Solo Practice 2: Having a little fun up there

Plane: Champ
Route: 40I, Local
Weather: Few clouds, 73 degrees, wind 220 degrees at 6 knots

Summer mornings with a full blue sky and a light breeze only make me want to be one place - in the air. I got my wish today and went up for a little over an hour, starting off with two takeoffs and landings before venturing out. Then, along with practicing all the same maneuvers I worked on last night, I did a little bit of sightseeing. Instead of heading East over the lake where I usually practice I flew off to the West after working on S-Turns. On my way towards the water tower I used to practice turns around a point, I came across a field with a pretty cool maze or design cut into it.


It felt like most of my maneuvers were a little tighter this morning. Looking through the Google Earth track after the flight, it looked like I made some great S-Turns. They actually felt a little off up in the air but the track shows them being pretty darn symmetrical across the two roads over which I practiced. Same goes for one of the turns around the water tower.


After going in many circles doing steep turns (which felt alright, on par but not necessarily better than last night) I headed off over Caesar Creek Lake before returning to the traffic pattern. There were lots of boats out there and I flew a circle around the beach area to watch all the folks 1,000 feet below me enjoying the sunny day.


I brought my camera along again but took some video today in addition to the usual photos. It sat nicely on the glareshield (dash) so I decided it was safe and not distracting to leave it there. One of the results of flying coordinated is that you do not slip (slide to the inside) or skid (slide to the outside) around turns... so I must be flying well since the camera stayed in place the whole time! My first entire trip around the pattern is below along with my descent and flight around Caesar Creek Lake on the way back to the airport. I added a few captions for the non-pilot folks reading this too - enjoy!

A Trip Around The Pattern:

Over Caesar Creek Lake:

Flight Track: Google Earth KMZ File
Today's Flight: 1.3 hours
Solo/PIC Time: 3.3 hours
Total Time: 23.4 hours

Solo Practice 1: Everything but the kitchen sink

Plane: Champ
Route: 40I, Local
Weather: Partly cloudy becoming clear, 75 degrees, wind 340 degrees at 7 knots

Alllllll byyyy myyyyyseeeeeelf. Or so goes some song. But that was me today, truly going up solo for the first time since my official solo last Sunday. I had scheduled the Champ for last night but an unexpected line of thunderstorms moved through and it's best not to fly in those. Today the weather was gorgeous and became even nicer as the evening went on. So how'd it go? In a nutshell, quite good. Got her started and made a very smooth takeoff, stayed in the pattern until abeam the numbers on downwind, and then climbed out to around 3,000 feet to work on maneuvers.

Looking towards Caesar Creek Lake

Having been working towards soloing for most of July - and therefore staying in the traffic pattern - it had been a while since I had done some things up in the air. So today I decided it would be worthwhile to work on just about everything. Dutch Rolls were not my greatest strength last time I tried them so I did them for a couple minutes about three times today. Let's just say that I can definitely tell my coordinated aileron/rudder usage is vastly improved from before. I really kept the nose rolling nicely around the longitudinal axis (front to back) of the plane. Did stalls (both power off and power on) a few times as well, and it took me a couple to remember just how far you have to yank back on the stick to bring the nose up in the Champ to get it to stall.

Most of the other things I worked on related to turns in one way or another. I practiced turns around a point using a water tower by the lake (you'll see a bunch of lime green circles around the Western edge of the lake in the Google Earth track) and it's clear I still need some more practice on those. Chalk that up in tomorrow's "lesson" plan. I also spent a lot of time doing Steep Turns. Either I'm way more used to pulling some G's or I wasn't banked where I thought I was because they just didn't feel that forceful. And believe me, the horizon was quite angled - I think I pulled it closer to 50 or 60 degrees on some of the turns. So maybe I am just getting used to the G forces. Anyway, I held my altitude within test standards - although not as good as I would like - and was doing a great job of rolling out right on the desired heading.

Before heading back to the airport for some takeoffs and landings, I did a couple S-Turns using power lines as my reference. I did not fly evenly sized semi-circles but overall they were decent. Pat to self on back - check out the S-Turns in the Google Earth track, which are the most Northern part of the track. Pretty darn S-ey if I do say so myself! Also, you'll see the track starts kind of suddenly to the East of the airport. That would be due to the fact I forgot to turn the GPS on before takeoff. Lo siento.

One final note about why flying is awesome. After my first landing back at Stewart both of the Cubs along with a Cessna flew right over the field at a couple hundred feet in tight formation, which was beyond cool to see. Two pilots had the Cubs rented and I watched them fly in formation down low across the farmland and down in the valleys over the rivers and creeks nearby. Color me jealous. Looked like a great time and it's just one of those things you might only be able to do in a small plane.

Flight Track: Google Earth KMZ File
Today's Flight: 1.6 hours
Solo/PIC Time: 2.0 hours
Total Time: 22.1 hours

Lesson 17: Solo!

Plane: Champ
Instructor: Dave/Solo
Route: 40I, Local
Weather: Clear, 82 degrees, wind 110 degrees at 4 knots

Yup, that's me in there taking off all by myself for the first time

Woo-hoo! And yes, I did yell that out once I was in the air after my first solo takeoff. But let's back up real quick and I'll give you a brief rundown of tonight's lesson. I could not have asked for better weather. It was absolutely gorgeous up there, clear blue skies and light winds. We were using Runway 8 tonight since the wind was out of the East. Got her started and made four takeoffs and landings with Dave sitting behind me. All were good and smooth, as was my maneuvering around the traffic pattern - other than getting a little high on downwind a few times.

After the fourth landing, Dave told me to taxi off to the side and I knew what was coming. He unbuckled his belt, opened up the door, stepped out of the plane, said "give me three," and shook my hand. That was it. All on my own now. The feeling that washed over me was happiness and excitement - having been mentally prepared for soloing for a week or two now, I'd been anticipating this moment for some time. I taxied the Champ back to the end of the runway, checked for traffic in the pattern, and it was time to go.

First Takeoff/Landing:
Got her lined up on the runway and smoothly added power. Stick forward and wow did the tail come off the ground quickly. Slowly brought the stick back and before I knew it I was off the ground and climbing fast. No turning back now! You can hear a billion times how differently the plane is going to fly the first time the instructor steps out, but I was still blown away at the performance. That old Champ really can climb! (If you look at the GPS tracks - links at the bottom - you'll see how much shorter my climb before turning crosswind was when solo.) I had to adjust the trim towards "Nose Up" since I was going close to 70 mph and the standard climb speed is 60. Got to 1,500 feet faster than ever before and made a smooth turn to crosswind. Looking out the left, I was right on the extended runway centerline - excellent!

Turned downwind, throttled back, and maintained 1,800 feet until abeam the numbers. Then I added carb heat and brought the throttle back to about 1,400 RPM. I could not believe the difference in the weight and balance here. Normally, trim's about the same as takeoff (in the middle of the slide range) but I had to bring it nearly all the way back towards "Nose Up" to maintain 60 mph. Smoothly flew into my base leg and then on to final and was about on the glide path, I didn't even use a forward slip. Rounded out and started to flare and touched down, but I bounced two or three times. Not too hard, but the first time I did that all night. Probably was due to it being my first time landing without any extra weight behind me.

Second Takeoff/Landing:
Seeing as how the Champ wanted to climb like a rocket (well, for a Champ) last time I trimmed much more nose up this time around. Pushed in the throttle and again was rolling down the runway and off the ground in no time. Climbed smoothly out to 1,500 and flew around the pattern very well. I really felt sharp and on top of things up there. Took a few moments to look down at the ground and revel in the scenery too, since it's always awesome to remember how lucky I am to be up there above everything. Back to downwind, I throttled back and managed the descent better this time since I knew what to expect. I used a mild forward slip on final to bleed off a little extra altitude and airspeed and made an almost-three-point touchdown (just hit the two mains a split second before the tailwheel) right where I wanted to hit the grass.

Third Takeoff/Landing:
This entire circuit of the pattern was great. Takeoff once again was smooth and I quickly climbed up to 1,500 for the turn to crosswind and was at pattern altitude on downwind soon thereafter. My descent was right on target and again I used a very minor slip to hit the runway threshold at the right spot. The roundout and flare were right on target and I kept bringing the stick back, back, back for a perfect landing - total greaser! To be honest, I didn't want to taxi back and shut her down. With smooth air and clear skies I could have stayed up until sundown. Anyway, I taxied back towards the main hangar and Dave helped marshal me in to where I shut the engine off. First solo complete! :-D

Obviously, I was grinning and happy when I stepped out of N1798E. Dave shook my hand again, said great job, and we walked inside. Another pilot was standing out there with Dave and took some video and additional photos of me soloing and I'll get those online once they're emailed to me. Then it was time for the ageless tradition of cutting off the back of my shirt. I've heard it dates back to early flight training where instructors in open-cockpit biplanes (sitting behind the student) could only get the students' attention by tugging on their shirt tails. Once the students had soloed, the instructor no longer needed to tug on them so they cut them off. Well, add me to those long books as another successful, shirtless, and very happy solo aviator!

More photos from the first solo, courtesy of Dave...

Climbing out from Runway 8

Just before touching down on my first solo landing

Rolling down the runway after the first landing

Back inside with Dave, shortly before losing my shirt

Flight Track: Google Earth KMZ File - Dual | Solo
Today's Flight: 1.1 hours
Solo/PIC Time: 0.4 hours
Total Time: 20.5 hours

Lesson 16: Crosswind fun

Plane: Champ
Instructor: Dave
Route: 40I, Local
Weather: Partly cloudy, 85 degrees, wind 340 degrees at 8 knots gusting to 16

With the winds blowing pretty much directly across the runway, conditions weren't exactly right for me to solo. However, it was great weather for practicing crosswind takeoffs and landings. Hopefully it's calm enough tomorrow night for me to take to the sky on my own!

Per the usual as of late, we did not leave the pattern during today's lesson. It had been a while since I landed in such strong crosswinds (back in Lesson 6, to be precise) so after last night's strong headwinds it was another day of good practice. My first couple takeoffs weren't the greatest as I did not let the plane weathercock into the wind as much as it needed to. After that, I properly used lots of right aileron to keep the right wing low and used the rudder to keep the plane tracking straight down the runway. My last two takeoffs were very smooth, with me lifting off very gently and allowing the plane to turn into the wind. It was interesting to notice how strongly the plane cocked into the wind at about 150 feet agl once we were past the "tree level" where the trees help to break the wind.

Being the middle of the afternoon with plenty of puffy cumulus clouds in the sky, the ride was somewhat bumpy. We hit a few good pockets of air that jolted us one way or the other and the heat also caused plenty of rising air that often pushed me a little too high on downwind. Landing-wise my approach path was generally quite good, but it always got more interesting right above the runway. There, the air tends to rise and fall due to some uneven heating along with winds that shift around thanks to the trees and terrain. On about the fifth landing, we hit a good gust that banked the plane pretty severely so I had to correct and continue my descent. Aside from the bumps, bounces, and crosswind my landings were good overall the entire afternoon. None were total greasers, but considering the wind situation they all ended up quite smooth.

It was also very weird to use a right forward slip (since you generally want to have the wing raised into the wind when slipping) to bleed off speed and altitude. I've realized that I am at the point where a left forward slip is a maneuver I just do automatically and don't even have to think about. But since ones to the right are not so common, I still found myself saying "right aileron, left rudder" in my head this afternoon. Dave had me intentionally come in quite high one time so I would have to slip it hard to the right and that helped. Since most slips are made to the left (left bank + right rudder) it was good practice.

I'm looking forward to flying again tomorrow!

Flight Track: Google Earth KMZ File
Today's Flight: 1.2 hours
Total Time: 19.4 hours

Lesson 15: Fatigue sucks

Plane: Champ
Instructor: Dave
Route: 40I, Local
Weather: Mostly cloudy, 86 degrees, wind 250 degrees at 10 knots gusting to 18

You could certainly say I'm not a morning person - and probably never will be. So even though I work during usual business hours I am often awake much later than I should be. I'm just a night person. Up to this point in my training I have always done my best, however, to go to bed earlier any night before I have a lesson. Last night I did not, plus I just way more tired than normal all day long. What does that add up to? Less than ideal flying.

Clearly, my brain was not processing information as efficiently as usual today. I found myself doing strange things up there; things that I have never done before that were pretty much counterintuitive to what I was trying to accomplish. For example, when I was high on final I would go into a forward slip but did not bring the throttle all the way back to idle. That's pretty much like keeping your foot on the accelerator while slamming on the brakes... um yea, no logic in that. I also did not watch my speed on final nearly as well as I have in the past and just felt "behind the plane" for most if not all of the flight. It was a great lesson in aeromedical factors (one of the subjects on the FAA knowledge test I have to take soon, by the way) and an important reminder of the possible consequences of something as simple as being too tired.

I may have been better served to cancel today's lesson and rest since I do not really feel I got as much out of it as I should have due to the fatigue. On the other hand, it was great to go up when I had an instructor in the back seat and see how moderate fatigue would affect me in the air. It's not like I was totally incompetent up there; half my takeoffs were actually rather good. The strong, gusty headwinds made for a little trouble around the pattern - mainly when to turn base and keeping on the proper glide path. I was often too low or too high and had to either add power or throw the plane over into a bit of a forward slip, respectively. But seeing as how I do still struggle on landing with stronger winds it was good to go up and work on it. Plus, Dave actually said he would have climbed out of the plane if the winds weren't so gusty. With a lesson tomorrow and another on Sunday it looks like I might have flown around the Ohio sky on my own by the next time I'm sitting at my desk in the office!

Key learning experience from today - it's clear that fatigue has MUCH more of an impact on me in the sky than it does on the ground and I will make decisions accordingly for as long as I fly.

Flight Track: Google Earth KMZ File
Today's Flight: 1.3 hours
Total Time: 18.2 hours