Friday, April 28, 2006

(Lack of) Flying Update

Okay, sports fans, here's the play by play

United Airlines SAN-SFO-Narita (Tokyo) Japan for a long business trip. Thank God for Economy Plus seating and Channel 9 on the long leg.

Came home same route, looking forward to doing some flying. My lovely wife was out of town, so what better time to burn some hours on the Hobbs? Unfortunately, right after I got back, I broke my finger in a softball game, so right now I have a big splint and am taking 800mg Motrin, so flying is out for a few days. Hopefully, in a few weeks, I can get back in the air.

Until then, my friends, fly safe!

BC

PS-For those of you who hadn't noticed (including me in my crippled non-blogging condition), Clumping Litter (Aviatrix Logbook) passed her Commercial Checkride. Go on over and post her a congrats.

Saturday, April 15, 2006

My first passenger

Although, technically, the DPE counted as my first passenger (I was, after all, logging PIC), I gave my first real passenger ride today. With the ink barely dry on my temporary certificate, my darling wife and I went up for a little sightseeing. The weather was awful here yesterday, and poor this morning, but the ceilings lifted enough for us to get out this afternoon. The coastline was CIG 3000, P6SM, so the clouds were right at my personal minimums. We decided to do a nice little low altitude jaunt up the shoreline to show her what it looked like from the air.

After takeoff, we headed out to the shoreline. Cleared NZY's Class D, then transitioned the SAN Class B offshore at 400ft (cleared at or below 500). Once north of Crystal Pier, we climbed to 1500 and headed north, checking out Mt. Soledad, La Jolla, Torrey Pines, and the Del Mar racetrack. I had planned to do a touch and go at CRQ so my wife could see the Carlsbad Flower Fields close up, but when I tuned in ATIS they were reporting CIG 1500 (a little low for my blood, where TPA is right at the FAR's "500 ft below clouds" rule). Instead, we just turned around and headed back south. Transitioned the Class B southbound, then NZY gave us permission to transit San Diego Bay from Pt. Loma all the way to South Bay at 800 ft. Great views of the harbor and downtown! Once we reached Point Charlie (the old Blue Crane), we went direct to home base, where I executed a beautiful greaser (luck happens).

Although the weather was marginal (for my personal minimums), the trip we made was within my comfort zone, and discretion was definitely the better part of valor on forgoing CRQ. My darling wife, who hates flying in something as small as a CRJ and had never flown in any ASEL before, actually said she enjoyed the trip and would be willing to fly with me again. WOOHOO! Maybe there is some family future in this.

Ciao,
BC

PS - As a present for getting my certificate, I handed down my old Avcomm headset to my wife and strapped on a brand new Lightspeed 20 3G. Only one word is required: nice.

Thursday, April 13, 2006

I PASSED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I did it! Whoopee! Holy cow, I passed my Private Pilot Checkride! As of today, I am a duly certificated Private Pilot (ASEL). YEAH!!!

Okay, for the obligatory checkride story:

Got up early, downloaded the DUATS for my flight from San Diego to KLAS. Weather was a go, so I headed off to the airfield. Got there about 8:45, preflighted the steed, then started doing all the Nav Log calculations. Finished up those, filed an actual local flight plan, then got a brief for my planned cross country. The DPE showed up right on time at 11:00, and we went right to work. The oral went pretty well. He showed me a few things and I had to look up a few things, but I passed the oral. We took a short break while I got updated weather and pulled the plane onto the line.

After a passenger briefing, we started taxiing to the runup. He tried to engage me in conversation (I think to check my distraction avoidance), but I managed to stay on target. We did a short field takeoff, then checked into the cross country route. When we got over the practice area (right after my second checkpoint), he pulled the engine. I completed the engine out procedures and got us to a safe landing area, where we did a go around. After the go around, we climbed up to 2000 ft (1000 AGL) and did S-Turns across a road. We then climbed up to 3000 ft where we did IR turns to a heading. After that, three unusual attitude recoveries, then steep turns. First one to the left was great. Second, to the right, was awful. About 3/4 of the way around, as the nose was dropping and speed was about to exceed Va, I bailed out of the maneuver to avoid exceeding Va in a 45 AOB. I told him what I was doing and why (he said I shouldn't have bailed out, just corrected), then re-entered the maneuver after another clearing turn. Nailed the right hand steep turn, so we did IR turns to a heading. Next on the plate was dirty slow flight with 20 deg AOB turns, then straight into an approach stall. After I recovered the approach stall, I went straight into a departure stall (after a clearing turn). Once we finished stalls, he had me divert to SDM to do landings. I called the heading, distance, time, and fuel burn, then went into the pattern. First landing was short field, stop and go on the runway to a soft field takeoff. Next lap was a no-flap forward slip touch and go, then a short field landing touch and go. Throughout my landings, I was having trouble maintaining centerline (and I was landing a little flat), so he had me do one normal landing (T&G) maintaining centerline (which I managed to do, barely), then he demonstrated a nice precise well-flared landing (my ultimate goal). We then flew back to home base, where I made a straight in normal landing. Taxied back to the line, shut down.

Once I was shut down, he asked me if the checklist was done. When I reported yes, he said "Congratulations, give me your logbook and I'll meet you inside." HOLY COW! I PASSED!

Although not every maneuver went as well as I would have liked, I think my overall performance was satisfactory. While I definitely won't be flying left seat on a 777 anytime soon, I can manage to take my darling wife out for a flight without killing us both. As many have said, it's a license to learn.

Today 1.8 hrs.

Total 46.5

I am a pilot.

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Checkride coming quickly

Between the new job and getting ready for my checkride, I haven't had time to post.

Checkride is Thursday, 13 April at 1100 PDT here in sunny San Diego.

My CFI (D) and I have been working on polishing my landings. I have a tendency to flare too high, so my landings have been a little sloppy. We flew together on Saturday to refine my sight picture, then I did a solo today to practice on my own. Got 10 landings in 1.5 hrs, of which 8 I would consider to be within standards and the other 2 were close.

Okay, the cross country (San Diego to KLAS) is planned, nav log is done, 8710 is filled out, Knowledge Test Report is in the folder, check is written, maintenance logs reviewed, what else, what else, what else... D and I will meet tomorrow night to sign the 8710 and get the logbook endorsements, then Thursday morning is show time.

Here's the numbers from the 8710:

Total: 44.7 Instruction Recv'd: 30.7 Solo: 14.0 PIC: 14.0
XC Instruction: 4.6 XC Solo: 5.4 XC PIC: 5.4 Instrument: 3.8
Night Instruction: 6.2 Night T/O/Landings: 15 Night PIC: 0
Night T/O/L PIC: 0

My hope now is that everything turns out well on game day.

Hope for the best!

BC

Sunday, April 02, 2006

Not much time to post lately

But, I have been able to fly some. I went up week before last for some night/IFR work (2.5 hrs, 1.7 Sim IFR), then had my final stage check with the Chief Pilot to get ready for my PPL check ride. The oral exam went well, then we walked the plane. When we get to the plane, the battery was dead as a doornail. Since all the other club planes were already in use, the flying portion got cancelled. Zero hrs.

I went back yesterday to knock out the flying portion. Took off with a short field departure, flew the plan, diverted well. Came in WAY high for a short field landing, did a T&G, then circled for another short field landing. Another T&G, circled for a soft field landing. Taxied back for a soft field takeoff, then went high to do some maneuvers. Steep turns, slow flight, stalls, unusual attitudes, emergency descent. All went well except the dirty slow flight. I was holding right at stall speed, then started to turn. I forgot the increased load factor/increased stall speed thing, and ended up stalling. Recovered smoothly, did it again correctly. After the maneuvers, we headed home. A forward slip to landing, then called it a day.

Next Saturday (8th), D and I will go up for some more practice. After that, a little bit of oral review, then my PPL Check Ride on the 14th of April. It's been a long time coming, I just hope I don't blow it.

Total - 41.8 hrs