And I know the traffic around the pattern made Amy nervous. But I don't think I scared either one of them away from flying with me again. Even when it's not a 'lesson,' a flight can be a learning experience, I guess.

Whew, that write-up was way longer than I anticipated.

Posted by oblivion at 11:43 PM | Comments (2)

I Am a Private Pilot!

I guess the third time's the charm.

If you've been following along, you know that I've been frustrated lately by the weather keeping me from taking my practical exam for my pilot's license. Well on Saturday, June 5, 2004, all the stars aligned, and I was finally able to take my test. The examiner (DE) was available, a plane was available, and the weather, despite looking to turn sketchy the night before, was in the clear.

Although I was initially annoyed by all of my delays, in the end, it turned out for the best. With the extra time I had, I was able to do some extra preparations that really seemed to impress the DE. In addition to flagging my logbook with post-it notes to make it easier to verify I had gotten all of the training and experience that is required, I summarized it all on a spreadsheet. I also put together a list of the areas I missed questions on when I took the Knowledge Exam (The Written) and wrote in what I think I got wrong and why (the FAA doesn't tell you which specific questions you miss, just what categories they are in). I had my weight and balance and aircraft logbook summary nicely typed up as well. Without the extra time the weather delays afforded me, I never would have been that prepared. All of the extra effort paid off, too, because more than once, she complimented me on my attention to detail and preparation. Another thing she liked to see was that I had printed off just about every weather chart I could find while planning our flight. I had used both DUATS and http://aviationweather.gov/std_brief/.

After getting a full briefing for our fictional cross county from Campbell Airport (C81) to Eastern Iowa Airport/Cedar Rapids (CID), I called the DE and confirmed that the weather looked good and we were on for a 2:00p.m. meeting. I left the house a little later than I wanted to after packing up, triple checking that I had everything, and kissing my wife and dog good bye. I ended up getting to C81 a little after 2:00, but it was OK because the DE wasn't there yet anyway.

A few people asked if I was "the checkride guy" and confirmed that they had not yet seen the examiner. So I went to the classroom at the back of the hangar and laid out all of my paperwork and planning, then went back up to the office and paced around a bit. This was actually the height of my nervousness. I think the feeling was that at that point everything was completely out of my control - if she got in a car accident and couldn't make the test, if I'd forgotten an important piece of documentation or planning at home, if something was wrong with the aircraft, I was hosed for another day.

Once she showed up and I saw she was a normal person, not a three-headed student-eating monster, I settled down pretty quickly. She didn't even ask for her fee right away, so that also helped keep the mood tame. All kidding aside, she was a very easy-going soothing person. At that point I realized that this wasn't going to be so bad.

The first thing she did was explain how the exam would run. She said that she wasn't there to trick me, fail me, or make my life miserable. Her job was simply to assess my skills and knowledge and ensure that I would be a safe pilot. That sounded fair enough to me.

She then looked at my official application for my Private Pilot certificate, checked my ID, and started looking at my logbook. Once she was satisfied all of that was in order, she asked me for her fee. She then asked me what I could tell her about the aircraft I'd be flying. At this point I realized I hadn't gotten the aircraft logbooks from the FBO office. I ran out to get those really quickly and while I was out, she checked over the performance charts I had marked up for the takeoff and landing distances and speeds we'd need, stall speeds, weight and balance, etc. When I came back with the logs we went over those really quickly aided by the summary I had prepared. I had a hard time finding the recent Airworthiness Directive (AD) information for the aircraft so the first official question of the oral portion of the exam was, "What is an AD?"

Other questions she asked were about visibility and ceiling requirements in various airspace. We went over lost communications procedures, light signals, and runway incursions. We then looked at my cross country planning and discussed information available on the navigation charts. I had to recalculate my wind corrections because I still had the old info in there from when I was going to take the exam earlier. She left me for a few minutes while I did the calculations.

We then went over the performance charts and weather briefing information. There was some general discussion of density and pressure altitudes, but nothing specific. She had me do a few quick E6B calculations for ground speed and fuel burn. We talked about reserve requirements, etc. We finished up with a discussion of emergency procedures and she asked me about aeromedical factors including carbon monoxide poisoning and hypoxia.

The oral portion took about two hours, but that included the delays to get the logbooks and to redo my wind corrections. It sounds like a long, grueling time, but it wasn't bad. Much of it felt as much like a lesson as an exam. The weather was still beautiful and an abbreviated briefing said it should stay that way, so I was off to the plane to preflight. I also called my wife really quickly to let her know I was done with the oral and about to fly.

After a passenger briefing, I started up and taxied out to Runway 9. There was a slight headwind, but it was pretty calm. After the runup, she asked me to do a short-field takeoff and we were on our way. I rotated a little bit too soon, so we almost settled back down, but 2378U chugged along and saved my bacon. I flew the pattern and headed out to the southwest heading for my first cross country checkpoint. After I was established at 2,800' I simulated a call to Kankakee Radio to open my flight plan. I hit my checkpoints pretty much on time after making my turn over Lake in the Hills, I ended up a bit north of course, but was able to correct before my third checkpoint.

As we crossed I-90, the DE asked where I could divert to if I needed to. I said that DeKalb was fairly close to the south. She asked how I'd get there. I estimated a heading of 185 degrees and made the turn.

At this point, I identified where DeKalb was and that was as far as the diversion went. She next had me set up for slow flight. I asked if she wanted me to do clearing turns and she said that our turn for the diversion cleared us. I slowed down to 60 KIAS, which is what she specified, and I made a 180 degree turn to the north. From the slow flight, she had me do a power-off stall to the buffet. After recovery, from the stall, she told me the JVL VOR was tuned in and identified and asked me to track to the station. I dialed in a bearing of 300 on the OBS and made the turn. After keeping the needle centered for a minute or so, she took the plane and had me put my hood on.

Under the hood, I did one turn to 090 degrees, then a climb to 3,600', a descending turn back to 360, and then a 180 degree turn to the south. At this point, she set me up for two unusual attitudes. On the first one, a nose high, I blanked on what to do with the power. At first I pulled it, but then added it back in admitting that I'd messed up. I had gotten the wings level pretty quickly, though. She just reminded me, if the airspeed is low, add power. The next was a nose-down attitude. I pulled power, leveled the wings, and resumed level flight with the power back in without hesitation this time. She took the aircraft again, said everything was so far, so good, and had me take off the hood. In all, I had about 12 minutes of hood time.

After I got the hood off and took a breather, she gave the controls back and asked me to perform steep turns in both directions, whenever I was ready. I told her I wanted to head north first to get away from some congested areas we were heading towards. After a turn and a trim adjustment I went into my turns. The first was to the right, and I nailed it pretty much dead on. The altitude didn't waver more than 25 feet and the bank was 45 degrees. As I rolled back to the left, I mentioned that for some reason, my turns to the left usually ended up getting a little shallow, but that I was going to try to avoid that. She asked if I was afraid I was going to fall out the window. I don't think that's the case, but sure enough, about halfway through the turn, I was down to about 30 degrees. I let out an 'oops,' and corrected back to 45 degrees. The altitude wasn't as stable this time, but was well within 100'.

We turned back to the south, honestly, I don't remember why. Shortly after that, she pulled the power and indicated the power was out. Up until this point, I was so at ease that I just felt like I had been flying with a friend. My first thought was, "Hey, I told you not to touch anything!" But I quickly got back into examinee mode and went through the engine out checklist etched in my brain. Now recently, I had been warned that this DE liked to pull power near grass strips, the idea being that a pilot should know where s/he is at all times and should opt for the strip given an emergency. So I started looking all over for an airstrip. I was taking a while to pick a landing spot, so eventually she asked if I saw anything good. I asked her if she had anything good out her side and she said yes, there were a whole lot to choose from. So I dipped the right wing and saw nothing but fields. So a field it would be. I picked a nice long one, circled once to the right to get over it, and then once to the left on a base and final. I was ready to slip down towards it when she said I had it made and to demonstrate a go-around.

As we climbed out, she asked me which I was better at, S-Turns, or turns around a point. I joked that she was going to make me do the opposite of what I said. She said that, no, this was something she had instituted recently - let the candidate decide which to do. I told her that, honestly, I was pretty comfortable with both, but that I would do turns around a point because there was a pretty good point north of us. I set up to enter on the downwind and held a pretty steady track around the point. After a full trip around the circle she asked if I knew where I was. I said yes and she said, "Good, take us back to Campbell and let's see if you can land this thing as well as you can fly it." I took that as an encouraging compliment.

On the cruise back to C81, we started chatting a bit more than we had been. As we came up to Wonder Lake, she mentioned that 'back in the day' she jumped into Wonder Lake under a round army surplus canopy. She asked if I knew that they used to jump out of C81. I didn't. I did mention, though, that I had taken my wife skydiving for her birthday a few years previous. She asked why we haven't been back to it and started recommending dropzones to check out. She was really a cool lady. We also ended up talking about motorcycles, another mutual interest.

Somewhere along the way, she noticed something I had missed - the carb. heat was still on from the simulated engine out. I had missed it in my go-around procedure - doh! She didn't bust me on it, though, she just said, "Hey, why don't we turn this off?" I agreed that it was a good idea.

As we got back towards the pattern she said she wanted me to slip in for a soft-field landing. She was kind enough to remind me that there was a BBQ going on at the airport and that I'd have an audience. Great, no pressure! To add to it, she mentioned that an applicant the day before had dropped them in from about 20' off the runway. She asked not to be scared like that again. I said I'd try my best.

I kind of botched my 45 entry, which was more of a 90, but entered downwind at midfield and settled into the pattern, making position reports along the way. I forgot about the peanut gallery, lined up with Runway 9, slipped in nicely, flared back, goosed the power, and THUNKED down on the tarmac. She commented wryly that it was a bit firm for a soft-field landing. I agreed and took up her offer to try it again.

She also wanted to see a soft-field takeoff. She reminded me to let the speed build and not sink like on the first takeoff. For some reason, after I go the nose up, I started drifting off the centerline to the left. My brain locked a second, but eventually it registered and I straightened things out.

The second landing was softer, but still not what I'd like to call 'soft.' As we were still rolling out the rest of the runway she started making excuses for me, "Well, there really isn't much wind today, so these are tough - you really have to help yourself out with a bit more power at the end."

This was the first moment that I had a doubt about passing. I was bracing myself for the, "Call me when you get these landings worked out." But the next thing she said as I was clearing the runway was, "I'm going to give you your license, you're obviously a safe and knowledgeable blah blah blah" For a minute, I really couldn't tell what she was saying. I had earned my license! That's all I needed to hear.

As I pulled up to the ramp, the gathered assemblage of now-fellow pilots were eagerly looking towards us for the outcome. The DE extended a big thumb up, and the crowd roared. Well, cheered, anyway. After I secured the plane and called my wife, I was introduced as the newest private pilot of the Campbell Airport Family.

The checkride was 1.6 hours. I currently have 162 landings in 54.6 hours, 15.2 of those as PIC. Full stats are here.

A Different Perspective

While looking over my logbook yesterday and contemplating my checkride being rescheduled to Saturday the 5th, I realized I might have a problem with one of the recency of training requirements, namely 61.109(a)(4) which requires:

3 hours of flight training in preparation for the practical test in a single-engine airplane, which must have been performed within 60 days preceding the date of the test

Based on when my flights were with my CFI, Saturday would either be the 60th day, or the 61st, depending on how you counted. My CFI seemed to think I'd be OK, but didn't have the regulations in front of him.

I decided to contact the Designated Examiner (DE) and find out her opinion, since it's hers that counts. Her judgement was that June 5 would be 61 days after April 6 leaving me .3 hours short of the requirement.

I wasn't going to argue the point, I just had to fix the problem. So last night I raced over to the airport and got on the schedule with an instructor (not my usual) for first thing this morning.

I had been meaning to have a fresh pair of eyes look at my flying before the checkride, but weather hadn't allowed it until today. Today, the weather was perfect. CAVU. Severe clear. Not a cloud in the sky with a nice steady breeze out of the northeast.

I liked flying with the new instructor. At first I was nervous about having someone 'new' critiqueing my flying, but I settled in pretty quickly when he didn't criticize my takeoff or anything ;-) He gave me some good pointers and I definitely feel better prepared for the checkride after having flown with him. So while it was a hassle to have to do last-minute, it was a good thing.

It's funny that he pulled power to simulate an engine failure while we were over a private strip - my regular CFI always focuses on finding a good field - this guy's point was to always know where you are and if there's an airport nearby. Both good skills, in my opinion.

Another training difference was that I listened to him when he told me to turn base for the field, and I ended up high. I had to dive to 'make the field' (we didn't actually land, just went low enough to show that I could and then executed a go-around). Ordinarily I would have extended my downwind leg out a little further to have a better glide slope, but as he pointed out, it's better to slip and dive to the field than come up short. Different philosophies I need to meld into my own. . . .

I did blow my attempt at a short-field landing back at Campbell, because he'd had me fly the pattern at 1,800' instead of 1,600' which I always do. I told him on short final that I wasn't going to stop short and asked if I should go around. He said, for the test, yes, but for now, just land. No biggie. I saw the problem and knew what to do about it.

I get the impression that my flying didn't wow him, but he said he didn't see any problems and that I should do fine on the test. He also gave me some other good pointers about slow flight and stalls which my primary CFI glossed over pretty quickly quite a while ago. I even did my first turning stall today. My ground reference maneuvers and steep turns were dead on, so that's cool.

Anyway, I'm on for 2:00-?:?? Saturday afternoon. They've revised the forcast to look better, so we'll see. I may try to get up at noon tomorrow to get used to that higher pattern. It makes sense to bump up to 1'800 over the houses that popped up at the end of Runway 27.

So, yeah, it was a GREAT morning to fly. Beautiful, not one cloud, and the air was like glass above 2,000'. I got the .3 hour I needed plus .7 extra. That gives me a cushion of a week to get the test done, or I'll have to fly with someone again.

After my flight, the CFI was taking a guy up for his first flight. The guy's wife and kid were there. It was so cool to see the excitement and nervousness on his face. Another one hooked. . . .

Update:

For some reason, the GPS crapped out about 2/3 through the flight. It might have been low batteries - it didn't lock up like on the Madison trip, it was just off by the time we landed.

Checkride Postponed

When I got up this morning to try to throw together the last stuff I needed for my checkride, it was clear and beautiful outside. We were scheduled to meet at 09:00 CDT and I was supposed to call the DE (Designated Examiner) at 08:00 to confirm we were still on. At about 07:45, the ceilings dropped to about 800-900' and the weather briefer said things weren't looking to clear up until afternoon.

I called the DE to see if she wanted to get together anyway, go through the paperwork and oral portion of the exam, and see what the weather did, but she was leaning towards an outright reschedule. After some thought, I concured.

I expected I'd be disappointed, but in reality, it's not a big deal. In fact, it's a good thing. Quite honestly, the weather made a decision I should have made myself. I wasn't prepared - not to the point I want to be. I was rushing trying to get stuff together this morning (finalizing XC planning, wondering if I had enough/the right weather charts printed out, etc.).

Had I gone through with the exam, I'm now certain it wouldn't have been pretty. I wasn't organized, rested, nor confident. So it really shouldn't have taken a grey sky to get me to postpone. Last night when I was feeling that I was behind the 8-ball, I should have just gone to bed and rescheduled the ride in the morning. Hopefully I'll learn from that.

I can't believe I let myself get behind since I've been looking forward to this for so long. In a way, there's a little more prep than I anticipated. But mostly it's due to me losing more than two days worth of prep time this week for various reasons. So it's rescheduled for next Wednesday (6/2). And this time, I'll be ready. Oh yes, I will!

BTW, we've got blue skies now. I don't think they'll last, but it's just kind of funny. So it goes.

Got time to spare? Go by air.

Checkride Scheduled!

I'm way behind on updates, and just keep getting further behind, but I have to post this one. My checkride is scheduled for May 27, and today my CFI signed me off! That means he thinks I'm set to go - I'm qualified to pass the test!

So everyone (all two of you) out there in Eblo-Land, if you like me, remember to root for good weather, a happy plane, a healthy pilot and examiner, and no Presidential Temporary Flight Restrictions on May 27, 2004. The use of voodoo dolls and sun-dances is highly encouraged. You can redeem the ashes of any sacrificed fowl for one (1) airplane ride upon successful completion of my exam.

Thank you, and good day.

What's a Beezer?

A while ago, I started looking for a way to keep track of and post my flying experiences online. All pilots keep logbooks of their flights - it's a requirement for various things, mostly relating to training and maintaining currency (in the FAA's eyes, the pilot's own eyes, the eyes of the insurance companies, etc). But I wanted something better than paper. Googling a bit, I stumbled across a guy who had done what I was looking to do and was willing to share his source code.

I've made a few tweaks since I got the code from Beezer, most of it cleanup of references to other pages internal to his website, etc. The logbook is written in PHP and uses mySQL to store the data. If you're interested in the source, I'll work out something with Beezer and could probably distribute what he sent me as well as my diffs.

The log book summarizes all flights, showing recency and average statistics, and you can even look up time logged in a specific aircraft. If you look at a specific flight, you'll see a map of the route flown (based on airports landed at, not actual ground track). One thing I still need to figure out is how to get MovableType to import the logbook data for displaying it inline in entries like this and my flight summaries. For now, I'll just have to point to the full logbook: http://tantalus.dnsalias.net/beezerLogbook/.

Anyway, many thanks to Scott Beason for building and sharing a nice system that has been fun to tweak and make custom changes to. More changes are planned/hoped for the future including a "URL" field to link to longer write-ups of the flights. But it's all about having the time.

On that note, I'm out.

First Solo Cross Country

Flight #37 was my first solo cross-country, C81->RYV->C81. 1.6 hours on the Hobbs. 116 nm round trip.

If I have one bit of advice for future first-timers: when planning, PLAN ENOUGH NON-FLIGHT TIME! I was hoping to squeeze the trip into one 1.5 hour block, my planned flight times were all within a minute of actual, except maybe on climbout, but I got back home over a half-hour late. The plane wasn't fueled when I got to C81, so that took up some time. Then I took about 10-15 minutes to 'decompress' in Watertown's Wisconsin Aviation facility. And finally, there were some pattern shenanigans and a go-around at C81. Oh, and pre-flight and run-up x2. It all added up.

I felt bad for whoever was supposed to have the plane after me. Someone was on the schedule, but no one was standing there with a mad face on and the FBO folks didn't seem to mind. But I still feel bad and worry about the hit my karma will take because of it.

All part of the learning process, I guess. I added another block to my reservation on Monday when I hope to do the LONG XC. If I don't end up needing it, so be it. Better than the alternative.

And yes, I knew as soon as I lifted off on the return that I could and SHOULD have called C81 and let them know I'd be late. Not only would it have been the polite thing to do, it would have taken the pressure off worrying about being 'late.'

It was totally amazing to get in the plane by myself, fly somewhere I've never been before, and find my way home. It was totally amazing that by following along on a map with my finger, the airport ended up smack in the middle of the windscreen. No GPS, no navaids, just plain old pilotage. I got a little off course on the way home because I didn't pick up my first checkpoint right away. But when I saw I was approaching East Troy directly from the north instead of at an angle, I knew something was up and I corrected for it. You can see my 'mistake' on the GPS plot.

That's what flying is about. Picking a destination, looking out the window, and flying there.

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Under the Hood Again

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Today, I had my most frustrating lesson to date. I took advantage of a double-block of lesson time to try to knock out a lot of the required 'hood time.' As I mentioned in Hoodwinked!, hood time is when you fly with a goofy contraption on your head to block your view outside the plane. Therefore you have to fly only by referencing your instruments. Your CFI is, of course, in the plane with you to look out for traffic and bail you out of the trouble that's very easy to get into when you can't see the horizon out the window.

Before today, I'd only done 0.7 hours of the required 3.0 hours of training. I have now done 2.6 hours. If any other student pilots out there think it might be a good idea to 'knock out' their instrument training in one lesson, rethink the decision! Nearly two hours under the hood might not be a big deal if you're following an air route and flying straight and level. But constantly doing turns and altitude changes is very tiring. And frustrating.

Part of my frustrations could be blamed on the weather, I suppose. Tuesday was a nice spring day, and as such we experienced some of the first turbulence of the year. It made holding altitudes very tricky. I'd finally get the Vertical Speed Indicator (VSI) settled at zero, and an updraft would push my up 500 feet before I'd realized it. I'd add forward pressure on the yoke and perhaps pull some power to get back down to my target altitude, and the bottom would drop out. It was a bit easier to hold headings or turn rates, but even those weren't perfect. At one point partway into the second hour, I was about ready to pull off the hood and call it a day because I was getting so frustrated with hearing, "Watch your altitude!" and not being able to do much but say, "I know."

The experience was mentally draining, but it was physically taxing as well. The hood kept sliding down my forehead, so I was constantly tilting my head back to keep a clear view of the instruments. I didn't realize I was doing this until it was too late and I had the beginnings of a sore neck and a headache. And though my eyes are used to staring at a computer monitor most of the day, for some reason, staring at the instruments a constant distance away was not what my eyes or contacts considered a good time.

At one point in the lesson while tracking inbound on the Burlington VOR, my instructor started vectoring me around some traffic. After a few vectors and him wondering aloud, "What is this guy doing?" he told he had the plane and had me take off the hood and see if I could find the traffic off to our left. It took a little while, but I eventually spotted a Piper below us a bit, not very far off, and turning towards us. I said, "I have the traffic, 8 o'clock low, turning towards us." He mentioned that he didn't know why, but the other plane kept turning towards us and that's why he'd kept vectoring me. We eventually put a safe margin of space between ourselves and the other guy, and I put the hood back on and got back to work. It was good to see the sky for a while.

I was able to end the lesson on a good note by planting a pretty good crosswind landing, but the first thing my CFI said during the debrief was, "You've GOT to work on those altitudes!" He said my headings were OK, my VOR tracking was excellent, but my altitudes needed a lot of work. I wasn't upset because I knew he was right. But as I said, this was my most frustrating lesson to date - even worse than pounding out crosswind landings before I started to enjoy them. Brice must have seen the frustration on my face because he followed up with, "You didn't do shitty, but I KNOW you can do much better." So in a way, I guess that was a compliment. And he did say again while ringing me up that my VOR tracking was excellent and the skill would certainly come in handy if I ever go for my Instrument Rating. So there was a bright lining, but at the time it didn't help my headache.

I still need to work on upset and unusual attitude recovery under the hood, but despite the frustration, it was good to get a lot of the training out of the way. Even flying VFR, I know I've had troubles holding altitudes sometimes. It's just one of the things I'll have to practice before I take the test. Practice, practice, practice.

Stats for this and other flights can be viewed in my new and improving online logbook.

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Night Ops

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I knocked out 8 takeoffs and landings tonight. It was very cool, but as I said to my CFI:

"That was fun. I'm just glad I know where the airport is."

I could see if being very tricky to pick out an airport in the sea of lights that makes up the scenery around here. Especially since the lights at Campbell (C81) are so dim. Although I bet airports with pilot controlled lighting (PCL) are a lot easier to spot. PCL is a system where pilots can turn on and change the intensity of airport lights by clicking the microphone while the radio is tuned to a specific frequency.

I did the landings both with and without the landing lights on. I've heard and read a lot about how hard it is to adjust to the different sight picture at night and the tendency is to flare too early on the landing and drop onto the runway. Luckily, I didn't have that problem, which may just mean I usually flare too late. Out of the eight landings, about 5 of them were near-perfect - or as we pilots like to say, "greasers." On one landing, I did flare a little too soon, but it wasn't due to me misinterpreting the sight picture. For some reason, I was just really jerky when I pulled back on the yoke instead of applying pressure gradually. I ballooned a bit and had to make some adjustments to eventually land a little heavy.

An interesting thing happened on my first two landings of the night. On both of them, just a few feet above the ground, I started to drift to the left off the centerline of the runway. At first I was very puzzled because the wind was a little shifty, but was pretty much straight down Runway 9. After the second time, though, I realized my problem. My seat was sitting lower than I was used to it being. As I was pulling the yoke back in the usual way, I must have also been pulling the left side down a bit. After a quick seat adjustment, the centerline stayed where I put it. Lesson learned: make seat adjustment part of the preflight checklist!

Although I didn't have any problems with illusions on short final, I did notice some other depth perception inconsistencies. It seemed that close things looked further away than they really were (I executed a few of my turns too soon because I thought I was further along), but far things seemed closer (the town of Grayslake looks like it's WAY over yonder during the day - at night, it looked to be spittin' distance).

But I am happy to confirm - the plane flies the same - light or dark.

Class C Ops

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The morning of 3/9/04 started out with threatening snow clouds blowing through the area. By the time I was supposed to have my lesson, things had cleared up a bit, but were still pretty grey. After getting a briefing which said things were getting better, especially to the west, we determined the weather was going to give us a break. We couldn't find the school's hood, so I couldn't do instrument work as planned. After a little indecision about where to go and what to work on, we decided to fly up to Madison (MSN), which is in Class C airspace. This meant more talking with controllers and being tracked on radar and all kinds of cool stuff like that. As it tuned out, the weather was nice and sunny on the way northwest.

Navigating was easy since there is a nice series of lakes to lead the way to Madison and beyond. Also, my radio calls for the approach to the Class C went pretty well since everything was just about the same as what I had done on my dual cross-country to The Dells a week earlier. However, I think the approach controller forgot about us. After I dialed our squawk code into the transponder, he never reported "Radar Contact," which they usually do. He also didn't talk to me for quite a while, whereas usually they'll give you an idea of which runway to expect. Since we were coming up from the southeast, we just expected Runway 32 and headed for it. Eventually the controller handed us off to the tower controller. She asked which runway Approach had advised us of and she seemed surprised when I told her that he hadn't. She told me to make straight in for Runway 32, and I continued on my way.

As I was lined up to land on 32, a 727 was coming in for 36. For a time, he was at the same height as me and about 4 miles out my left window, but he was obviously down on the ground a whole lot quicker than I was. Runnin' with the big dogs. THAT was darned cool.

This was my first straight-in approach, so it was interesting not having the usual landing routine to follow. For some more 'new,' I did my first no-flap landing. You basically just keep on flying until you kiss the ground. The ground roll is noticeably faster than a full-flap landing. I turned off the runway and was told to contact the ground controller. Ground lead us to the ramp by Wisconsin Aviation where the line-girl pointed out a parking spot for me. That wasn't so bad.

Wisconsin Aviation has a nice new facility (it doesn't even show up on the aerial photo I have of the area at the top of this article) with yummy cookies. We only stuck around long enough to look up the clearance delivery frequency, scarf a few of those cookies, tank up on water, and stretch our legs a little. I should have called my wife just for the novelty of calling her from Madison just an hour after I'd talked to her from work, but I didn't think of it at the time.

As well as I did with the radios on getting in to MSN, I flubbed up on the way out. It started when I called for Clearance Delivery - I couldn't spit out those two words. I started out and called them "Ground." The controller responded with "Ground to 47Lima, go ahead." My instructor reminded me I had to ask for Clearance Delivery, so I keyed the mike again, and repeated EXACLTY what I'd said the first time, "Madison Ground, Piper 8447L." AGAIN, the controller responded with "Ground to 47Lima, go ahead," this time sounding slightly annoyed. I decided to just run with it. I rattled off my clearance request saying we'd be flying VFR at 3,000 feet heading 140. That seemed to be good enough -
even though I never did spit out the magic words. After a slight pause, the controller read me my clearance and I read it back to him. After this, I was cleared to taxi to Runway 32.

I did my run-up and stopped short of the runway. I had to wait for a Cessna to land, and then we were on our way. Right about the time I lifted off, my GPS froze up on me for the first time ever. I don't use it for navigation yet, so I didn't notice it until we got back to C81, but the display was frozen and I had to pop the batteries out to get it to do anything. After it came back up, it was fine. Unfortunately, as you can see by the plot below, the return trip wasn't charted. I think it overheated because I'd left it up on the dash while we were in the FBO. There's a lesson in there somewhere.

On the way out of Madison's airspace, Departure Control vectored me around a little bit, but eventually said, "Resume own navigation," and soon after that terminated our radar services. Since they'd sent us a little further east than I'd flown on the way up (or on the way to KDLL) we ended up flying right over the campus of UW - Whitewater. It was cool to see the football stadium and quads from above.

There were a few other cool sights on the way home, despite a return to lower ceilings and greyer skies. First, we flew a few hundred feet over a flight of either snow geese or cranes - they were light colored, but I wasn't close enough to get a good look. It was just a quick reminder that I was in their domain. I'm not used to seeing migrating birds from above. Then, a little further on, there was a plume of black smoke coming up off the south end of Twin Lakes, which happened to be directly on my route. At first, it looked pretty ominous, but it turned out someone was just burning swamp grass. It's amazing how quickly the area was burned considering they had started after we flew over about an hour earlier.

Finally, while maneuvering around C81, I saw what looked like a cloud descending out of the ceiling above us. It wasn't until we were much closer that I realized it was an isolated little snow squall. I literally flew around a column of snow flurries. As I entered the pattern on the 45, I wondered who would be in the ground first, us or the snow flakes.

Earlier in the flight I'd made the mistake of bragging to my CFI that my landings the previous day at Kenosha were becoming much more natural and smooth. With a steady wind straight down Runway 6, I ballooned in the flare, forgot to add in some power to cushion the crest of the ballooning, and planted it firmly just off the center of the runway - a humbling landing.

Awkward landing notwithstanding, it turned out to be an awesome day for one that started out looking IMC.

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Class D Solo

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On 3/8/04 I soloed up to Kenosha (ENW), which is in Class D airspace. This basically means that it's busy enough to have a control tower. In order to fly into the airspace and land at the airport, you need to contact the control tower and be cleared to land, taxi, and take off again. It was my first solo to another airport and I had to talk to controllers on top of it!

As you can tell by the GPS plot above, I flew north from Campbell (C81) and kept flying north! I was having second thoughts about flying into the Class D space. I'd been signed off by my instructor to solo there, but it had been a while since I was there with him. I was worried I was going to do something wrong or forget to do something entirely. Finally I decided to stop being a wimp, dialed in the ATIS frequency on the second radio, got the information I needed, and then tuned in the tower on the primary radio. After all, Brice would have signed me off if I wasn't ready, and if I did start to screw up, simply saying "Student Pilot" to the controllers would have gotten me all the help I needed.

I made my initial call to the tower to get their attention, and then let them know who and where I was and what I wanted to do. The nice gentleman at the other end of the radio was nice enough to tell me to come on in and report 3 miles out from the airport. Yes, it really was that easy. What had I been worried about?

I was assigned to runway 24R. This meant I'd have to make a right-hand traffic pattern, which is opposite from a standard pattern. This is done to keep traffic from flying over certain areas or obstacles, in this case, the parallel runway, 24L. Luckily 24R is the same runway I'd practiced on with Brice, so I was comfortable with the pattern and my entry into it based on where I was coming from. While approaching the airport, I did forget to turn on my landing light. It's a good idea to turn it on to help the controllers spot you (control towers don't necessarily have radar capabilities), but it isn't required, so this wasn't a big deal. I'll just have to remember it in the future.

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I called the tower again when I was about three miles out, and they cleared me to land. As you can see above, I didn't execute perfect patterns - the ends should be more squared off - but they got the job done. There wasn't a whole lot of other traffic in the area, so everything was pretty stress free. I did three full-stop landings with a slight crosswind from the left. On the last landing, I realized that despite the crosswind, I hadn't even thought about the controls at all, I just flew the plane down to the runway and adjusted where needed. The realization that the process is becoming second-nature was very encouraging.

After announcing my intention to depart the airport and getting cleared to take off again, I blasted off from Kenosha for the last time and headed back to the southwest towards Campbell. I realized I still had a little time left in my hour, so I decided to fly out around the Chain O' Lakes and do a little sight-seeing. I wanted to take some time to just enjoy flying and not necessarily be 'working' on something. I circled once over the big Thelen gravel pit west of Antioch to get a better view of their operation. I also got to do a little train spotting as I flew over the Route 12 bridge and headed home. The approach and landing back at C81 were pretty routine. I can't believe it, landings are getting routine.

So I've got another hour of solo time in the books. No offense, Brice, but I really love flying alone!

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[Ed. Doh! Had the runway numberr wrong for KENW, it was 24R, not 23R.]

Cross-Country (Finally)

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I don't know if it's because I left Amy or the camera at home (just kidding honey *ducks*), but today, the weather finally cooperated and I was able to complete my first dual cross-country flight from Campbell Airport (C81) up to Baraboo Wisconsin Dells Airport (DLL). The trip was 104 nautical miles (120 normal person miles) each way, and took 2.5 hours to complete.

The two Piper Warriors were reserved, so Brice told me to check out the Piper Archer (PA-28-181). It flew almost exactly like the Warriors, except it was a little heavier on the rudder when taxiing or climbing out. The 20 extra horses (180 H.P., versus 160H.P. for the Warrior) really added to the left-yaw tendencies of the aircraft on takeoff. One advantage of the bigger engine was a faster cruise speed (around 110-115 knots). We were glad to have it on the way home when the tailwind we had getting up there turned into a headwind and then some.

I learned/applied a lot of new things on this trip. The first of which was filing and opening a flight plan. After checking the weather again and adjusting my trip calculations to account for the faster cruise of the Archer, I called up the FSS and told them what I planned to do. Much like getting a weather briefing or talking to controllers, this seems like a bigger deal than it really is. The number one thing to remember is that the person on the other end of the phone line or radio waves is just that - a person. And that person's job is to help you. They help you make decisions, help you stay safe, and help you learn. With both the weather briefing and flight plan filing, the briefer started out curt and professional. When I mentioned 'I'm a student' or 'this is my first time' he chilled out and helped me along through the process.

Filing a flight plan for a VFR trip is an optional exercise that's viewed as free insurance in case of problems enroute. If you file a flight plan and don't close it by the time you estimated you'd arrive at your destination, the FAA starts looking for you. The flight plan gives them an idea of where to look for you:

1. Your destination airport - perhaps you forgot to close the flight plan.
   
2. Your departure airport - perhaps you ran into problems, returned to the airport and forgot to close your flight plan.
   
3. Somewhere along your route - perhaps you ran into problems and had to put down at an alternate airport or in a field and your forgot to or couldn't close your flight plan.
   

By the way, it's kind of important to close your flight plan ;-)

Anyway, I filed a flight plan, and we were off (with all of the typical pre-flight fanfare). After I got set up on my initial heading and in a steady climb, I called the FSS (Flight Service Station) on the radio and activated the flight plan. Activating the plan consists of giving the FSS your tail number and letting them know what time you actually left. This way they can adjust your ETA and you don't have to worry if you're delayed getting out of the airport. The key, though, is that you need to note your actual departure time, which luckily I remembered to do.

Flying VFR basically consists of comparing what you see outside to what your chart/map says you should be seeing. During pre-flight planning, you draw your course line on the chart, so you literally follow along on the line with your finger as you pass over various landmarks. I've always loved maps, and I used to do the same thing as a kid on road trips with my family. This part was easy and fun and as I leveled off at 4,500 feet, I spotted Lake Geneva up ahead. Right on course. However, I was (irrationally) fearing what was to come next: Madison Approach.

Since the point of doing a dual cross-country trip is for the learning experience, Brice had intentionally selected a destination airport so that I'd have to communicate with Madison Approach - the agency that controls the Class C airspace around Dane County Regional Airport (MSN) in Madison, Wisconsin. Again, this sounded a whole lot scarier than it ended up being. All you have to do is let them know who you are and what you're up to. Once you do that, they give you a specific code to enter into your transponder (a device that responds to radar signals with the specific code and sometimes altitude information, thus making you easier to track) and let you know when they have radar contact with you. Then if they need to, they'll tell you to do certain things to avoid getting in the way of other planes. On the way up to The Dells, they just let us go on our merry way. It was a slow day, so we really had minimal contact with them. Had it been busier, they may have vectored us around traffic, asked us to climb up and out of the airspace (as they did on the return trip), or told us to avoid the airspace altogether.

Once we were past the Class C airspace and beyond approach's radar control, they cut us loose and told us to 'squawk 1200,' which is the default transponder code for VFR traffic. I had a little further to go on my course and had to be sure of clearing a ridge spiked with radio towers before I started descending for the airport, but I started looking for the runway while I had a good vantage point.

It's somewhat scary how easy it is to feel 'lost' when looking for an airport. I wasn't really scared, becasue I knew I wasn't really lost - things were still jibing between the scene outside the window and the markings on the chart. But I was looking over toward where I expected the airport to be, and I just couldn't see it. I looked at the map, and saw the airport should be just south of a bend in the river up ahead. I looked out the window, saw the bend, drew a line straight south from that, but didn't see anything resembling a runway. So I tried again. By now, I had started my descent. I looked at the map again - nope, I wasn't crazy, it should be right there off the elbow in the river. I looked out the window again - nope, it wasn't there.

I think Brice could see I was starting to get flustered so he made a small suggestion, "Where is the airport compared to the city?" So I found Baraboo on the map and looked out the window expecting it to be just behind my left wing. But it wasn't there. Not only had someone moved the airport on me, but now they'd stolen a small Wisconsin city as well. Someone should really do something about the crime rate in rural America! I kept looking out the window and eventually found the city I was looking for. It wasn't behind my wing, but just off the trailing edge of my wingtip. I wasn't quite as far west as I'd thought I was. So from there, I traced a line north and just like Waldo, the runway suddenly leapt out at me.

Based on the wind report I'd gotten from the AWOS (Automated Weather Observation Station) at the field, I knew I needed to use Runway 19 but by this point, I was almost past the airport. So to execute a 'proper' pattern entry, I had to do a 'dipsy-doodle' to get myself into position. As I was executing these turns, I discovered why I had failed to spot the airport earlier - the elbow in the river I was looking at wasn't an elbow at all, it was just a brief bend before the big bend. Mystery solved.

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The landing was pretty uneventful. We parked the plane and headed into the FBO for a pit stop. On the way, we stopped at the pay phone to close out the flight plan ;-) The return trip was more of the same, if a little more relaxed. For fun, we played with the GPS this plane was equipped with. I climbed up to 5,500 feet and over the top of Madison's airspace. Once we were clear of their airspace, I came back down to 3,500 feet to get out of some haze. The rest of the trip was just like returning from the practice area. I made a butt-ugly landing on Runway 24 and called it a day. Well, the trip couldn't be perfect, could it?

WX'd Out Again

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Sunday, February 22, Amy and I were again scheduled to fly up to The Dells with Brice for my cross country training. And again, the weather had other plans. When I woke up, it was a beautiful, sunny morning and my hopes were high. But upon my first glance at DUATS, I knew things were going downhill fast.

By the time we got to the airport at 12:30, the ceilings were dropping and the sun was all but gone. When we walked into the FBO, there was a small crowd huddles around the weather station computer watching the snow/mixed/rain band march from Iowa and Minnesota into Wisconsin and Illinois. It wasn't long before DLL was enveloped in the white and pink sections of the display.

I was able to knock out a handful of takeoffs and landings and racked up .5 hours PIC - my first flight time in February. But I felt bad for Amy, as I'd forgotten to remind her to bring a book. The landings weren't my best - for calm winds, it was being really tricky. It was a slight cross from the left, and I'd line up with the numbers perfectly, hit 65 kts all the way in, and still float most of the way down the runway. I even did one go-around because I didn't like how much pavement was no longer in front of me. But I know I wasn't alone in my frustrations. As I was taxing back to the ramp, I watched the Arrow coming in behind me. That little bit of wind was giving him fits - he looked like a maple leaf on final. Folks back inside were also cursing the treeline south of the airport and the odd effects it creates.

Even though I didn't get to cross-country and Amy only got to try to take pictures of a white plane against a white sky, it was good to get back in the air. These three-week breaks are not fun.

Two other interesting bits:

1) While waiting on the weather and the plane, we were treated to some fine hovering, taxi (3 feet off the ground) and departure by a rock-steady guy in a R44 helicopter.

2) My CFI is going down to one day a week. Can you say 'scheduling nightmare'? It'll work out, though, I'm sure.

Wandering Out Alone

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Today was my first solo out away from the airport. It was a VERY cold day (around 0F/-18C), so I couldn't do takeoffs and landings as it would have been too hard on the engine. Instead I headed out to the practice area, doing a few steep turns along the way. I was having a hard time keeping the oil temperature up in the green because it was so cold out (I, however, was quite toasty inside the heated cabin).

I wanted to work on my ground reference maneuvers becasue there was a 10 knot wind to make it interesting. At first, I had doubts about finding the road and intersection I always use since this was my first time doing it on my own and especially because the ground was blanketed in snow. I ended up leading myself right to the correct spot, however.

I started out with S-Turns across the road heading west. When I ran out of road, I turned around and headed back east. The S-Turns weren't picture perfect as you can tell from the plot above, but they weren't terrible, and I did well holding my altitude.

As I flew over a stand of trees north of my reference road, I saw three deer run out into a field. I think they were initially scared by the sound of the airplane engine. However as I flew past them and set up for my turns around a point, their little deer brains seemed to forget all about me and they set to searching the ground for food. I did a couple turns in each direction and split my attention between judging the wind, hitting my marks, holding my altitude steady, and watching the deer. These, I think, were some of the best turns around a point I've done.

I headed back home and found the airport without any problems. There was nothing noteworthy about the landing - just the way we like it. Every time out, I feel more and more like a pilot. I can't wait for my solo cross-countries.

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Out of Nowhere

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Today started out as a beautiful day to fly. Due to illness and weather, Sunday was my first time in a plane since 2003. So I was glad today was so sunny, clear, and mostly calm. I was scheduled to do some more hood work, which I was looking forward to, so this was going to be a dual lesson.

We got settled in the plane, I started it up, and began taxiing to the end of Runway 27. Along the way I noticed how non-descript the sky had become. It was no longer blue, but it wasn't grey. Nor was it really white. It just was. Just a big blank canvass. I noticed this, but it didn't strike me as 'wrong.'

I did the runup, made my departure advisory on the radio, and we were off. As we got to 500' AGL, we both looked ahead (west) and I think I was the first to say, "That doesn't look good." We were looking at a snow squal heading our way. We didn't get to the Chain O'Lakes before realizing I wasn't going to get much out of this lesson besides good decision-making practice. I turned around and practiced a few crosswind, short, and soft field takeoffs and landings.

The temps were in the single-digits to low teens F., so the performance from the aircraft was amazing. On one short-field takeoff, me and my CFI (about 400# combined) got to 500AGL in the Warrior before the far threshold of a 3270ft runway. We had a decent headwind, but it was still the quickest I've climbed yet - solo or dual. After a little more fun with a super-short landing (nailed the numbers and stopped in only a few hundred feet), I parked the plane just as the snow began to fly.

It wasn't a bad storm, but it came up a lot quicker than the weather-folk had predicted. That's the way it goes sometimes.

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My First Passenger (With Help)

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I was supposed to do my first dual cross-country today. "Dual" means the instructor goes along with you. And since my CFI would be there, it meant The Wifely Wonder could go along for the ride. The plan was to fly up to Baraboo Wisconsin Dells airport (DLL).

I spent a good portion of yesterday going over the flight plan, looking at airport diagrams at DLL and Madison's Dane County Regional (MSN) in case we needed to divert, and checking the weather on DUATS, Weather Underground, The Weather Channel, and any other source I could find. As of bedtime, the odds were about 75% that we'd be able to make the flight. Snow was on its way and was due for the afternoon - potentially after we'd be back on the ground at home.

Weather forcasts are barely worth the paper they're printed on, and considering everything I had was electronic, they were worthless. This morning the potential of making the trip had dropped to about 30%. The winds were high and would be against us on the way home. Getting to DLL didn't look like it would be an issue, but getting home might be.

When we got to the airport and my CFI got back from his previous lesson I asked, "So, what do you think?" He asked if I'd checked the weather and I said I hadn't gone as far as getting a briefing from the Flight Service Station, but with what I had seen, it didn't seem likely we'd go. He said, "Well, we could probably do it, but we'd have to fight a hell of a headwind to get home." I didn't want to push it, especially since this was to be Amy's first flight in a small airplane. I didn't want to go out of my way to make her tense, especially if the winds might be rough. I told him I thought it was probably a better idea that we just stay local and do a sight-seeing trip. He agreed with a smile - I think he may have been testing me on the go/no-go decision.

The flight was fairly routine for me. Brice went through a briefing with Amy on how to operate the door latches and seatbelts and what to do in case she started getting airsick or otherwise uncomfortable. We started out heading towards Lake Geneva, pretty much following the route and checkpoints we would have done on the cross country. As we crossed north of Lake Geneva, we spotted a snow squall up ahead - the no-go decision was looking smarter and smarter. The skies out to the west were looking clear and since the winds were out of the southeast, we were still in good shape. I made a gradual turn to the west and skirted the north shore of Lake Como. Brice was tour guiding, pointing out the Grand Geneva Resort (formerly a Playboy resort), ice fishing shacks on Lake Geneva, and other points of interest, mostly lakes. When we got to the western end of Lake Geneva, he pointed out an observatory dome. Apparently the film Chain Reaction was in part shot around there (other parts were shot in Evanston while Amy and I were at Northwestern).

The Observatory

From there, we flew towards Big Foot Airfield (7V3), where I'd done a simulated engine-out landing before. From there, it was southeast past Harvard where Brice showed us a HUGE house with an equally huge backyard that was supposedly built over some kind of underground structure. Brice isn't sure if it's a garage, basketball court, bomb shelter, or whatever, but he watched it being built from the air, so he knows SOMETHING's under there. He calls the house The Castle House.

I then decided it would be cool to fly over the site where Amy and I were married. We had an outside ceremony hosted by my aunt and uncle at their house in McHenry. We have an aerial photo from during our wedding, but I wanted to fly over it myself. I described the location to Brice as best I could and he guided me in the general direction from where we were. I cross-checked against my handheld GPS, but he pretty much got us right there. When I spotted and pointed out the house, he said, "I've always wondered who the hell lived there. You could put a plane down on that driveway!" He's not wrong.

Look at that driveway!

It's a beautiful and impressive house and lot. Amy got quite a few photos of the house, and we headed on our way back to Campbell (C81).

I was a little off my game coming at the airport from a different direction than I was accostomed to. Additionally a stout wind didn't pretty up my pattern at all, but I got us on downwind, base, and final without any real problems. Besides, we were the only idiots flying this particular dingy day (we were well above weather minimums, it just wasn't a pretty flying day) so even if my pattern wasn't picture perfect, we were at little risk of getting in anyone else's way.

I did mess one thing up that may have been due to not having flown in almost a month, having my wife aboard, worring about my pattern or whatever. I didn't think to do my before landing checklist until I was REALLY short on final. When he saw me confirm full mixture and flip on the fuel pump, my CFI said, "I was wondering when you were going to do that."

I bounced the landing a little, but all in all, my passenger was very quiet. After I was stopped and got the plane cleaned up I asked her how she was doing and I noted that she was really quiet during and after the landing and that that could either be a good or bad sign. She said she was fine and I could pretty much hear her smiling over the intercom.

So we didn't get to go to The Dells, but Amy really enjoyed her first small airplane ride. We'd been in a Super Otter before, but we jumped out of that one, so she'd never landed in a small single engine airplane. At one point during the flight, she said, "You just brought me up here so I'd tell you it was OK to buy a plane." I said that depended on if it was working or not. She didn't comment. But I have a feeling a seed's been planted . . ..

The rest of Amy's pictures are here.

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Passed the FAA Airman Knowledge Test

I feel a bit like a schlub because I really, honestly thought I did better than a 93%. But then I feel like more of a schlub for complaining about a 93%. So I'll not complain.

If anyone cares, the area of the questions I missed were:

H312 The Pitot-Static and Associated Instruments
I brain-farted on "Maximum Structural Cruising Speed" and was thinking Vne, not Vno (doh!).

H317 Airplane Performance
I have no idea what I could have missed here, unless I followed the wrong line on one of the eye-strain charts. But I KNOW that stuff, so I don't know what I got wrong.

H346 Charting the Course
Again, no clue what I screwed up on because I was really confident in my answers (even double-checked wiz-wheel answers with the computer provided in the test).

I28 Turbulence
Pretty sure this was a question on where severe wind sheer should be expected. Two answers seemed right. I'm guessing I didn't pick the more right one.

So really, I was surprised to get more than one wrong. But a pass is a pass is a pass. One less thing between me and my ticket.

More solo time, cross-countries, and some polish. Yee-haw!

Signed Off

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On 12/30/03, I headed to Kenosha again. This time Brice planned to keep quiet and if all went well, he'd sign me off to go up there solo. I did my initial callup, got clearance, landed, etc., all without problems. On my second takeoff from KENW, my CFI had me set up for a short-field takeoff. I got up to about 200-300' when he pushed my hand off the throttle, cut the gas and said, "You just lost the engine, what do you do?"

My initial reaction was to go through the full emergency procedure and I started to reach for the fuel tank selector valve. But I realized that with only a few hundred feet of altitude, that was the wrong priority - there wasn't time to try to restart the engine, only to land the plane. So I dropped the nose to get the best glide rate, after prompting, put in the last notch of flaps (I'd had two notches in for the short-field takeoff), and landed the plane with plenty of runway to spare.

I figured the controller was wondering what the hell we were up to. But after he canceled our takeoff clearance and directed us to taxi back without asking if we were having problems, I realized he probably sees simulated emergencies a lot. It was a good exercise and comforting to realize how much procedure has been automated already.

The rest of the practice at Kenosha was less than noteworthy. After one more landing and takeoff, we departed for the southwest to return to Campbell. This time, I gave myself more room to make my overflight and right-hand turn into the pattern. I can now solo up to Kenosha.

Here's a current lesson tally:

Total hours: 27.3 Hours PIC (solo): 1.5 Total landings: 105

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[Ed. note - This was entered on 1/4/04, but I'm dating the entry for the date of the flight for archival purposes]

Everything Is Under Control

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On 12/29/03, I flew into Class D Airspace for the first time. Class D Airspace encircles an airport which has an active control tower (and isn't busy enough to have Class C (Milwaukee) or Class B (O'Hare) airspace). So it was the first time I needed to use the radio. Campbell Airport, which I fly out of, is an uncontrolled airport. So you make announcements about where you are and what you're doing out over the radio, but there's a) no requirement to do so b) no guarantee others heard you and c) no requirement for others to tell you where they are and what they're up to. "See and Avoid" is of critical importance at all times, but especially when operating around an uncontrolled airport.

So we flew north until we were directly west of Kenosha Regional (KENW). Along the way, we listened to the ATIS frequency to get the automated information about the wind conditions, which runways were in use, etc. Then Brice, my CFI nodded, and I squeaked out the line he'd coached me to say, "Kenosha Tower, Warrior, 8-4-4-7-Lima." After a brief pause, a voice came back parroting, "4-7-Lima. Go ahead."

It was my turn again, "Kenosha Tower, 4-7-Lima with information Yankee, 10 miles west, to land." I had now told them who I was, where I was, that I had the ATIS info was, and what I wanted to do. He then came back, repeating my callsign, and telling me to make my way towards the airport - I was now allowed to enter the Class D Airspace (you don't need 'clearance' technically speaking, but you do have to be in communication with the tower).

I made a right hand turn towards the airport and started descending to pattern altitude. This wasn't so bad. At first the communications seem a bit daunting, but it's all pretty logical, and 9 times out of 10, you're just repeating back what the person in the tower just told you to do.

In addition to the added load of working the radio and the stupid psychological pressure of knowing someone is watching you, this was my first time flying into an airport with right-hand traffic. If you look at the GSP plots from this flight and the next, my patterns aren't very pretty to the right yet. I need to practice. It's not a big deal, though.

Another thing you might notice from the GPS plot is that on one circuit, I aborted the landing on Rwy 24R. There had been a Lear jet holding short of the runway as I was on my downwind leg. For some reason, just as I was making my base turn, the controller cleared the jet to take off, and then cleared me to land. I was pretty short on final and the jet was still spooling up and starting to roll. I was just about to ask my CFI what I should do when he grabbed the microphone and told the controller we were going to make a right turn as we were getting too close to the jet still on the runway. The controller came back and told us to turn left instead, and enter a downwind for Rwy 24L.

It wasn't a 'close call' or anything, but it was pretty strange that he'd cleared us so close together. It just goes to show that being in a controlled environment doesn't relieve the pilot from staying aware of what's going on around him/her.

I made a total of four landings there and headed on home. To get into the pattern at Campbell, I overflew it and made a tight right-hand turn to enter on the 45. I executed the turn a little early, so the setup to land was a bit rushed, but all was well.

All in all, it was great fun, if a bit stressful.

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[Ed. note - This was entered on 1/4/04, but I'm dating the entry for the date of the flight for archival purposes]

Marginal VFR

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On 12/23/03, the ceilings were 1,500' AGL, so we didn't do hood work again. Since we had to stay around 1,800' MSL to maintain the legal limit under the clouds, Brice had me work on reviewing ground reference maneuvers, which I haven't done for a while. It was interesting flying so low now that I'm a bit more confident with flying and can actually appreciate the scenery better. It's amazing the difference even 50 feet makes when you're only about 1,000 above the ground. Without needing to look at the altimeter, I could tell if I was getting high or low.

I didn't get a whole lot of new material out of the lesson, but the review was good for when I go do maneuvers solo. It was also interesting to realize how easily you could get lost when visibility drops below 5 miles. I misjudged how far out I was from the airport on the return trip and turned for the 45 (for pattern entry) quite a bit early. So it certainly wasn't a waste of time.

And of course, it's always nice just to be airborne for an hour.

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[Ed. note - This was entered on 1/4/04, but I'm dating the entry for the date of the flight for archival purposes]

Hoodwinked!

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On 12/22/03, I did hood work with my instructor. As I think I mentioned before, the hood is like a huge-brimmed hat that keeps you from looking outside the airplane. The point is to get used to ignoring the sensory inputs from your body in case you should happen to fly into Instrument Meteorological Conditions (IMC).

Very soon after I put the hood on, it was very clear to me why such practice is required and how untrustworthy your body can be. In straight and level flight, it usually feels like you're listing one way or another for any number of reasons. The tendency, then, is to turn slightly in the opposite direction, which takes you out of straight and level flight. Things can quickly go downhill from there if you continue to trust you inner ear and not your instruments.

I think I did pretty well, though - I maintained a pretty good instrument scan (you don't rest your eyes on any one instrument for more than a few seconds), and usually corrected any deviations quickly but smoothly. Brice had me do many turns (90 degrees, 180 degrees, and 360 degrees) in both directions.

I also worked on climbing and descending turns. Those took some getting used to. The point is not necessarily to get to altitude and complete the turn at the same time, and in fact, it seemed to be easier to roll out and level off separately. There's a lot to keep track of when trying to both at the same time.

One problem I had more than once didn't have anything to do with executing the maneuver - I couldn't remember what altitude/heading Brice had told me just 30-90 seconds ago. I wasn't that rambunctious in college, so I don't know where my short-term memory went. Though this isn't the first time I've noticed problems. After all, that's why I keep a Palm handy. When I can remember where I put it.

Brice must have had confidence in me, because he vectored me all the way into the downwind leg for landing back at Campbell before he had me take the hood off. It took me a few seconds to get my bearings because I really didn't know exactly where I was. I knew I was close to the airport because he'd had me descend to TPA (Traffic Pattern Altitude), but I didn't think I'd be abeam the numbers when I could finally see again. But landings are getting to be fairly routine, so it wasn't much of an issue to put it down safely.

Yet another good lesson.

[Ed. note - This was entered on 1/4/04, but I'm dating the entry for the date of the flight for archival purposes]

GPS Plots Updated

The GPS Plots are up to date as of today. The filenames are stupid, but since I have links to them, it'll be a PITA to fix them. I could create a dulpicate folder, use good names in the new folder, and then either change old links over time, or just leave the old dupe there. Ah well. Dumb dumb dumb.

I'm going to look for a good way to do an online flight log - thinking mysql, etc. Then I could link top the plots from there. Or I could just go back and create entries here. But I was never very fond of revisionism. Yet again, I could just make one new entry to catch all of the flights I didn't write up before - just brief descriptions of what the plots show.

We'll see what I decide to do. Maybe I just won't do anything. I've already spent a good chunk of today on this.

My First Solo Solo

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Listening to the morning news on Monday told me it wasn't going to be a good week for flying. Monday itself was decent, but I was feeling a bit crummy, so I didn't fly. Tuesday and Wednesday were just plain crappy. Thursday was finally pretty decent, but the winds were just a little too strong. They were blowing 12-20 knots. I currently have a limitation of 11kt total winds with 6kt maximum crosswind component when soloing. So despite a clear sunny day, I was grounded again.

Friday, however, turned out to be beautiful. The winds were maxing out at about 5 kts at about 300 degrees. So taking off from runway 270 was going to be no problem with regard to wind limitations. I called out to the airport and reserved the plane.

It was about 20 degrees F. Aircraft really love cold weather. Once they get started. Engines run better because the air is dense so there is more oxygen available for combustion. Airfoils, including the propeller, can take a better bite out of the air, so climb performance is a lot better than on hot days as well. And I was by myself. The airplane was leaping off the runway because it wanted to fly so much.

There wasn't much to mention about the flight. There was no other traffic to contend with. None of my eight landings were bad, though a few flares could have been more complete before touchdown. The winds stayed calm and shifted anywhere from 250-290 degrees.

I did do one short-field takeoff, which is designed to get the aircraft up over a 50-foot obstacle in the shortest ground distance. You start out with two notches of flaps, hold the brakes, and run the engine up to full before you start the ground roll. Once you get to about 50kts, you pretty much yank the plane off the runway and climb like a rocket. Especially alone. On a cold day.

The significant thing about the flight for me, though, was that my instructor was not there at all. Past solos started out with him in the plane with me. This one was all me. I started the plane. I shut it down. Me. Me. Me. What a feeling of freedom.

BTW, I finally got some pictures scanned from my solo T-shirt ceremony. The ritual is that on the day of your solo, they cut your shirt tail, write some commemorative details on it, and hang it in the FBO until you get your license, when you get to rip it down. My ceremony was delayed a few days because the shirt I wore during my solo wasn't conducive to being written on. The advantage was that I got to have a photographer there. John is my AOPA mentor. He flew over from Lake in the Hills to congratulate me and snap a few photos. I don't know why Brice, my CFI and I don't look happy, but I certainly was. We're both pretty stoic dudes. We work well together that way. Anyway, click the pic below to get to the Flying Pics gallery (which is sadly bare thus far).

More VOR Work

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Last Wednesday, I got to do VOR work again - wow, three flying days in a row! There were two noteworthy bits about this flight. First of all, after tracking in to the Burlington VOR one time, my instructor told me that he wanted me to start getting used to relying on the instruments to prepare to 'hood work.'

A Private Pilot is not allowed to fly in, through, or actually anywhere near clouds. Not without an Instrument Rating. That is because the life expectancy of an untrained pilot in a cloud is very VERY short. Without reference to the horizon, untrained pilots mistakenly trust their senses and not their instruments. A few illusions combine to cause what is known as the "Graveyard Spiral." Get into one, and you'll meet the ground in a hurry. Or the water, in the case of JFK Jr.

For this reason, the FAA requires even Private Pilots to have at least three hours of training on flying only with reference to instruments. Those three hours don't teach you enough to safely fly through clouds, but the idea is to keep you alive long enough to be able to turn around and get out if you 'just happen' to stumble into a zero visibility situation.

To simulate this situation, a pilot wears a hood (think of a giant-brimmed baseball cap) or special glasses called Foggles which block out the view outside the airplane so the pilot can only see the instruments. Note that this is only done when there is a CFI present looking out for traffic and ready to bail out a disoriented student. Since you wear a hood for this training, it's called 'hood work,' or more technically, 'simulated IMC (Instrument Metrological Conditions).

Anyway, I wasn't doing hood work yet, just getting ready for it. But it's really a strange adjustment to make. Since I started flying, I've really been working on building a good traffic scan - a literal lifesaver when flying. If you're not constantly looking for other aircraft, you're much more likely to hit them. Now, suddenly, I was being told NOT to scan for traffic. Not to look outside at all. Just to scan the instruments, establish a course, and make turns based on what they told me. Even though the outside wasn't blocked from view, I could see/feel how you might tend to doubt what the instruments said you were doing.

So I pretty much did the whole flight after takeoff and before entering the pattern without looking outside. So I can't write anything about the weather or the scenery ;-) If you look at the track, I did pretty well. The leg between Wilmot and Wag Aero is a bit curved because I wasn't actually on a radial at that point, I was tracking north to intercept the 120 degree radial, which I didn't wind up doing until I was almost on tom of the VOR.

Also, the track up to the north of the VOR station is a little misleading, too. I did not make a perfectly straight shot out and then zig-zag back. Instead, I zig-zagged when I started north, then straightened out. After I did the 180 degree turn, I zig-zagged a bit again, then straightened out.

The only other really interesting part of the flight was the landing (isn't that always the case?). I was set up nicely (and looking outside at this point) and compensating for a mild crosswind. Everything was looking good, and then suddenly I was dropping like a rock. I added in a bit of power to slow the sink rate, but I just kept falling.

The natural reaction, and wrong thing to do, is to pull back on the elevator to pick your nose up. What that does is bleeds off airspeed and the next thing you know you're looking at a stall less than 50 feet above the ground. I started to do this, but when I noticed my airspeed was 5 knots lower than it should have been, I did what I should have done in the first place - I added a lot of power. This slowed our fall to a respectable rate - one that would get us to the runway - and got the airspeed back up where it belonged. I was able to finish out the landing as if nothing had happened.

I don't know if I was hit by a downdraft, a gust dropped out from under me, or I underestimated the sink from the slip I put in for the crosswind. But I adjusted and learned from the situation. There were three lessons enforced here:

1. Don't let your airspeed get too low on approach (or ever).
   
2. Fly the plane until it's tied down - a pretty approach does not guarantee a pretty landing.
   
3. When you're flying slow, control effectiveness is dampened, so make corrections with authority (within reason). This goes for the throttle, too.
   

So I flew three days in a row last week. And now we're in for a week of grey, grey days. Some times, that's the way it goes.

ADDENDUM

I forgot a few things in my original post. See how much I forget if I wait almost a week to do a writeup?

I forgot one 'cute' bit about my preflight. I checked the tanks and they were both low. My CFI wasn't back from his previous lesson yet, so I mentioned it to one of the FBO owners. He said, "Can you pull it up to the pump? We'll get it filled up for ya'." My initial reaction was, no, I can't do that. But then it hit me, I BETTER be able to do that, I'm signed off for solos!!!! So I got in the plane, started it up and taxied over to the gap pump. Just one of those 'little things' that made me realize how far I've come and what I can do now. Just one of those things that make you smile.

And there was one not-so-cute thing: as the FBO owner walked up to the pump and I jumped off the wing proud of my valet job, he pointed out the fuel dripping/streaming from the fuel bowl sump valve. Doh!!! Note to self: BE CAREFUL NOT TO LEAVE THE SUMP OPEN WHEN DRAINING FUEL!!!!! On this plane the bowl drains really slowly, so I just didn't notice it as I headed from the engine to the left wing. At least I was just going to the pump, not on a cross country flight.

So now I'm wondering if I should do another walk around AFTER my walk-around to make sure I didn't break anything.

Solo #3

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Today when I got out to the airport, the sky was clear and there's was only the slightest whisper of a breeze. I was finally going to get to solo again, provided the plane behaved. It had been over a month since my first and second solos, so I was getting anxious. My CFI was still out with another student, so I did the preflight and waited for him. I was so excited, I just about had the engine started before he jumped in.

The lesson started out interesting enough. What little breeze there had been left the wind sock indicating wind right down 270. The TWEBs I'd gotten on the phone called for 260-280 degree winds of about 3 knots. Everyone else using the airport was pretty happy with Runway 27, so that's what I headed for. As I pulled off the tarmac onto the taxiway, there was a twin maneuvering away from the fuel pumps to depart the airport. I figured he was going to whip a 180, and follow me down the taxiway to 27.

I stopped at the hold-short line, did my run-up, was checking for any incoming traffic, and was just about to make my radio call indicating my departure into the pattern when a voice pre-empted me. "Campbell, mutter-mutter-mutter-mutter depart niner." So there, at the far end of the runway, is the twin rolling for a slight tailwind takeoff. I guess the guy didn't want to have to wait for a lowly Warrior. Welcome to the be-on-your-toes world of the non-towered airport. At least he used his radio, I guess. And he looked pretty cool retracting his gear and whipping by 50 feet above and in front of us. My instructor muttered something about, "That guy . . . trouble." The intercom didn't pick it all up.

So I looked for any more traffic, called my departure, rolled out onto the runway, and was off. If you've read any of my recent posts about flying there's one 4-letter word I've used a LOT lately - "wind." I've had crosswinds, headwinds, gusting winds. Just lots and lots of wind. But not today. And I realized something important about a total lack of headwind - you don't need as much power from base down final. I set up perfectly for my first landing, had all the flaps out, and got about halfway down the runway before the plane even considered setting down. Time to go around.

I realized after the go-around and the first actual landing, that I had been leaving my speed up around the 70+kts we'd been using for the crosswind and gusty days, not the 65kts I should have been at. I continued to make adjustments to power and approach airspeed until I had hit three acceptable landings. After those three, I kicked my CFI out of the plane, and I was on my own again.

I did 4 more landings. The first two were OK, but not great. The third was the best. It was so gentle, I wasn't convinced I had actually touched down until I tried out the nose wheel steering - yup, she was down. The last one was set up to be just as nice, and then the first hint of breeze of the hour decided to rise up and cause me to float a little. I hung in there, though, added a bit of power, and settled it right in. I checked the hobbs, saw my hour was up, and parked the plane.

Weather permitting, we're going to work on VOR work again tomorrow, then next week, I'll spend an hour or so doing takeoffs and landings all on my own. Yikes!

Plotting GPS Tracks (Was: How'd you do that???)

Updated 6/15/04. Important updates should be obvious. Unimportant ones shouldn't be.

I get asked a lot about how I plotted my ground tracks from my flight lessons. I figured I'd copy the response here in case I'm asked again. Hopefully I'll flesh it out as time goes on.

Doing the plots is simple in a way, but actually involves a few steps.

1) Track the flight: I do this by firing up my handheld GPS and throwing it in the back seat of the Warrior. Most of the time it tracks just fine. Occasionally, I lose the sats for a bit and I get random glitches in the track. If they aren't major, they can be easily fixed in one of the following steps.

2) Dump the track from the GPS: I use a program called Expert GPS to download the tracks/waypoints/etc. from my Garmin to my laptop. There are many programs out there. This one has some advantages and some disadvantages. I should write up a full review of it one day, but the killer-app of this program is that it'll automatically download aerial photo or topo-map backgrounds for your maps. You can zoom in pretty close, too. ExpertGPS has a free trial and then is cheap after that. Here's their website: expertgps.com

3) (Optional) Scan in and calibrate the sectional: If an aerial photo background is good enough, I can skip this step. If I want to show the sectional, I have to scan it in. The tough thing is stitching together a few scans (which I haven't bothered doing yet). Apparently raster files are available from the FAA, but you have to buy a whole subscription, which is $200

UPDATE: Instead of making or buying your own sectional scans, someone was kind enough to post them on the internet: here. TAC charts are also available there.

4) Once it's looking good, capture the image. UPDATE: This used to be tricky, but since version 1.3.5 of ExpertGPS, there is now an 'Export Image' menu item on the Map menu. From there, you can export to a printer or a file.

5) Publish: UPDATE: I now use the program called Gallery to keep all of my images in order. Uploading to my server is handled through that interface.

All of the front end stuff is done in Windows. Gallery runs on my linux server.

It's not bad if I do one or two at a time. But if I let the tracks pile up, it becomes tedious.

If you have any questions, or perhaps suggestions to make the process easier, let me know in the comments section below.

VOR Work

Finally, after a mechanical problem my last time out, then a week off for turkey day, I got back in the air today.

It was a clear, sunny day, but boy was it windy! Running some errands about an hour before my lesson, I saw a few overhead cables (just TV, not power) resonating nicely in the wind - a perfect standing wave pattern. It was pretty neat to see, but it didn't instill confidence that I'd get my last set of supervised solo pattern work in today.

I checked the winds reported in the area and though they were pretty much right down runway 27, they were about 13 knots gusting into the twenties. I was kind of surprised I didn't get a call from my CFI at 11:30, so at 11:50 I headed over to the airport.

After I did the preflight check and we buckled in, he said, "Let's see if we can't get that third solo in today." He didn't seem to concerned about the wind, so I wasn't anymore, either.

I taxied out to 27, did my run up, made my radio call, and was off the runway in what seemed like about 50 feet of roll. Yowza, that's a strong headwind. I climbed to 500 AGL, made my crosswind turn, hit the traffic pattern altitude, did a quick GUMPS check, called my downwind, and in a flash it was time to throttle back and throw out the first notch of flaps. My base leg required about a 30 degree crab, and though I looked a bit high on final, the headwind took care of the extra altitude and I put it down just a touch past the numbers. Not a bad landing.

The second takeoff was a little more eventful. The winds were getting squirrelier and we got the $%^& pretty well kicked out of us on the climb-out. At this point my instructor announced that today would be a good day for VOR (navigation) work. It was actually a lot of fun tracking the needle and I think my years on Flight Simulator helped out a bit. If I say so myself, I did pretty good keeping a straight track considering the winds.

Click for a larger image.

First we headed north and tracked to the BURBUN VOR and played around there for a bit. We flew over Alpine Valley, where Stevie Ray Vaughn met his fate, so that was pretty interesting. Along the way when the wind was pushing us, we clocked a 130kt groundspeed. Not bad for a Warrior.

On the way home, I followed the 180 degree radial from Burlington until I picked up a 140 degree heading to the Northbrook VOR, which took us right home (C81). This was the straightest part of the ground track. I was really getting the hang of it.

The one thing worth mentioning about the return to the airport was a bit of a mistake I made. I was proud of myself for remembering to make my position call about 4 miles out from Campbell. I also got in my 45 and downwind calls. But my bubble was soon burst. My downwind call was answered with, "Traffic for Campbell Airport, check your frequency." DOH!!!! When we were tracking back and forth over BUU, my instructor had dialed up their CTAF and was advising of our intentions. Well I never switched the radio back to C81's CTAF. Ah well. My CFI said he let me make that mistake. I wonder. . . .

Anyway, the landing was uneventful and even thought I STILL have only soloed twice, it was a good lesson and a great day to fly. Hopefully the winds will calm down tomorrow. If not, we'll just work on more VOR stuff.

One sad thing that I realized upon looking over my logbook today was that I only flew three times in November. The weather and scheduling gods were against me. Here's to a new month.

In case anyone cares, here is a picture taken after my first lesson.
Here are the GPS plots I've gotten online so far.
And to date I have logged 76 landings in 19.9 hours. Only 7 of those landings and 0.9 hours are PIC time.

The weather's great! Now what?

So I got to the airport today under clear blues skies and a SLIGHTLY gusty wind right down 27. I though it might have been a little windy for my 3rd supervised solo, but my CFI had mentioned getting started on hood work, so I figured if nothing else, we'd work on that.

I started my preflight, checked the right tank, saw it was past the tab, and went under it to sump out some fuel. And nothing came out. I tried a few times, and eventually, a clot of gunk came out that at first looked like cork, but turned out to be mud. I showed my CFI (and the A/P) and he said to drain some more fuel out and see how it was. After a few more times, it seemed fine.

I checked out the engine, and then the prop. The prop had three fresh stone strikes on it. CFI said they weren't bad, but he'd squawk it when we got back. The rest of the plane checked out OK.

As we hopped in, my CFI joked with me that landings were going to be tough today because the winds were straight down the runway (see my recent post about greased crosswinds). But he declared that I'd knock out my last supervised solo today, so I was stoked. I ran through the checklists as he wired up the intercom. I put the key in, set the mixture and throttle, primed the engine, checked the area, called "CLEAR!" and cranked the engine. And cranked. And cranked. And stopped.

We tried priming it. Leaning the mixture in case it was flooded. Pumping the throttle. Letting it sit for a bit. We eventually dragged the A/P out and he tried starting it, with no luck. He was thinking it might be a bad magneto but his quick tests gave no joy. The odd thing was, in the 15 minutes or so we tried starting it, it never coughed once - it was dead.

I don't know if the problem was a magneto, or was related to the funk in the right tank, but since the other bird was checked out, my lesson was scrubbed today. I'll be curious to hear what the problem was.

Something/someone didn't want me to fly today. Ah well. Just practice with that patience thing.

"Better to be on the ground wishing you were in the air than in the air wishing you were on the ground."

If anyone sees that Murphy b@$=@&>, kick him in the junk for me. ;-)

Crosswinds are FUN!

Ok, I was originally going to title this update, "X-winds AGAIN!?!" But since I had so much fun, I opted for a more positive title.

A brief recap - I had my first two solos the last week in October, and then weather and scheduling haven't cooperated again since. My last three flights in the pattern have been working on crosswinds. The first one was really sketchy, and the next was slightly better but not really coming together completely. Despite fog in the morning and borderline visibility due to haze, I was able to squeeze in an hour yesterday - again in crosswinds.

A while ago, my CFI said he actually enjoyed x-winds more than straight-on landings - more fun, more challenge. Well yesterday, with about 10kt, 90deg. winds, it all clicked and I knew exactly what he was talking about. The elevator ride from the slip, the rudder-pressure release with the flair, upwind wheel touching down, then the downwind wheel, then the nosewheel, dump the flaps. . . . It was a thing of beauty.

4-5 greasers, the remaining 3-4 (8 total) were 'great' by definition that the plane was reusable. And on the ones I didn't grease, I knew what I did wrong and adjusted on the next one. I also really REALLY learned about flying the plane all the way in. I know I've SAID it before, but riding along on one (main) wheel and knowing that's perfectly fine - that drove the point home.

I was able to do 4 each way (left and right x). Due to some tree-line induced turblence, the ones down 24 are trickier, but if you just ride through the bumps, it all comes out OK.

So it was a good, fun, confidence-building lesson.

I got rained out today. Crossing my fingers for tomorrow.

Fun Hop

Well, the weather cooperated somewhat by clearing up, but the winds started kicking up pretty good. My CFI hadn't called me by 11:45, though, so I headed out to the field. As I stepped into the FBO he nodded a hello and said, "You want to go to Schaumburg (06C)?" I said "Sure, but it's a little windy, isn't it?" Then it was about 15kts coming right down 24. No real biggie, but since I'd been in the pattern so much lately, he figured it would be good to just go fly. "Oh, BTW, there was a box the A/P needs to get to 06C" (I should have made them pick up the cost of the plane ;-).

Since I grew up about 5 miles west of 06C, and had my first discovery flight there, I was anxious to get back to the first airport I'd ever known.

The hop is only about 20 nm, and we made it in no time. Despite how many times I'd ridden my bicycle there and hung out watching planes come and go, it looked totally unfamiliar arriving via air and looking at the offices from the ramp.

There were two distinct learning opportunities presented on this flight. The first was on approach to Rwy 29, lined up perfectly, winds were up to about 20 kts and pretty gusty, and, oops, I got too slow. My CFI called the plane, kicked in some power, and we landed about halfway down the runway after fighting the wind to get down. He said, "Well, that was interesting." So lesson one - keep an eye on the airspeed! I don't know, maybe I thought the wind was going to hold us up in the air regardless of what the ASI said *shrug*. Actually, I think I was just so tuned in on adjusting for the crosswind, I neglected the airspeed. DON'T do that.

I shut down, he ran the box into the FBO, came back out, I ran through the lists and we were back off the ground in no time. Before making our turn back towards the north, I caught a glimpse of my old stompin' grounds - the house I grew up in, old schools, etc.

On the way south, we had stayed at about 1,700 MSL to keep under O'Hare's airspace. On the way out after clearing Hoffman Estates, he told me to go ahead and climb up to 2,000 MSL. I set up a decent climb, leveled off and just took in the scenery. We were talking about the huge houses of Barrington and Inverness, I spotted some traffic off to the west, etc.

All of a sudden he grabs the chart, looks around and says, "How long have we been at 3,000?" I look at the altimeter, see it's at 3000, and wonder, "How the hell did we GET to 3,000?" I say we couldn't have been there long, I mean last I knew, we were at 2,000' and it wasnt' THAT long ago. He says he hopes not, because we might have just snuck out of O'Hare's space before climbing up that high. He has me descend to about 2,600' to be safe.

I can tell he was pretty nervous that we'd violated the busiest airspace in what, the world? But then, as I dropped through 2,700', things started clicking. This is about how high we were on the way south. We COULDN'T be 1,000' higher than we were before.

At this point I proclaim, "I think I messed up." I could tell when he asked "How?" that he was still expecting to hear from the FAA at some point in our near future. I said, "I set our field elevation 1,000' higher than actual." He's skeptical, so he tunes in UGN's ATIS, and sure enough, the barometer setting is off by, oh, about 1,000'. Phew!!!! No airspace incursion for us. Just to be sure, though, once we landed, we checked the altitude plot on my handheld GPS. According to it, we never broke 1,900'.

When I got in the plane, the altimeter must have read 1,300', which is about 500' high. Not paying attention to the little hand, I brought the big hand up to the customary 788' setting. But it was actually 1,788'.

Luckily we were VMC and there was no real risk of me driving us into the ground by trusting a mis-set altimeter.

Argh. Lesson #2, sanity check the instrument settings! Look at the whole instrument, not just the big hand. And even though it's not official, check the barometer reading on the field's weather station so it's at least CLOSE to what the altimeter is set to.

Oh, and I screwed up my radio call when departing 06C:
"Schaumburg Traffic, Piper 8847-Lima departing runway 2-9 for the north, Campbell. Er, Schaumburg."

Not a biggie, more something to smile about than anything.

On the upside, the winds back home at C81 were about 23kts, but straight down the chute still. Despite a few wing-dipping gusts, I rode through them and flared as soft as stepping off a curb.

My CFI congratulated me on a good landing, then promptly canceled his remaining lessons for the day. I hope it's not because I scared him too much ;-)

It was nice to get out of the pattern for a change and to get back to my old stomping grounds - an area I actually can recognize from the air. Here I though I was going to be grounded by weather, and instead I had a nice, fun, informative flight. God, I love this stuff!!!!

Addendum (later in the day):
I'm also glad I'm not up now:
45-50 mph winds gusting to 60 mph. Wind warning (not advisory) in effect until 11pm, and they're forcasting 25' waves on Lake Michigan. Wowzers. And we just got our power back here at work after being out for 2.5 hours.

Actually, things have calmed a little now:

METARs for kugn kord kpwk

KORD 122256Z 27027G36KT 10SM BKN040 OVC050 07/M01 A2972 RMK AO2 PK
WND 29041/2202 SLP067 T00671006=

KPWK 122253Z 27021G35KT 10SM OVC040 07/M01 A2972 RMK AO2 PK WND
25041/2235 SLP068 T00671011=

KUGN 122320Z 27014G34KT 10SM OVC028 06/M01 A2967 RMK AO2 PK WND
27034/2317 $=

I did see one helicopter and one twin come into C81 in the last few hours. Pucker factor is high.

I was talking with another pilot at work. We're pretty sure you could have flown a Cessna 152 backwards in those winds.

More crosswinds. . . .

I still can't log that third supervised solo, but I did get to work on x-winds again today. Thanks to a thread over at studentpilot.com, they went a LOT better today. Well some of them did, 2 called for go-arounds. But in both of those cases I know where I screwed up.

I'm getting used to the odd picture that landing on a x-wind gives you, so that's good.

And after 11 days off, it felt great to get back in the air. Hopefully tomorrow will stay clear and those winds will swing another 30-50 degrees to the west. . . .

However, although I'd like to get my last supervised solo out of the way, I was glad to have a chance to work the x-winds again. Especially since I had such a hard time with them last time out. I was certainly glad for the opportunity to fly, solo, x-winds, or whatever.

Rigga-frackin' Crosswinds!!!

I'm still smiling about that solo.

Second supervised solo was yesterday. 2 out of 4 of the landings were good, 2 were a little hard, mostly due to some squirrely winds right above the threshold, but not 'bad'.

Today was a 'learning day.'

I was hoping to get the third supervised solo out of the way, especially because my instructor is booked up during my usual flying time next week (lunch time). Instead we got to work on crosswind landings.

Timing is everything, and I just couldn't get it today. First I'd take out the ailerons too soon. Next shot, got the ailerons, forgot to dump the last of the power - go around. Next one, remember those two things, forget a small thing called the flare. Etc., etc. 6 landings, 3 with left X-winds, 3 with right, only 1 was 'good' and that one wasn't all mine. And the winds were only 10-12kts, it's not like it was a gale out there.

So it was a little frustrating. Though not discouraging. I just hope I can think about it and put it all together without going too far and overanalyzing it. Just another one of those plateaus. I'll get it next time.

I guess it's better to have gotten this experience before I was turned loose in the practice area on my own only to come home to find these winds and wonder "How many times can I go around. . . ."

Solo!!!!

I know I'm way overdue on updates. I'm sure no one (of the two or three that were before) is reading this anymore. But I soloed today!!!! I flew the plane all by myself. No instructor. No Autopilot. No ejector seat. Just me, the plane, and gravity. I did three take offs and landings with Brice, then he asked if I was ready to do them on my own. I paused for a moment, took mental inventory, and was certain that, yes, I WAS ready for it.

I did three take offs and landings and wasn't scared once. I was too thrilled to be scared.

As of now, I've got 13.9 hours of flying time. 13.5 with dual instruction, and .4 as Pilot-In-Command. I can't relate how excited I am. I'm not sure if I'll sleep tonight.

And I get to do it all again tomorrow . . ..

[Ed. I corrected the tally of hours above - one additional trivia bit is that I've logged 44 landings, with and without help.]

[Ed. 2: Photo added 12/14/03]

Non-flight Lesson

I was grounded today due to weather. The visibility and cloud cover were iffy, and we might have pushed it to go up, but instead we did some ground schooling. It saved me $90 on plane rental, anyway, so that's good. We went over, in writing, the takeoff and landing procedures I've been doing in the plane. So it was mostly review, but it was good to get it all spelled out in order. Now I can practice it, or 'chair-fly' it, so it gets to be habit.

On the next flight (Wednesday, hopefully), we're going over emergency procedures, and on the one after that, we'll start working on takeoffs and landings. Here's hoping for blue skies.

Lesson Number 5

Today's lesson was very much the same as yesterday's with one exception - the wind. I mentioned it being pretty strong yesterday. Well, today it was stronger and pretty much straight out of the south. This means the takeoff and landings were done in a crosswind. That was quite interesting. I needed a bit of help on the landing due to it. Ailerons into the wind, rudder opposite. Strange. And I goofed once on the radio - said we were inbound for Runway 6, when it was really the opposite, 24. They knew what I meant.

I made a realization today. In the past, I've noticed a few times when my intuition has lead me to step on the wrong rudder pedal while taxiing. I did that on the takeoff today, too. It wasn't good. See, while on the ground, you step on the left pedal to go left, or the right pedal to go right. Just like in the air - the right pedal will yaw the nose to the right. But I switch 'em. And I think I know why. I grew up water skiing and later took up snow skiing. In both of those, you put the pressure on the leg that is on the outside of the turn. So that's my habit. I'll have to break it. I guess I'll have to get rudder pedals and a yoke for Flight Simulator. . . .

Today was windy/bumpy enough that the seatbelt was actually used a few times. And even now, if I look down at my keyboard, my body feels like it's still rocking and swaying. I've experienced this before after spending the day on rollers in Lake Michigan. Inneresting.

After my post last night, I loaded up the GPS plots from my flights. They start on the second one - I didn't have the GPS for the first lesson. The thumbnails are tiny and the images themselves are quite large, but if I presented them smaller, they lost a lot of sharpness. To me, the interesting ones are the turns around a point from yesterday and today. You can see where I did well and where I goofed. For some reason, today's plot is very sketchy. The GPS must have been in a bad spot in the plane. Hopefully others will be better. I'll go back and put in links to the plot in my previous entries.

That's all for now. Blue skies.

Hour 4

Today was a beautiful day to fly. It was a little bumpy around 2,000', but nothing that couldn't be managed. Today my CFI had me do the preflight check of the aircraft on my own. He was actually a little late returning from another lesson, but he had told me that next time I came, I should grab the clipboard for the plane and check it out. I used my spare time waiting for him to watch some traffic come and go. I also sat in the cockpit a bit just ingraining the locations of things into the back of my head. It helps greatly that I was able to find a Piper Warrior II for Flight Simulator 2004 (if I dig it up, I'll put a link here, but I'm pretty sure it was at www.flightsim.com). [Ed. The file is warrior4.zip. Flightsim.com's a cool site, but requires login. I have the file here.] Even on my off days, I'm looking at the panel and remembering what switch or indicator is where.

After he signed off on his other student's log book, we were all set to go. I did the pre-start and engine start checks/routines without any coaching from him, and he just had a few comments during the taxi out to runway 24. As is standard, I stopped short of the runway and went through the run-up checklist. This is where you test things like magnetos, the fuel pump, and the alternator to make sure things are working properly.

One of the last two things on the checklist is "Radio." At an non-towered airport like Campbell, you don't need clearance from the tower to take off (because there is no tower), but you do need to make sure no one is about to land on you and it's also wise to let others know what you are about to do. Usually the intructor handles the radio calls. Today, he handed me the mic and I stammered my way through it, paranoid that I was going to get the aircraft's tail number wrong or something. But I did just fine. This time.

After an uneventful takeoff with a very slight cross wind, I climbed out toward the northwest to our usual practice area just south of Lake Geneva, WI. Once out there, we found my CFI's favorite intersection and worked on two new moves. First we did turns around a point. The winds were good practical experience for this maneuver. The trick is to keep the ground track in a steady circle around the point, despite the fact that the bank angle and pitch are constantly changing as the wind shifts around the plane (from head wind to cross wind to tail wind to cross wind, all the way around). With the head wind, the plane wants to climb to heaven. With the tail wind, you need to bank steeply to make your mark. There's a ton going on, and it's easy for your ice cream (a perfect circle) to turn to shit (a bulging diamond). The GPS plot looks pretty cool from doing these, and it'll nicely show where I did well, and where I fell short.


Next were S-turns over a road. These are similar to the circle around a point, but you keep switching off between semi-circles to the left, then the right, then back again. The trick here is to cross the road at a perpendicular track with the wings level. Again, depending on wind direction, your bank either starts off steep and ends up shallow, or vice-versa. Again, the wind was quite helpful in providing a decent challenge by quartering nicely from the southwest. Both of these ground reference maneuvers are critical for executing proper turns in a traffic pattern, as well as basic cross-country flying. You always have to know where the wind is coming from to know how to use it properly.

After that we headed back and practiced a steep turn in each direction for good measure. I choked on the approach call-out on the radio, but it wasn't anything major. I got as far as "Campbell Traffic, Piper 4 Victor Tango," and forgot the rest. After I shook the cobwebs and re-keyed the mic, I spit out the "3 miles to the southwest inbound to land two four, Campbell" Practice, practice, practice.

I made a decent landing - drifted a little to the right, but otherwise good. Other than a bit of a kick on the rudder and stiffening the yoke so I wouldn't overuse the ailerons, the instructor was pretty much hands-off. I landed. A plane. On the runway.

I picked up a Warrior II manual today so I can look over emergency procedures, etc. So I've got some homework. Next lesson (tomorrow if the weather holds out) is going to be more of the same. After those get smoother, we're heading for emergency procedures and specific takeoff and landing work.

Wow. 4 hours under my belt. On my way.

Number 3

Been delayed. Busy weekend.

Last Wednesday was Flight Lesson #3. We did stalls. Take-off stalls and landing stalls. They weren't as stomach churning nor nerve fraying as I expected. They were actually kind of fun - though that's probably because we were 2,300 feet in the air (1,500 feet above the ground), and I knew the instructor wouldn't let anything bad happen. Were I actually on final approach 100' above the ground and I suddenly found myself in a stall, I doubt it would be fun. But you practice so you know how to react if it does happen.

After the stalls, I practiced the stuff from the first two lessons, mostly steep turns and slow flight. Next flights are tomorrow and Wednesday, weather permitting, and we're going to be doing more of what amounts to landing practice - turns around a rectangle which is what you do in the landing pattern.

So now you know.

Being On the Ground Sucks

Second lesson was today. It was a little easier and a little harder. For some reason I was a little nervous before we started - well, and during, my shoulders are fairly tense. But I think that's because I knew my CFI was going to have me doing stuff more on my own this time. I only missed one little thing (oh, two) on the preflight check, so he was impressed. I think I was also more tense because the last/first time, I was just so wow'd, stuff just wasn't sinking in. Although I was more nervous, certain things came easier (rolling out of turns, staying straight and level, etc).

Today we did steep turns and slow flight (two separate things). Steep turn are STEEP (about 45 degrees). They're fun. They remind me of being on the motorcycle. Slow flight is pretty tricky, because controls are very much dampened. But it was still pretty cool. It's basically landing practice at 2500 feet.

Being a fairly warm day, the air was pretty choppy and though that didn't rattle me, it did make maintaining altitude tricky. One minute the plane would want to climb, I'd trim it out to fly level, and then it'd sink. Also, halfway through a 360 degree slow turn, the wind straightened us out. Brice was like, "No, all the way back to East." In my head, I was all, "I'm trying."

We had a good landing today, too. I should have had a little more backpressure on the yoke, but we didn't land short, so that's good. I can't believe that one day I'll be doing that withough someone coaching in my headphones.

I had my GPS with me today, so I have a plot of the whole flight. We covered about 111 miles and just barely crossed into Wisconsin. Even though I thought I did pretty well holding altitude on the banks and slow flight maneuvers, looking at the altitude profiles of the flight tells me otherwise.

Got complimented again today, so that's encouraging. Next lesson is tomorrow. Apparently, we stall.

First Flight

I had my first lesson. I'm flying out of Campbell Airport near Grayslake. Cardinal Aircraft Services rents out Piper Warrior II's for students. It's a low-wing plane. One pilot I know suggested I might be more comfortable in a Cessna 152 or 172, which are high-wing planes, the thought being there's a better view of the ground coming up for landings. That really doesn't seem to be an issue, though, since you're looking out the front of the plane at that point.

Speaking of landings, we landed a bit short of the runway, but I'm not sure whose fault that was. My instructor, did most of the flying for landing, but then right at the end he said something about 'Don't let it touch down yet,' and a half second later we were down. But it was still very smooth, even for being on grass. No biggie. Takeoff was cake. Those planes pretty much take off on their own.

I'm not sure if he was blowing sunshine or what but he gave me two really nice compliments. While we were up and I was doing turns, he asked, "So how many lessons have you had?" I said I had one 'introductory' flight and did some turns, but this was my first real lesson. He said I was doing awesome at keeping the plane steady and executing turns. Nice. Then when we were on the ground, he said, "I've got to tell you, you did an excellent job. I think you were the best first-time student I've ever had." That rocked. If he was blowing sunshine, it worked.

I like him, he keeps talking, so he's constantly telling me things I might or might not know, so eventually they all sink in - monitoring airspeed, how the controls work, pointing out landmarks, giving pointers and tips, etc. He almost forgot to untie the rear tiedown during the pre-flight, though. I pointed it out. Maybe that impressed him ;-)

Anyway, next lessons are next Tuesday and Wednesday. Can't wait.