Christmas by the Numbers
During the Christmas break, I have managed to do a lot of flying and completed a few significant milestones in my flying hobby. Here are the numbers:
Total hours: 101.5 (I passed the magic 100hr mark on Thursday)
Hours in 2006: 90.3
Night hours: 14.4 (I completed the night checkout required for one of my flying clubs)
Complex hours: 10.4 (I completed my initial complex checkout)
First flights: 4 in the past week (6 total)
Max crosswind landing: 15kts (at night, with a CFI holding my hand)
On Christmas Eve, I took my best friend up for a sightseeing flight over SOCAL. We launched right at sunset, so we got to see the sun setting over the Pacific Ocean and then view a lot of Christmas lights, including the Del Mar racetrack, from the air.
This past Thursday, CFI K and I went up to finish my complex checkout, night checkout, and work on the crosswind landings. Since we needed to burn some time, we flew up to SBD. It's a former military airfield, so it's the first uncontrolled airfield I have flown into that has 10000ft runways. When we called up the AWOS, the winds were high and gusty with a 15kt crosswind component, right at our limits for the CFI's. What better way to work on crosswind landings?
We made the first approach at Flaps 20, 70 kts. On downwind, I had to hold about 25 degrees of crab to stay on track. As we turned final, I was hunting back and forth across the track with the nose waving around. I got it over the numbers, then plunked it down, promptly rolling out the crosswind correction (BAD IDEA). We managed to keep the airplane under control without overloading the gear, stopped, then took off again. As we took off for the next circuit, we debriefed what I had done wrong. On the second pass, again at 20/70, it was squirrely again and we encountered a little wind shear, so I went around. The third pass was him demonstrating how to do it, so I got an example. For the fourth through seventh passes, I used flaps 10, 80kts, and was able to fly acceptable approaches. After seven laps around SDB we had had enough, so we turned for home. We flew to SDM, shot three patterns there, then flew back to NZY for three more patterns and called it a day. I was wiped out, but I had successfully completed my complex checkout, night checkout, and a BFR (based upon some ground work we did and all of our flying during the checkout phase).
Yesterday, another first flight. I took one of the Chief Photographer's friends and his 13 year old son up for some sightseeing. The son wants to be a pilot, so the flight was a Christmas present from his Dad (pro rata, of course, per the FAR's). The son, E, seemed to truly enjoy the flight and is excited about learning to fly when he gets a few years older.
That's all the flying for this year, folks. I plan on settling back, watching some football, and enjoying some chili and cornbread. Y'all have a great New Years and we will see you in 2007, when I hope to get my instrument rating and move back to the Old Dominion.
All the best,
BC
Total hours: 101.5 (I passed the magic 100hr mark on Thursday)
Hours in 2006: 90.3
Night hours: 14.4 (I completed the night checkout required for one of my flying clubs)
Complex hours: 10.4 (I completed my initial complex checkout)
First flights: 4 in the past week (6 total)
Max crosswind landing: 15kts (at night, with a CFI holding my hand)
On Christmas Eve, I took my best friend up for a sightseeing flight over SOCAL. We launched right at sunset, so we got to see the sun setting over the Pacific Ocean and then view a lot of Christmas lights, including the Del Mar racetrack, from the air.
This past Thursday, CFI K and I went up to finish my complex checkout, night checkout, and work on the crosswind landings. Since we needed to burn some time, we flew up to SBD. It's a former military airfield, so it's the first uncontrolled airfield I have flown into that has 10000ft runways. When we called up the AWOS, the winds were high and gusty with a 15kt crosswind component, right at our limits for the CFI's. What better way to work on crosswind landings?
We made the first approach at Flaps 20, 70 kts. On downwind, I had to hold about 25 degrees of crab to stay on track. As we turned final, I was hunting back and forth across the track with the nose waving around. I got it over the numbers, then plunked it down, promptly rolling out the crosswind correction (BAD IDEA). We managed to keep the airplane under control without overloading the gear, stopped, then took off again. As we took off for the next circuit, we debriefed what I had done wrong. On the second pass, again at 20/70, it was squirrely again and we encountered a little wind shear, so I went around. The third pass was him demonstrating how to do it, so I got an example. For the fourth through seventh passes, I used flaps 10, 80kts, and was able to fly acceptable approaches. After seven laps around SDB we had had enough, so we turned for home. We flew to SDM, shot three patterns there, then flew back to NZY for three more patterns and called it a day. I was wiped out, but I had successfully completed my complex checkout, night checkout, and a BFR (based upon some ground work we did and all of our flying during the checkout phase).
Yesterday, another first flight. I took one of the Chief Photographer's friends and his 13 year old son up for some sightseeing. The son wants to be a pilot, so the flight was a Christmas present from his Dad (pro rata, of course, per the FAR's). The son, E, seemed to truly enjoy the flight and is excited about learning to fly when he gets a few years older.
That's all the flying for this year, folks. I plan on settling back, watching some football, and enjoying some chili and cornbread. Y'all have a great New Years and we will see you in 2007, when I hope to get my instrument rating and move back to the Old Dominion.
All the best,
BC
posted by Big Country at 8:38 AM
1 Comments:
Congrats on getting your complex checkout!
I'm at about 43 or so hours (but only 38 of them count toward the PPL training reqs), and crosswind landings are kind of a sore spot still. I'd like to hear a more detailed breakdown of your 20/70 attempts, and the "BAD IDEA" part, if you are so inclined to analyze publicly (or by email...).
Happy New Year, and best wishes for the instrument pursuit and the move!
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