The Sky(lane) is all mine to explore!

Plane: Cessna 182 RG 
Route: MGY-USW-HTW-LUK-MGY 
Instructor: Matt
Weather - MGY: Clear, 68-79 degrees, wind variable at 5-8 knots
Weather - HTW: Clear, 78 degrees, wind light and variable
Weather - LUK: Partly cloudy, 82 degrees, wind 250 degrees at 5 knots

Today started with one goal - fly enough hours to complete my checkout in the club Skylane RG. At this point, it's all about making the insurance company happy, as Matt has said he's confident I can fly the airplane. I'm happy to report we did just that today; I'm now signed off to fly the plane whenever and wherever I please!

We passed over Ohio, West Virginia, and Kentucky this morning

We didn't have a specific plan and the weather to the north was not particularly conducive to small airplane flight; there were a ton of storms in the northern part of Ohio and Michigan. I've been watching the weather for the past day and it seemed the best option would be to fly south or east. It seems Matt had the same idea - he suggested we fly to Spencer, WV.

After loading the flight plan (with an intermediate fix to avoid the hot Buckeye MOA southeast of Dayton) I departed on Runway 2 and turned east. After leveling off, we chatted about avionics and ADS-B for a while. The air was calm and cool at 5,500 feet and it was a beautiful morning to fly. We loaded the RNAV Runway 10 approach and let the autopilot fly the heading while I managed our altitude. Matt talked me through some of the nuances of instrument approaches and staying ahead of this fast airplane.

I didn't slow down early enough - this is definitely something I'm still getting a feel for - so I didn't maintain the most stabilized approach into Boggs Field Airport (USW). There was another plane operating NORDO in the pattern so I braked moderately after a carrier landing to turn off midfield (there's no taxiway) and get out of his way. We shut the plane down and wandered around the empty airport for a few minutes.

We had Boggs Field Airport all to ourselves this morning

A hangar was open but the airport was otherwise deserted

The winds were still light and variable so, with the engine turning again, I taxied for departure on Runway 28. Matt made the very good point that there aren't many places to go if your engine quits in hilly West Virginia. Accordingly, I circled the field while climbing and we turned on course towards Huntingtion after we'd reached about 3,000 feet.

Boggs Field Airport, just north of Spencer, WV, after our departure

The flight down to Huntington wasn't long and the skies were still clear, if a bit hazy. We planned to land at Lawrence County Airpark, which is located just across the Ohio River from Huntington. It has a relatively short (3,000 feet) runway in fair condition (which may be a generous assessment) so it would be a good opportunity to use short field techniques.

There was a bit of haze from the hot, humid air

Landing options in an emergency became a point of discussion again as we approached Huntington. With rising hills on both sides of the river and development in between, you're in a bit of a pickle as you approach to land at HTW. At some point, you obviously have to descend, but that leaves you with very few options besides the river should something go awry. There really is no one correct answer and it was a good discussion to have.

Huntington, WV on the left bank of the Ohio River

I crossed midfield to enter a left downwind for Runway 28. With the previous discussion in mind, I remained a bit higher than usual, lowering all my flaps and managing my descent and speed by reducing power on final. I touched down not too far past the threshold and was easily able to stop in about 1,500 feet with moderate braking.

We back-taxied and departed again on Runway 28. I used a typical short field technique - full power holding the brakes, then release, keep the nose on the ground, and then rotate and climb at about 60 knots until clear of the trees on the opposite end of the runway. Clear of the obstacles, I raised the gear and flaps and Matt took the controls.

It's not every day you find an asphalt runway that needs to be mowed

Matt had me put on my hood just after takeoff. He flew the plane for a few minutes while I got that adjusted and took a look at some approach charts. We planned to fly direct FGX (Fleming-Mason Airport in Kentucky) and then to Lunken Airport in Cincinnati for a practice approach. But it became so incredibly bumpy (a bunch of clouds were suddenly forming in the hot, humid air rising over the low hills) that he instead just decided we should proceed directly to LUK.

I used the autopilot at first but started hand-flying as we were handed off to Cincinnati Approach and the controller was about to begin providing vectors for the ILS Runway 21L approach at Lunken. He turned us north, then west, and then we intercepted the ILS and began our track towards the airport. Clearly I have a long way to go before I'm a remotely competent instrument pilot, but our preparation did seem to help me on this approach.

For the most part, I didn't excessively overcorrect at any point. We crossed the initial approach fix (an ADF) and I already had the plane slow and stable enough that I could basically just start to follow the ILS down towards the runway. Near the very end I overcorrected and turned slightly off course but seconds later Matt told me to remove my hood; I lost our excess airspeed and landed smoothly on Runway 21L.

We taxied off the runway and Lunken Tower soon cleared us for takeoff in the opposite direction from Runway 3L back to Wright Brothers. It only took about 15 minutes to get back - certainly beats the hour drive. This final landing was by far my best of the day, very smooth and right on the centerline. A fitting way to end the whole long checkout process.

At the same time, I still have much to learn. While I'm far more comfortable in 7YG than I was a month ago, I know it will take some time for things to become second nature. Take for example the cowl flaps - I've never flown a plane with them before and, for the life of me, I still struggle to remember when to open and close them.

I don't think it's a shock to report I'm thrilled to be done with the checkout. Now I can take the family, friends, and coworkers flying. With a plane closer to home, in a hangar, at an airport with a paved runway and lights, the utility factor just increased a great deal. Toss in the fact it's 50% faster than anything I've flown before, she's quite the bird.

Here's to many great trips in the sky in the Skylane RG.

Flight Track: Google Earth KMZ File 
Today's Flight: 4.0 hours
Total Time: 389.1 hours

Breakfast, PIREPs, blue skies, and a hood

Plane: Cessna 182 RG 
Route: MGY-PCW-MGY 
Instructor: Matt
Weather - MGY: Clear, 70 degrees, wind 220 degrees at 10 knots
Weather - PCW: Clear, 68 degrees, wind 240 degrees at 13 knots

We've spent a good bit of time tooling around the local area as I've been learning the new plane; today was an opportunity to let the Skylane take us where she really shines - covering lots of ground, quickly. Our plan this morning was to fly up to Port Clinton for breakfast at the Tin Goose Diner. I had never been, despite many recommendations from pilot friends and fellow bloggers. Both Dave and Chris have raved about it for years!

It truly was a spectacular morning to fly

I'd called the airport last night to have them top the plane off, so we had 88 gallons on board - more than enough to get there and back and then do it all over again had we wanted to. Sidenote here: being able to call someone and have the plane fueled and ready whenever I arrive at the hangar may be the best part of this whole club thing. Everything checked out during my preflight and we took off on Runway 20 shortly before 9:00.

The sky was totally clear, visibility unrestricted, and we had a mild tailwind. What more can you ask for? Once I'd leveled off and engaged the autopilot (perhaps the second-best part of the plane) Matt and I chatted about ADS-B for a bit. Then he suggested I file a PIREP. Long story short, the system still works and I remember how to negotiate it! It took a couple different frequencies and a little patience but eventually we had a clear connection with Cleveland Radio and I was able to provide the CAVU conditions along with the temperature and winds aloft.

Hey, my PIREP made it into the system!

This plane, as advertised, does a darn fine job moving one from Point A to Point B. It only took a few minutes over an hour to get from Wright Brothers to Port Clinton; to drive would have taken about three. As I descended from 5,500 feet to pattern altitude, we were scooting across the ground at over 220 mph even with the throttle pulled back.

163 knots = nearly 190 mph across the ground - that'll do!

Entering the downwind for Runway 27, I dropped the landing gear and kept slowing the plane. By the time I turned final I was at about 80 knots and I lowered the flaps to 30 degrees. The wind was blowing well about 30 degrees off the runway heading so I was active on the controls all the way down. I touched down just slightly skewed but overall it was a decent landing.

Breakfast was indeed quite tasty. Matt had eggs and French toast and I opted for the country fried steak, which hit the spot. We talked about instrument flying and filed an IFR flight plan for the trip home so I could get some experience in the system.

This place definitely notched a spot on my $100 hamburger list

Just after takeoff, I put on my hood while Matt called Cleveland Approach for the initial ATC check-in. I hand-flew through our turn on course and climb to 8,000 feet, then leveled off, trimmed the plane out, and leaned the mixture while making a few more radio calls and taking a handoff to Mansfield Approach. As expected, it's easy to get fixated on things and I caught my altitude and heading wandering a few times when I stopped constantly scanning the instruments. Still, within a few minutes, I wasn't doing terrible.

Wearing every pilot's favorite accessory

A bit later, Matt had me engage the autopilot again so we could talk through the approach plates. We discussed them in general, then loaded the anticipated approach into the GPS (this plane has a Garmin 430W) and continued discussing how everything would be used as we approached Dayton. I'm not completely unfamiliar with instrument procedures, having flown as a safety pilot numerous times, but I also haven't ever officially started my instrument training. In other words, it's all valiable learning and I'll soak up every bit of advice I can.

On that last point, I made a pretty boneheaded mistake not long after takeoff. In a very VFR habit, a couple minutes after takeoff I clicked the direct-to button on the GPS and re-selected MGY, then activated the route. Normally, that makes sense, as you want to go straight to your destination. But in IFR land, it's very bad to stray from your assigned route (in our case, direct PCW to MGY - not direct 3 miles SW of PCW to MGY) for obvious ATC-expects-planes-to-be-where-they're-cleared-to-be-especially-when-in-the-clouds reasons.

Approaching Dayton, the controllers gave us stepped descents, first to 6,000 feet then 4,000 and eventually 3,000 to the initial approach fix. I was back hand-flying at this point. Matt did a great job explaining how the CDI's needle sensitivity would increase as we got closer to the airport. We had both horizontal and vertical guidance as we were flying the LPV RNAV Runway 20 approach. I lowered the landing gear and 10 degrees of flaps, slowing the plane to about 90 knots after we passed the initial approach fix. By the final approach fix, I had 20 degrees of flaps in and was aiming for about 80 knots.

I don't yet have any speed/power settings memorized for the plane, which will certainly help during instrument training. That meant I was adjusting the power more than usual until I got everything stabilized. Matt continued to talk me through the approach and, despite starting to veer off course a few times, it worked out reasonably well. When we reached the missed approach point and he told me to look outside the runway was right in front of us. I pulled the power back and bled off my aispeed, landing a little long but otherwise well back on Runway 20.

In today's episode of "yep, that's an early instrument student's approach"

This was another great day of training and I continue to get more comfortable with the plane. Even with a headwind, it was still only about 1:10 on the return flight. This plane is going to be a wonderful tool for quickly getting lots of places with the family!

It was also a nice segway into a bit of instrument training. I still need 4 more hours in the plane to appease the club's insurance company, so I suspect some of that will be under the hood. While I'm not sure when I'll fully dive into the IR training to get the rating, that day is getting closer. To truly realize the utility of this plane on trips, I certainly need the rating.

Flight Track: Google Earth KMZ File 
Today's Flight: 2.8 hours
Total Time: 385.1 hours

Flight: Reviewed

Plane: Cessna 172 
Instructor: Tommy
Route: 40I-I19-40I
Weather: Scattered clouds, 71 degrees, wind 070 degrees at 4 knots

At some point in the past month, I received one of those handy email currency reminders from my electronic logbook. But I've finally been flying again and I know I've made more than enough takeoffs and landings for currency purposes, so I thought it must be an error? Turns out, when you don't fly for the better part of a year, those two years between BFRs sneak up on you.

I have taken a variety of courses to earn FAA WINGS credit, so the knowledge portion of my currency is, uh, current. However, for what I hope are obvious reasons, the FAA likes pilots to go up in the air and actually prove they can still fly with a CFI. I planned to do so a week ago but I was sick (food poisoning is no fun) and had to reschedule. Tommy thankfully had enough free time this evening to fit me in, so we met after work and got to it.

A checkride's worth of maneuvers in one GPS track

The long and short of tonight's flying is that it was a much-needed and very good review. Despite my recent logbook additions, I am clearly still rusty in some areas. Overall, I am just nowhere near as smooth and fluid as I can be when I'm notching regular time in the left seat. Tommy did a great job running me through a whole bunch of maneuvers and offering important reminders and tips.

We started off with a soft field takeoff, during which I climbed out of ground effect too quickly. It feels strange to push the nose over so much after rotation to fly level along the ground (and it doesn't help that the ground quickly slopes downhill ~15 feet on Runway 8 at Stewart) but that's what you're supposed to do; we tried this again later. Next, we flew east and I successfully demonstrated steep turns, slow flight, and power-off/on stalls.

Tommy suggested going to Greene County; the winds were calm but he spotted a plane waiting to take off near the end of Runway 7 so I crossed midfield and entered the pattern. He asked for a short field landing so I used all 40 degrees of flaps and touched down within 200 feet of the numbers. It wasn't my best, though, and improved speed control and a touch less power on short final would've let me perfectly plant it. While taxiing back for takeoff, he asked me what I would do if my elevator jammed and we discussed that scenario for a few minutes...

Back in the pattern, he informed me that my elevator was now jammed (courtesy of him holding the yoke to prevent me from pushing or pulling it) and I needed to land. I explained my plan, which was to use the trim and power while flying a longer final approach to help ensure things were as stabilized as possible. I throttled back, slowly lowered the flaps as I made my way around, and hit the stop on the trim while on final. On very short final, I tested kicking in a burst of power to raise the nose and it seemed to work, so that was my plan in the flare. We crossed the numbers in a roughly level attitude at about 65 mph. Entering ground effect, I pushed in throttle for a second or so, and the extra power slightly raised the nose so the mains touched just before the nose wheel. The landing was honestly pretty smooth - yes, we planted it on the runway, but it wasn't a total carrier landing. Most importantly, I actually landed the airplane without using my elevator!

I really want to thank Tommy for the simulated elevator jam exercise. I've certainly thought about what would happen if I lost a control before but never tried to actually simulate it in flight. He said one of his old instructors did the same thing and I absolutely agree it's great practice.

After taking off again, I put on the hood and we did a little simulated instrument work. It's been way too long since I last did that so it was also great practice. Sidenote - training for my instrument rating is finally in my near-term plans. My skills are crude at best but I managed to turn to headings and climb/descend per his instructions. Then he gave me a few unusual attitudes to recover from and I successfully did so.

Before long, we were back at Stewart. Tommy pulled the power on me abeam the numbers and I made a safe simulated engine-out landing. The next time around, after doing a better job with the soft field takeoff, I attempted a soft field landing. I leveled off a tad too high and didn't add enough power to achieve a perfectly soft touchdown, but I held the nosewheel off and it was good enough to call it a day.

Currency and proficiency are more important to me than ever now that I'm responsible for our entire growing family whenever we fly. Beyond simply having a calmer work schedule that should allow more flying, I really hope to finally start training for more advanced ratings. But regardless of when that commences, tonight was a great refresher that left me legally current for the next 24 months.

Flight Track: Google Earth KMZ File 
Today's Flight: 1.1 hours
Total Time: 378.7 hours

One approach + two more years' currency

Plane: Cessna 150
Instructor: Jamie
Route: 40I-SGH-40I
Weather: Scattered clouds, 82 degrees, wind light and variable

Two of my aunts were down in Dayton this morning helping my cousin move into her dorm at the University of Dayton. We went out to lunch in Waynesville (at the Cobblestone Cafe, which I'd never been to before, but highly recommend - great food!) before they drove home to Akron. Anyway, it's not like I'm going to pass up an opportunity to fly when I'm less than five minutes away from Stewart... so I drove down to the airport after saying goodbye to the family.

Jamie had time to tag along so we could complete the final flight activities for my WINGS phase. If you're not familiar with the FAA's WINGS program, I explained it in a post a couple years ago. For the current phase, I've had the knowledge activities completed for a while. Jamie and I crossed off most of the flight activities back in June during my checkout in the T-Craft; we just had to finish the simulated instrument work in a properly-equipped airplane.

We departed on Runway 26 and I had the hood on before we'd left the pattern. Side note - I bought a Francis Hood in anticipation of working on my instrument rating (yes, still slacking on that!) and today's the first time I tried it in the air. Thus far, I'm a fan. It does a very good job blocking everything but the panel. Not ridiculously uncomfortable, either.

I looked like this, shirt and tie aside (Stewart's not nearly that formal!)

Under the hood, we started with the basic stuff - straight and level flight, then climbs, turns, descents, and combinations of everything. I did a relatively decent job keeping up my scan and not wandering too far from where I was supposed to be - especially considering I last flew under the hood two years ago. I really liked how Jamie was explaining things and feeding me tips and reminders as I went along... it was extremely helpful.

Next up were unusual attitudes. The idea is to be able to recover if you find yourself in a bad spot, solely by reference to the instruments. I closed my eyes, put my chin on my chest, and Jamie flung the airplane all over the sky - turns, climbs, descents, floating out of my seat, pushed into my seat. Once he was satisfied I was disoriented he called out, "your airplane!" and I had to recover. There are two basic tenets - you always look at your artificial horizon / attitude indicator and if you're nose-high, immediately add full power, lower the nose, and level the wings. You simply do the reverse (retard the throttle, level the wings, and raise the nose) if you're nose-low. We did it four times, the first being quite gentle and the last starting from a roughly 60 degree left-turning nosedive. Fun, fun. All my recoveries went well, too.

I had asked him about the graveyard spiral, which has killed more than a couple pilots. The gist of it is that you lose visual reference to the horizon (in clouds, in fog, at night, etc.) and think you're level when you're actually turning. So I closed my eyes for a while and he got us into position. I could tell we were turning slightly (I could feel the sun moving across my face) but was still all screwed up. I would've bet $100 we were turning left - and would have turned right to recover. But when I opened my eyes we were in a 30+ degree bank to the right! Just another reminder why you always have to trust your instruments - the human body is not designed for flight and trusting your senses is about the most dangerous thing you can do when flying IFR.

Finally, he asked if I wanted to fly an approach - something I'd never done before (other than monitoring as a safety pilot). He pulled up the SGH VOR 33 Approach plate on his iPhone and we dialed in the SGH VOR on the Nav radio. Jamie talked me through the altitudes and explained a few important things as we got closer to the airport. When he told me to look up, sure enough, there was a runway right in front of me!

Not too bad for the first approach I've ever flown, right?

We did a short field landing at SGH and a power-off 180. On the latter, I pulled the power abeam the numbers, slowly brought in the flaps while making a continuous turn from downwind to final, eventually dumping in all 40 degrees of flaps maybe 100 feet up. We touched down just past the numbers. Had I put in full flaps about five seconds sooner, I would've nailed it perfectly. Still... it was a darn good landing!

Neither of us had checked our watches and soon realized we were due back at Stewart, so I pointed the nose straight at the airport and put in Full Rental Power™. It took 10-15 minutes to fly there from SGH and I crossed midfield to enter a left downwind for Runway 26. Full flaps on final, 50-55 knots, I drug 60338 in over the trees for a final short field landing. We were turning off abeam the end of the row of hangars so we landed in roughly 500 feet.

With that, I'm 100% good to fly for another two years. I renewed my medical last month (which is good for another 5 years) and this checks off the flight review requirement for 24 more calendar months. Not that I don't hope/expect to spend plenty of hours in training during that time period - but it's always nice to know all my I's are dotted and T's are crossed in the FAA's eyes.

Flight Track: Google Earth KMZ File 
Today's Flight: 1.5 hours
Total Time: 280.6 hours

Checkride, Part 2: I'm a Private Pilot!

Plane: Cessna 150
Route: (40I-) MGY-I19-MGY
Weather: Overcast, 28 degrees, wind 200 degrees at 6 knots

With 269 landings, five months of training, nearly 75 flight hours, plenty of frustration, tons of fun, at least $6000 spent, and so many great memories behind me... I'm a Private Pilot! The weather cooperated and I went up with the examiner to complete the flying portion of my checkride, following last weekend's oral exam. Everything went well and I didn't feel any nerves aside from a little hope that I wouldn't make any boneheaded mistakes. Luckily, I did not. I am now the proud holder of a Temporary Airman Certificate, good until my plastic FAA certificate arrives in the mail.

As I did with the oral exam, I'll share the details of the checkride below. And make sure you read the end of the post, as I got to deal with some serious craziness when I went to leave Wright Brothers.

• I arrived at Stewart early in order to get a weather briefing, compute my weight and balance, and make sure I had all the paperwork in order. Then I had some help in starting the plane (it takes some extra work when it's 15 degrees out at night - brr!) and I let it warm up for a couple minutes. Fuel full, I left around 12:15 and got in a few practice landings at Wright Brothers before my scheduled 1:00 appointment with the examiner. Having not practiced a no-flap landing, I made one there and it was incredibly smooth. My landings felt great last night and today, hopefully a good sign for today.

• After a quick look through my papers, we walked out to the plane and he asked me to do a preflight as if it were the first flight of the day. I walked around the plane and made my usual inspection, mentioning what I was doing on a couple occasions but for the most part not saying much. It looked like the examiner was just looking over to make sure I checked everything important. He told me he was going to get into the little 150 when I was about 2/3 of the way through the inspection. Both in the plane, I went through the pre-start checklist and got the engine running. He told me that I was PIC (Pilot in Command) so I would be responsible for the flight and should call out all traffic to him. I ran through the CIGAR checklist on the ramp (minus the runup) and then taxied down to the runup area at the end of the runway. During the runup I called out as I checked the suction (which I do even when I fly solo) and mags "left, drop, both, right, drop, both..." and declared us ready to fly.

• He asked me to make a normal takeoff and then proceed on course, which was about due East to our destination in Clarksburg, WV. The takeoff was very smooth and I got to pattern altitude and turned downwind. He asked what the heck I was doing. Crap, stupid move there. I should have departed on a 45 degree heading from the takeoff runway and instead flew downwind for some stupid reason. We do use that departure at Stewart sometimes, but honestly I just totally didn't have my brain connected. No big deal, he just explained to me the reasons for specific departures and I overflew the airport and then departed on the proper 155 degree heading. Phwew.

• Leveling off at 3,500 feet, he said I should pitch over and build up speed before pulling back the throttle. I don't know if I was taught to throttle back while leveling off or if I just invented the habit on my own, but a good idea that I'll use in the future. We were about due South of Xenia at this point (meaning we had traveled all of 10ish miles) and he had me descend to 2,500 feet and divert to Green County Airport (I19). I know you never fly much of the cross-country you plan for the checkride, but that sure was short.

• Using my sectional, I found the frequency for I19 and entered the pattern on a 45 degree entry. He asked for a normal landing so I set up for that, starting the descent abeam the numbers on downwind. I've heard from local pilots the winds are interesting on Runway 25 because it's at the edge of a 100 foot slope down to a road and gravel pit. I anticipated that on short final but I didn't feel much. The landing was smooth but as soon as I touched down he jerked the yoke and said to get the ailerons into the wind, which was about 4 knots and 20 degrees off the nose. Doesn't seem like much but he said a lot of pilots have had the wing get under their wings because they don't think a light crosswind can do anything. Point noted sir.

• Short field takeoffs and landings were next. The takeoff went great and I set up for an extended downwind for the landing. He told me to name my point and I said I'd touch down on the numbers. I ended up landing within a few feet of the numbers, although it was not the smoothest touchdown in my piloting career. But I landed slow and short as required, so all was well. I departed Greene County with a soft field takeoff (went well) and we turned to the South.

• I was instructed to pick a point to turn around and said I'd use a barn in a field below. He asked what the most important thing in starting a ground reference maneuver is. "Enter on the downwind side?" "No!" "Uh, avoid populated areas?" "No!" And so it went for a couple more things I muttered out, not sure what he wanted to hear. "To have an available emergency landing area!" Oh, duh. Although I guess it's never been something that was specifically discussed. Not that the first barn was in rough terrain or anything but there were other houses nearby. So I picked out a barn surrounded on all four sides by large fields and made a very smooth and otherwise uneventful turn around it. That was it for ground reference maneuvers.

• "Your engine just died." Pitch to best glide... "What are you doing?" "Pitching to best glide." "No! You ALWAYS PULL THE CARB HEAT FIRST!!!" Alrighty then. I swear I was taught to always pitch down first, but his point was that the carb heat will cool down in 3-5 seconds so if you don't get it on right away there will be no heat left to help. He then proceeded to pull the power on me about 3 more times in a row to make sure I yanked that carb heat out instantly. Then he left the throttle out for good and had me descend to a field, drop the flaps to 40 degrees when clear of the barn/trees, and get down to maybe 50 feet above the ground. That's the lowest I have ever gone in a practice engine-out situation and I know I would have made a survivable landing if necessary. At this point, he took control of the plane and got us out of there while I put the hood on for instrument work.

• The hood work seemed to go by very quickly. I climbed and turned to headings he assigned, pretty basic stuff. Then came brain disconnect number two. He had me punch in a frequency and fly directly to the VOR. The needle was centered on a 125 degree heading TO and asked if I was flying to the station. "Yes." "Uh, are you sure?" Took me a second to take my brain out of neutral and I looked at the heading indicator and saw we were heading 280. So obviously I had to turn to track the radial to the station. Again, a random stupid mistake that he thankfully gave me a second to think about and correctly answer. Then my head went down and he had me do two unusual attitude recoveries. I was surprised at how he put us into the unusual attitudes, as it was way smoother than with Joe or Dave. Both of them really threw the plane all over the place to screw me up before handing the controls back over. The first recovery was from nose-high and the second was from a pretty steep downward spiral. I quickly recovered on both and that was it for the hood work.
  

• Able to look out the window again, I climbed up to 3,000 for steep turns and stalls. The turns went great, with a 360 to the left followed immediately by a 360 to the right. He covered up the altimeter but I saw I was within about 25-50 feet of my starting point when I finished the whole maneuver. I saw a plane about 500 feet above us during the turns and I called that out as I kept moving along, probably a mark in my favor since I was obviously keeping my eyes scanning. He then asked for a power on stall in a takeoff configuration so I slowed to 60 knots, added full power, and pulled back to induce the stall and recovered. However, he said I was looking too much at the sky out the front and not enough to the sides and consequently added in a little aileron without realizing. We went thru a series of power-on stalls as he demonstrated some different things and I did a few more. Then I went into the landing configuration with 40 degrees of flaps and made a couple power-off stalls. All the stalls went relatively well but he was really harping on me to make sure I only used the rudder to avoid a spin or steep spiral.

• Hard to believe, but he told me to fly us back to Wright Brothers and make a soft field landing. We were out over Caesar Creek Lake at this point, so in flying the 5-10 minutes back we talked about random flying stuff for a bit. I spotted some planes over Stewart as I was descending. Then I entered the pattern at MGY and made an interesting soft field landing. I did touch town softly but I was drifting (not enough crosswind correction with the aileron) and floated a bit before finally getting the thing down. I didn't like it, but he obviously was satisfied as he told me to taxi back to parking. Once I shut 60338 shut down he hopped out and told me to meet him back inside, where he printed up my temporary certificate. We only flew for 1.3 hours (including probably 0.4 in taxi time on the ground) but I did enough to earn my wings!
  

Talking with some other pilots after the checkride, they were surprised how easy the examiner went on me. Easy, you ask? It didn't sound that way! Well maybe so, but even if he sounded gruff at times it was all to teach me more about flying and some points were of the nit-picky variety. I can absolutely always improve and I greatly appreciate all he taught me, but even Dave said it sounded like I did a great job flying. There's a few things I could have done better (like when my brain shorted out on the departure from MGY) but I do feel that I flew quite well.

Happy and excited to return to Stewart as a Private Pilot, I quickly preflighted the plane and started her up. I taxied down to Runway 20, did my runup, and announced my takeoff on the CTAF. "Cessna departing Wright Brothers, runway is closed!" Uhh, what? Somewhere in the couple of minutes between engine start and now a Cessna 210 landed gear-up and they closed the airport. First things first, everyone in the plane was fine unless you're counting bruised egos. I never heard them call in the traffic pattern, so I must have been looking down or checking the AWOS at just the right moment to miss them fly by. Obviously I would have yelled out "gear up, gear up!" on the radio if I had seen them. The runway has slight hump in it, so I couldn't even see the plane sitting down there until I taxied down the runway and back to the ramp.

Even though I would have been long airborne before passing the plane (it was 3,500 feet down the runway) the airport was now legally closed. I didn't think it would be wise to get my certificate revoked all of 30 minutes after receiving it by knowingly departing from a closed airport. It ended up taking a couple hours to get the proper FAA/NTSB approval for a crane to lift the plane up so they could flick the switch to lower the gear and tow the plane off the runway. By the time that was complete, it was dark out. I can legally fly at night, but Stewart doesn't allow landings at night except by CFIs. So Dave ended up driving over to pick me up and they'll send someone over in the morning to fly the plane back. Not the triumphant return flight I had hoped for post-checkride but it was quite the interesting thing to witness. Plus, I was able to talk to a few other stranded pilots while we sat around for a couple hours waiting.

I'll close with a quick thanks to all of you who have been reading this blog over the past five months and sharing in the experience with me. All your comments, thoughts, suggestions and friendship has meant a lot to me and I feel lucky to have had all your support. Now it's time for us all to hop in our planes and meet up somewhere. And just for the record, I'm going to keep writing about my flying adventures on here - now with passengers! :)

Today's Flight: 1.3 hours (+ 1.0 for flying to MGY)
Solo/PIC Time: 28.8 hours
Total Time: 74.1 hours
PP-ASEL!

Lesson 32: Running through everything pre-checkride

Plane: Cessna 150
Instructor: Dave
Route: 40I-MGY-40I
Weather: Broken clouds, 53 degrees, wind 230 degrees at 8 knots gusting to 15

More general practice today, as I've been a lazy ass in getting scheduled to take my written exam. I know I can pass the damn thing and Dave signed me off for it like two months ago. I've just been putting it off because I'm a perfectionist and wanted to read every book I bought on aeronautical knowledge. Now it's the only barrier between me and scheduling the checkride so I've gotta get myself in gear. Hopefully I'll be able to go take care of it on Monday.

We went up and ran through a bunch of things like I did with Joe last weekend. Steep turns, slow flight, power on and off stalls, unusual attitudes, hood work, and every type of takeoff and landing. My power on stalls did not go nearly as smooth as last time and I ended up doing three or four until they felt good. Steep turns went very good and I held my altitude at 3,500 the whole time - I just need to keep the bank angle at 45 degrees, as I tend to let it become shallower. The door randomly popped open when Dave was throwing the plane around during unusual attitudes, but it just means you feel some wind and it gets a little more noisy. I recovered the plane and then shut the door, easy enough.

Landings are still the bane of my existence, and it's frustrating to be able to grease in the Champ and feel like I'm getting worse with the 150. I smacked it in pretty good a couple times at Wright Brothers. The winds were strong and gusty but that's not an excuse, just something I should have handled better. Dave said I should add a few more knots to my approach speed as I'm getting a little too slow on final. Nothing new here, just more for me to go up and smooth out solo before the checkride. My mind's kind of been all over the place this week, so that probably didn't help matters either. Wish me no more procrastination on taking the written!

Flight Track: Google Earth KMZ File
Today's Flight: 1.8 hours
Solo/PIC Time: 20.3 hours
Total Time: 65.6 hours

Lesson 31: Checkride prep

Plane: Cessna 150
Instructor: Joe
Route: 40I-I73-40I
Weather: Clear, 58 degrees, wind 110 degrees at 4 knots

Seems like forever since I was last up with Joe. Indeed, it has been over two months as I last flew with him before my first solo. Nearing the end of my training towards the Private it's important that I go up with another instructor or two as a check to ensure I am ready for the checkride.

We talked for a couple minutes before going up, discussing what I had left to do and what maneuvers I had been taught and practiced solo. To my delight, I'd done everything he brought up. While starting up and taxiing, Joe asked me some questions about weather and procedures similar to those I will be asked on the oral portion of my exam with the FAA examiner. Then we departed Stewart and headed off to the West for a rundown of many of the maneuvers on the Practical Test Standards (PTS).

First were two steep turns, one to the left and then an immediate entry into one to the right. Having admittedly not practiced them in a while, my entry into the first turn left much to be desired but I recovered and made a nice one to the right. Then I did power on and power off stalls, including while in a turn. I'd never practiced stalls while turning before but I made a smooth recovery each time.

Joe then asked if I had spun the 150 and I told him Dave didn't have me practice them in the 150 since it can mess up the gyros. Well, apparently a smooth entry and exit from a one-revolution spin doesn't do much to them so he had me spin 18J. I made two but didn't hold the elevator all the way back and maintain rudder pressure so I only got about half a revolution before exiting. Then, with some advice from Joe, I got into a third spin and made a smooth recovery after one revolution while losing only 200 feet in altitude. It's been a while since I did them in the Champ, but I do still love spins! :)

The three spins were at the purple/pink points on the GPS track

Then I descended and did some S-Turns and turns around a point. But Joe changed it up on me because he pointed out a car accident at a four-way intersection and told me to get a closer look. To get a good look, you essentially have to make a turn around a point in order to keep the plane banked enough to get a good view. As Joe said, we're usually doing ground reference maneuvers (GRMs) because we want to get a good look at something on the ground - a very good point. There were some tall radio towers in the area so I didn't make the best GRMs because I was trying to stay safely away from the obstacles. No excuses, though - I need more solo practice on these before the checkride.

Joe pulled the power on me and thus it was time to make a simulated emergency landing. Establish pitch attitude for best glide speed, carb heat on, mixture rich, throttle open, mags to both... I still need to run through that sequence faster. You want to land into the wind (from the East today) if possible and I started to set up for that but decided last-minute to aim for a field pointed due South that looked more forgiving. We got down to 100-200 feet above the ground before Joe had me bring the power back in and get out of there. You can never look out the window enough to have emergency landing spots in the back of your head just in case, and I can still do a better job with that too.

After that, on went the hood and I spent a half hour doing all sorts of things. Turns, climbs, descents, intercepting a VOR radio to fly directly to the station, and recovery from unusual attitudes. Unusual attitudes are where you put yourself in a very nose-high or nose-low turn and recover solely by reference to the instruments. I did this four times, with the last two recoveries going very well.

Having had the hood on for a half hour, Joe had me remove it and immediately told me to divert to the nearest airport. I saw Wright Brothers in front of me about 8 miles out and then looked to my left and saw Moraine (I73) about a mile off the wing. Pull out the sectional, dial in the CTAF frequency, and descend to pattern altitude. The airport's elevation is about 700 feet so a standard pattern (1,000 feet above ground level) made for 1,700 MSL. I descended from 2,500 and entered a left downwind for Runway 8 since the wind was from the East. Arrivals into Moraine are fun because a river wraps right around three sides of the field and a 15 foot tall levee sits right in the approach path. Also, in the river next to the airport is the site of the first seaplane base in the world - courtesy of the Wright Brothers. Your trivia for the day!

Joe asked for a soft field landing and while the approach was nice and stabilized, I touched down a tad firmly and did not add in enough power to keep the nose wheel off the runway for long. It was still a decent landing but I know there was plenty of room for improvement. I departed with a soft field takeoff and stayed in the pattern. Due to the airport's proximity to the city, the river, and lots of very tall radio towers, there really aren't many good landing areas should your engine quit on takeoff... just something to keep in mind. The next landing was a short field and while the touchdown was firmer than I would have liked, I had the wheels on the ground within 5 feet of the threshold line. Nice! We departed back to Stewart with a short field landing and I climbed up to 2,500 for the short flight home.

The Champ was in the pattern ahead of me so I extended the downwind slightly and set up for a short field landing since I was already on an extended downwind. Flaps down to 40 degrees and speed at 50-55 knots on final, it looked nice and stable. Then at the last minute Joe told me to land on the other side of the hump in the runway so I added power and held the plane off the ground. The wheels touched right on top of the hump, so obviously I should have put in a little more power. Otherwise it was a nice landing and we taxied back and shut her down. Joe really made a lot of good points about how the examiner likes to keep you thinking on your feet all the time and throw changes at you. It's important to be able to handle these things as a pilot, so it was great practice. I left feeling like I had done pretty well overall, learned a lot, and figured out where my deficiencies are.

I'll be up Tuesday night and will likely work on GRMs along with takeoffs and landings on a paved runway, either at Wright Brothers or Middletown. Then it's a little more checkride prep with Dave next Friday and Saturday. After that, I hope to finish up the required paperwortk and schedule my checkride for sometime the next week.

Flight Track: Google Earth KMZ File
Today's Flight: 1.6 hours
Solo/PIC Time: 19.3 hours
Total Time: 62.8 hours

Lesson 30: Hood work on a gusty, bumpy day

Plane: Cessna 150
Instructor: Dave
Route: 40I, Local
Weather: Few clouds, 56 degrees, wind 030 degrees at 15 gusting to 20 knots

Holy windy day. The wind picked up even more than forecast this afternoon, resulting in a hefty crosswind. Some pilots might not fly in weather like this but I consider it a great chance to put your skills to the test and get in some serious practice. I also had some more hood work to knock out and the very bouncy air made it plenty challenging. But again, it was a great opportunity to practice in real-world conditions.

I spent an hour under the hood, double what I had done up to this point. Combined with the bumps in the sky that were rolling the plane left and right, it kept me disoriented enough to have to really focus on the instruments. Dave had me change altitudes and headings, make constant speed and rate climbs and descents, and intercept a radial off the Richmond VOR. Altogether, I kept us on course quite well throughout the maneuvering. The altitude fluctuated within about 200 feet up or down while flying through updrafts and downdrafts. I held the heading within plus or minus 5 or 10 degrees as well, good considering how much we were being tossed around.

It's fun to look at the GPS track and see where the heck Dave had me fly

Looking back over my minimal hours so far under the hood, I have definitely improved in my ability to scan the instruments and manage all the information and maneuver the plane. I also see many areas for improvement. My scan can still be much better and I often focus on one instrument longer than I should. When we hit a downdraft I did not catch that the RPMs were increasing towards red line very quickly and Dave had to remind me to pull back on the power. I also find it very interesting how much my focus increases when I have that hood on. There's no conversation or other thoughts in my head; all I do is scan the instruments and fly the plane.

Moving on to the crosswind practice, oh what a day it was. I'm feeling very good with my takeoffs and I held aileron into the wind and let the plane weathervane into a crab smoothly nearly every time we left the runway. At one point we had what seemed like a 30 degree crab angle - that's how windy it was. Landing-wise, Dave made an observation that I think will help me achieve smoother touchdowns. He said when I pull the power to idle near the end of the runway I keep the nose too high. If I lower the nose and lose more altitude to drop into ground effect before I round out and flare, it results in a softer landing. Unfortunately it was so gusty today with the crosswind that I was just happy to use a sideslip and bring it in for a solid but safe touchdown. I'll definitely heed Dave's advice and watch my nose attitude on short final next time I fly.

Flight Track: Google Earth KMZ File
Today's Flight: 2.0 hours
Solo/PIC Time: 18.4 hours
Total Time: 60.3 hours

Lesson 29: Into the dark night sky (again!)

Plane: Cessna 150
Instructor: Dave
Route: 40I-VNW-40I
Weather: Broken clouds, 47 degrees, wind 070 degrees at 4 knots

As far as the FAA is concerned, I have fulfilled all the training requirements for night flight. But I wanted to go up again because a) the sky is like glass and it's beautiful and b) it seems like a good idea to have more practice with a CFI before I try it solo or with passengers. After discussing exactly where to go, we settled on Van Wert County Airport (VNW) in Van Wert, OH. I drive past the place all the time when I drive to Kalamazoo from Dayton so I know the route and I liked the idea of a night flight along a route close to one I will likely be flying in the future.

In order to maximize the training potential, I planned the route using VORs like last week's night cross-country. We flew direct from Stewart to the Dayton VOR (identifier DQN) and from there direct to Van Wert. The visibility was once again ridiculously unrestricted, and we could see Columbus when we were flying West of downtown Dayton. he moon also came up over the horizon about 10 minutes after we took off and it was a spectacular reddish-orange glow as it rose up into the clouds. We got to fly perpendicular to the approach end of Runway 6L at the Dayton International Airport as well so some airliner traffic came in underneath us on final approach. I was able to spot the airport from a good 30 miles out and it was very easy to see the cities I had picked as checkpoints in addition to referencing others on the sectional chart. The entire outbound flight was flown VFR. T

Dave said again how much he's impressed with my radio calls. I know the radio really gets to some students, especially when they fly out of untowered fields. But I think my comfort is probably due to a combination of listening to ATC online and with my handheld radio and reading books like Say Again Please, which I highly recommend. I called up and got us flight following all the way to VNW and that communication with Dayton Approach also allowed us to transit Dayton's Class C airspace. Coming into Van Wert we were handed off to Fort Wayne Approach and then I made all the normal blind position calls on the CTAF when we had the airport in sight.

On the return leg, I stuck the hood on my head and logged a half hour of instrument time that I spent tracking the VOR back towards Dayton. I've definitely noticed and felt an improbement in my skills in the three lessons I've been on instruments. That work complete, Dave had me do my first diversion. He told me to not use the VOR at all but turn us to Richmond, IN. I glanced at the chart and estimated it would be a 235 heading. I turned that way and could tell it was the right general direction because the lights of Richmond were visible. Then I checked the chart and saw the airport was South of town and then looked out the window and identified the rotating beacon and headed straight for it. Another pilot landing at Richmond turned the lights on and that confirmed I had us pointed the right way - success! It seemed easy enough but I know it would be way different if I was diverting due to bad weather and poor visibility, for example. I've really been spoiled up there lately.

We descended and were clear of the Class C so I turned and we flew right over top of Wright Brothers (MGY) and between Moraine (I73) and Middletown (MWO) airports. Once almost to Waynesville I made a right turn to the South and we spotted the field and entered a left pattern for Runway 26. The whole approach was very stable and Dave brought the flaps to 40 from 30 degrees after we cleared the trees on short final to add drag. Considering there was a slight tailwind I got her stopped very quickly - the best night landing I have made at Stewart by far. I really hope there's more upcoming weather like this because I hope to be able to take someone flying after sunset once I get my certificate!

Flight Track: Google Earth KMZ File (It ends over Middletown - the batteries died)
Today's Flight: 2.3 hours
Solo/PIC Time: 18.3 hours
Total Time: 58.3 hours

Lesson 25: Under the hood

Plane: Cessna 150
Instructor: Dave
Route: 40I, Local
Weather: Broken clouds, 56 degrees, wind 260 degrees at 11 knots

I'll be brief about today's lesson. As we check off the remaining requirements in my training, Instrument work is one thing we had not yet practiced. While an Instrument Rating is a whole separate certification (including training, a knowledge test, and another checkride) I plan to work on in a year or two, the FAA requires anyone training for a Private Pilot Certificate to have at least 3 hours of Instrument training. Basically enough so you won't kill yourself if you accidentally end up inside a cloud. So today that's what we worked on.

As soon as I had taken off, Dave took the plane and had me put on the hood. It's just a view-limiting device that only lets you see the instrument panel and blocks the view out the windows. Unless you're actually in the clouds, you need to have your visual references (i.e. the horizon) blocked to really learn and use the instruments. Today turned out to be a great day weather-wise for practice as it was really bumpy with lots of updrafts and downdrafts underneath the cloud deck. Having to try to fly instruments while the weather tossed me around was good, realistic practice for if I ever accidentally get caught in some clouds.

This looks like the hood I was wearing

The main instruments Dave had me focus on were the Airspeed Indicator, Altimeter, Artificial Horizon, and Directional Gyro. When flying instruments, you have to keep your eyes moving in a constant scan of all the instruments. Fixate on any one and you can quickly get out of control. Having never flown instruments before, I started off fixating too much and also making bigger corrections than necessary. Over the course of the lesson, Dave said he could see me really improve to where I was making much smaller corrections and flying smoother. Similar to early training, I just made the basic maneuvers - climbs, turns, descents, and combinations of them.

Before flying home, Dave introduced me to what he says is one of his favorite thing to do to students. He had me close my eyes, put my head down to my chest, and then kicked the plane around quickly in a series of climbs, descents, and turns. Then he had me take the controls and, without opening my eyes, try to recover to what "feels" like level flight. The first time I ended up in a slow right-turning climb. The second I ended up in a rather steep right-turning dive. It was a great illustration of how you absolutely cannot trust your senses when you lose visual references. Use your instruments!

I'm off for the weekend, but will be back for my second short solo cross-country flight next Tuesday. The plan is to fly down to Kentucky and hopefully enjoy the scenic rolling hills.

Flight Track: Google Earth KMZ File
Today's Flight: 0.9 hours
Solo/PIC Time: 10.5 hours
Total Time: 41.9 hours