Gusty winds = ground school

As I mentioned yesterday, the weather has been rather active this year. We avoided any storms today but instead have been treated to a cold front moving through, bringing with it some very high winds. The temperature and humidity are finally comfortable but it's hard to fly a small plane when the winds are 18 knots gusting to 26. Luckly I was about due for some ground work with Joe anyway, so we took some time this afternoon to sit down and do just that.

You might recall that I went through ground school last fall - I wrote about it a few posts ago on here. That classroom work covered a great deal of what I need to know for the knowledge test but there are other things to discuss on the ground as well. Today we went through my Pre-Solo Written Test and a Pre-Solo test for the plane I will be flying the most, the Champ. These are not standardized tests from the FAA - but it is required you pass them before soloing - and they consist of a couple pages with questions over the critical regulations, procedures, and operations you need to be familiar with before going up on your own.

I brought my camera along today so I could snap a few photos of the airport and the planes. Take a look below and hopefully you will get a slightly better feel for where I am learning to fly.

Yeah, it was windy


Cessna 150 sitting next to the fuel area


Piper Cub (65 hp) in the hangar


Cub up close - I flew this plane in Lessons 4 and 5


Runway - the yellow cones mark the left edge

Before I go, here's a cool and very useful fact that Joe taught me today. For most small single-engine airplanes (basically anything I'll be flying) the fuel consumption is 6 gallons per hour per 100 hp. You can use this ratio to figure out your gallons per hour quickly for any plane. So the Cub or Champ (their 65 hp engines can round to 66/100, or 2/3) use about 4 gallons per hour. Simple, yet highly useful!

Lesson 5: Slips and pattern work

Plane: Cub, 65 hp
Instructor: Joe
Route: 40I, Local
Weather: Scattered clouds, 74 degrees, wind 240 degrees at 8 knots

The weather gods must have been on my side today because I got to fly in smooth, mostly clear skies at 7 pm. We have been getting rocked by severe thunderstorms for pretty much the entire month and today was no different, but the last line pushed through around 5 or 6 this evening. Power was actually out when I arrived at the airport and they said that 55 knot gusts (that's 63 mph) had recently come rolling through with some wicked lightning.

I found out where the backup fuel drain is on the Cub during preflight, and it's basically a hose that drips the Avgas down underneath the cowling. We got her started and I taxied over to the end of the runway, went through my CIGAR checklist, and then Joe took off and gave me the controls as soon as we were off the ground. After going around the pattern and departing to the East, I climbed up to 3,500 and we practiced Forward Slips. If you recall, I tried them for the first time with Dave during Lesson #3 but I was having trouble up there this time. Seems my brain wasn't connected to what my hands were doing for a while but I got that straightened out and started to get a better feel for how much aileron/bank and rudder to use to keep the airplane headed in the desired direction.

Two rounds of slip practice complete, I flew us back to Stewart and into the traffic pattern. From here, we made three circuits - so four total landings and three takeoffs. This was the first time that I really took off on my own, although Joe had to pull the power back once or twice on me to get things straightened out. He was talking about applying power as you turn onto the runway and I think that I was focusing on applying power when I should have focused more on turning onto the runway. Once I corrected that thought process, I actually managed to make two half-decent takeoffs. The plane still wanted to veer to the left more than the right (partly due to some physics phenomena that I'll discuss another time) and I am only beginning to get a feel for how much rudder you need to use to keep the plane pointed down the runway as you pick up speed. It is just one of the many things with learning to fly where plenty of practice will eventually make perfect.

Tomorrow I get to experience spins for the first time, which could be interesting. Me and carnival rides aren't best friends so when Joe told me to think of a spin as being on the teacup ride spinning around but also dropping out of the sky, let's just say it didn't make me all giddy inside. But I'm not worried and so far have enjoyed pulling G's in steep turns and bouncing around the sky much more than I would have expected. Either way, I'm won't be eating three eggs, hash browns, and an extra large order of bacon for breakfast in the morning.

One final note tonight - I'm announcing a new feature on the blog. I recently purchased a great little device (AMOD AGL3080 GPS Logger) that continuously records your GPS coordinates including position, altitude, and speed. While it is designed for storing locations where you take photos - called Geotagging - I also bought it to record my movements up in the sky.

So now in addition to reading about my lessons, you can open up the tracking file in Google Earth (it's a free download - click here) and view my flight in 3-D! At the bottom of every lesson above the flight time there will be a link to that flight's KML/KMZ file. Neat, huh? I forgot to turn it on before takeoff tonight, so it starts in the middle of practicing slips - oops.

Click here for detailed instructions on how I use my AMOD 3080 to record GPS tracks and convert to Google Earth format.

Flight Track: Google Earth KMZ File
Today's Flight: 1.2 hours
Total Time: 7.1 hours

Lesson 4: Around the pattern

Plane: Cub, 65 hp
Instructor: Joe
Route: 40I, Local
Weather: Cloudy with thunderstorms nearby, 79 degrees, wind 210 degrees at 8 knots

Today was one of those days where you get back on the ground feeling slightly unsure of yourself. While it was essentially my first time doing takeoffs and landings on my own (technically not accurate, since Joe helped plenty on the controls) and you can't expect to be perfect right away, I didn't feel like I was doing the greatest job of controlling the aircraft. Maybe some of it was the fact that the window was open on the Cub and it was a little hard to hear Joe sometimes, but I don't think that's really it. 

The weather was interesting, with thunderstorms popping up a few miles north and west of the field in the warm afternoon air and moving to the northeast. Certainly you have to respect storms as a pilot and Joe felt these were plenty tame - and we were a good distance away from them. To be honest I could not believe how little I would have noticed them if you couldn't see the rain falling to the ground (a very cool site from the air) and lightning off in the distance. Other than a few good bumps - at one point, the wind suddenly shifted 90 degrees and gusted pretty strong and spun the nose to the side - and feeling the air shift around, it was really quite smooth up there.

Unlike other lessons up to this point where I have worked on multiple maneuvers, this time we just took off, flew around the pattern, landed, taxied back, and repeated for a total of seven landings on the day. Joe flew the first time around and then handed the controls over to me for the rest of the afternoon. On the ground while taxing, I worked on remembering how to correctly position the controls ("climb into the wind" and "dive away from the wind" is how to remember it) to help prevent the wind from getting underneath a wing where it could flip us over. For me, the Cub was a little harder to move around on the ground than the Champ and while you don't use them much it was pretty difficult for me to get a good feel and push firmly on the brake pedals. 

Rudder usage was probably my biggest deficiency today, as I was having trouble correcting properly on the takeoff roll and landing rollout to keep the nose pointed down the runway. At the beginning I was not flying coordinated very well with the rudder either. As the lesson went on I improved, but it's quite clear that I have a lot of work to do. It also felt a little different in the stick on takeoff compared to the Champ, like you don't have to push forward nearly as much to bring the tail off the ground. I was not letting the plane fly off the ground on its own very well, and we bounced around on the turf on every takeoff for a couple seconds until I got the nose up enough for us to climb away. On landing, I need to work on bringing the stick ALL the way back when we're a few feet off the ground to bleed off the airspeed so the plane plants itself on the ground and stays there with a proper three point landing. When it comes to feeling unsure, I just did not feel like I was able to apply what Joe was telling me after each trip around the pattern and adjust my inputs to improve the next time around. Not a bad day and it was definitely a good experience to get up in some less than ideal weather to be tossed around a little bit, but I made it clear to myself that there are plenty of things to work on next time out.

Today's Flight: 0.7 hours
Total Time: 5.9 hours

Lesson 3: Steep turns, slips, takeoffs, and landings

Plane: Champ
Instructor: Dave
Route: 40I, Local
Weather: Clear, 78 degrees, wind 270 degrees at 5 knots

You can't ask for a much better way to end the work week than with a flight on a beautiful clear evening. I went up for about an hour tonight with Dave, who I had been scheduled to fly with a month ago before some weather-related cancellations. Due to my work schedule (having to mainly fly in the evenings and on weekends) and the availability of instructors and planes, I will likely be training with both Dave and Joe now as I work towards my certificate... which will help me stick to my goal of getting up at least once or twice a week. Tonight I arrived a little early and went out to preflight the plane. Dave spoke to me in some additional detail about the fuel capacity of the Champ, since the gauge was only reading about 1/4 full. Even when it reads empty there are close to 7 gallons left in the tank, so we had plenty for an hour up in the air around the airport.

Once she was started, I did the CIGAR check before we taxied to the runway. Unlike last time, I remembered all the steps and felt more comfortable running through the list. One thing I still have to work on is remembering to "make a box" with the control stick when checking the control surfaces. I then taxied over towards the runway and did a 360-degree turn to check for traffic in the pattern. I can definitely feel myself improving when it comes to controlling the plane on the ground, to the point that it's starting to seem slightly natural. Dave had me follow through on the controls (meaning I place my hands and feet on the stick and pedals, respectively, to feel his inputs without applying any pressure myself) on takeoff. It's important in taildraggers to first hold the stick all the way back when you advance the throttle but to then move it all the way forward once you start moving to raise the tail off the ground, and then slowly bring it back to neutral. Once you have enough speed, the plane will take to the air on its own. On climb out, Dave pointed out some silos up ahead that are perfect reference points - if you stay aimed at them you follow the runway centerline away from the airport on climb-out as you are supposed to. Very handy tip!

This would be a good time to explain a traffic pattern (the diagram below is from Wikipedia) like I said I would a couple of blog posts ago. Basically, it exists to ensure that airplanes arriving and departing from an airport stay in a logical path and away from each other. The most common pattern is called left traffic since planes make left turns from one leg to the next. Right hand patterns do exist, but I'm going to be talking about a left pattern here since it's what we have at my airport. When you take off and head straight out from the runway, that turns into what is called the Upwind leg since airplanes generally take off into the wind. Crosswind is when you make the first 90 degree left turn and are perpendicular to the runway. You then make another 90 degree left to turn Downwind - on this leg, you usually reduce the throttle and start your descent when you are abeam (across from) the end of the runway headed in the opposite direction from which you just took off. Base is the next leg, when you continue descending and making preparations to land. Final is when you are lined up with the runway and making a final descent that will bring you back down on to the runway to land. The traffic pattern altitude is generally 1,000 feet above the ground level except in some special cases.

Back to the flight, after takeoff I turned Crosswind and Downwind, pausing the climb at pattern altitude (1,800 feet) until we were abeam the end of the runway, then resumed the climb up to 3,000 feet. We paused since you should be at pattern altitude whenever you are actually in the pattern. Dave had me perform some basic 90 degree and 180 degree turns and then we moved on to new things. While I had seen these next three maneuvers demonstrated by Joe on my last lesson, today was the first time I tried Steep Turns, Dutch Rolls, and Forward Slips on my own.

You definitely feel some G forces when you do steep turns, and I noticed a tendency to bank further when I went to the right because I felt more Gs going in that direction. Talking after the lesson, we discussed how it's harder (or more awkward) to hold the same amount of control pressure in a right bank due to the position of the stick in your right hand. Think of arm wrestling - it's way easier to go to the left (if you're right handed) isn't it? In flight, the wings produce tiny vortices at the wingtips and if you do a proper Steep Turn while holding altitude you will feel a slight bump when you complete a 360 degree turn as you fly back through those vortices. I actually did this on my turns and it was very cool to actually experience it up there, especially my first time with the maneuver.

Dutch Rolls were interesting and one of the keys I learned from Dave was to lead with your rudder (before you bank with the aileron) and let the plane carry itself through the roll. Slips are a but counter-intuitive since I have spent the better part of three lessons trying to always fly coordinated and now I had to intentionally apply aileron one direction with opposite rudder. I actually ended up in a right slip (nose points to the left) when I had meant to go into a left slip, but you increase drag and lose altitude the same no matter which direction you're pointed. All told, Dave said that I did a good job for my first time with the maneuvers and I am really beginning to feel more comfortable up there.

Instead of heading back to the airport and calling it a day, we did some work in the traffic pattern. I flew the plane back towards the airport and into the Upwind leg - approaching as we did, you fly parallel to and about a quarter mile to the right of the runway. From there, it's a standard turn to Crosswind and then to Downwind. Once abeam the numbers you add Carburetor Heat, pull back the throttle until the engine is at 1,500 RPMs, and trim the elevator so that you are descending at 60 mph. This descent continues through Base and then Final as you line up with the runway. I was a little high so I got to enter a Forward Slip to lose altitude and then brought it back out and aligned the plane with the runway a few feet off the ground. The goal is to do a "three point landing" where the two main wheels and tailwheel impact the runway at the same time - I don't know for sure if we did this, but the landing was pretty smooth. I then taxied back down alongside the runway, took off, flew another complete pattern, and landed back at Stewart.

What do I think was my biggest improvement this time out? Taxiing, hands down. I felt like I was really in control and was able to keep the aircraft pointed right where I wanted on the ground, even during rollout on the runway after landing. After the first landing, the taxi back for takeoff felt quite good and it was even better after we came back down for good. The plane needed more fuel, so I got to see how to properly use the fuel pump and add some good ol' 100LL to the gas tank for the first time. Dave and I stuck around the airport for a while talking about the flight and some other maneuvers and then I helped get some of the planes into the hangar for the evening. Right before I left, we put the Champ away and I got to taxi it back across the field and really felt good with my feet on the pedals. So aside from the in-flight progress, I definitely feel like I have made a solid step forward when it comes to getting around on the ground!

Today's Flight: 0.9 hours
Total Time: 5.2 hours

Kodak Momentum

It always amazes me when I hear about all the different things Kodak is involved in, from the continuous inkjet (CIJ) printers I work on here in Ohio to anti-counterfitting technology in wine labels. I really am proud to work for such a well-known and respected company and enjoy the opportunities I have to work on different projects with people from all over the world. Facts like how 80% of instant lottery tickets in the world are printed with our CIJ systems remind me of the importance and impact of what I work on every day.

This morning I came across a new section on our website about many of our neat inventions and thought it was so well designed and interesting that I wanted to share it with you. Enjoy!