FINALLY! After 20 months, I finally have a renewed Third Class Medical and Student Pilot Certificate in hand.
Delays have been due mostly to the FAA wondering about things that they already knew about then deciding that they didn't really care after they knew more. That and me not pushing hard enough to make things happen soon enough.All handled now. :-) Once Cris (CFI) signs me off, I can solo again! Making my pattern work rock-solid, practicing ground maneuvers, and getting back to solo XC are all on my immediate to-do list. O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay! He chortled in his joy.
No flying today. Kept watching the TAFs & METARs hoping that the fog would lift enough to get us to the practice area but finally called it at 2:30 PM. Visibility finally got up to 5SM after most of the day at 1SM or less but the skies never got above 900 feet.
Happily, next time out we're going to the practice area rather than banging around in the pattern some more. I'm going to work on pattern skills with Flight Sim, though, just to be a little more prepared next time. Scheduled to fly Sunday (tomorrow) at 10AM, though wx is forecast to be rainy. Not particularly conducive to working on slow flight and foggle work. Still, hoping...
Pattern work should be familiar by now. Little evidence of this was available when I flew last weekend.The good news is that I got to fly twice last weekend and that things went poorly enough to make me more introspective about my flying. Just didn't fly very well.We worked ground reference maneuvers in a decent wind and I didn't handle it very well. What I learned was that it's OK to be more aggressive on bank angle than I had heard from previous CFIs. That helped. I also got real experience flying in a wind, which we actually don't get that much of around here; at least when the weather is good enough to fly. So even though I didn't handle the wind as well as I thought I would, it was awesome to get experience in it.Had an odd moment flying S turns when Cris kept saying, "You're not going to get around and level by the time you get to the road." He kept saying it even as I was flying wings-level straight across the road. I never figured out what he was trying to get me to do that I wasn't doing. I felt completely in control of the turns, was exactly on altitude, and was flying gentle S turns. What I wasn't doing was pitching the plane over at or beyond 30 degrees; was more like just past a standard rate turn. The only thing I can think of is that I wasn't being aggressive enough on the turn (not tight enough turns).My other two CFIs flew my ground reference work between 1,000 and 1,500 feet. Cris flies it at 800 feet, which is what you're supposed to do. I could never figure out why we were so high with the other two folks. Anyway, 800 feet is LOW and I'm uncomfortable being that close to the ground. Will need to fly down there more so that I become better accustomed.Oh, for context: I've been working on my PPC on and off for 3-1/2 years. Really. My first CFI was great, but got sucked up by a regional. I was flying twice a week with her and loving it. Second CFI was adequate, really low energy. I got a new job in Seattle and mostly lost interest for flying with him, then work got busy and I basically stopped flying. I stayed engaged, reading constantly, but weather in Portland is pretty awful for flying during the winter, the job kept me hopping in the summer, and I got out of the habit. I also had some AWFUL administrative issues with the FAA trying to get my medical renewed (which STILL aren't quite fixed almost 18 months later!). Anyway, I ended up finding a new CFI and am back on the horse with about 55 hours trying to get finished so that I can fly my Mooney. THAT'S why I get a little frustrated by having troubles with the basics.
Flew a few patterns at Scappoose (KSPB) and 
at the home field (KVUO). Some stuff goes perfectly. Some stuff goes awfully. I flared at about 5 feet on one landing and dropped the plane to the tarmac. Terrible. I've been trying to be gentle on the throttle, but in cold weather that plane refuses to descend if I'm flying by the numbers. Plus I'm too fast early in the pattern. So many things to fix. The best thing about all this is that Cris told me it's not only OK but it's necessary to add or cut power as-necessary to hit the altitudes we want to be at, presuming that I'm flying the correct airspeed. That's fairly liberating.I'm extremely comfortable just flying around. Altitude, attitude and airspeed are all good. Awareness of what's around me is good. Radio work is very good. I need to get past this little hurdle with trying to under-fly the airplane. It's putting me behind and keeping me from taking enough action soon enough. Smoothness is great, but getting done what needs doing matters more. Time for a little less finesce and a little more results.BTW, supposed to fly today and tomorrow. Fog's not lifting fast enough so I'm unsure that I'll make it up. Going to drive into VUO anyway just in case and make the go/no-go there unless my CFI calls me (left a message for him). Looks like rain tomorrow, so may not fly at all this weekend. Time to get FlightSim X out and do some pattern work.Peace,kb
How cool is this? I just found a picture of my M20e online. This shot was taken before the 3-blade Hartzell and the uni-belly mods, but this is still what she looks like. :) I'm a little fuzzy on how aerofiles.com can claim copyright to this photo, but what the heck? Still fun to find this out there in cyberspace! http://aerofiles.com/mooney-m20echap.jpg.
One of the things that I like best about the article is the open, easy treatment of how to fly an ascent not just by sight picture but also by the numbers using the attitude indicator. I find the style of the article extremely accessible, the density of information to be just right. Highly recommended for all you pilots-in-training (like me).I'm guessing this is old hat for the established pilots in the audience, but that's just my guess. It would be interesting to see comments from the old dogs about how quickly this sort of thing becomes purely automatic, especially in IFR condx.Peace,kb
We had a lovely, snowy, white Christmas here in western Washington. Three of four daughters are home. We were snowed in for a few days, but all in all a wonderful time.Santa was good to me feeding my flying habit. Got a new Sporty's flight bag from my lovely bride to retire my Jeppesen student bag. Also got a set of Foggles from one daughter, a Sporty's E6B calculator from a couple others, and various doo-dads and pens and things for the bag. Very nice, especially considering how prudent we agreed to be this year with spending. Yeah, I'd love to have a Garmin 696, but that will have to wait for bonus season (which is in the Fall at Microsoft).I had hope for a bit of flying during the Christmas season but the weather has been wholly uncooperative. The week of snow yesterday switched over to a predicted week (or more) of rain. I'm scheduled to fly on Tuesday, 12/30, then again on 1/2, 1/3, and 1/4. I'm hoping that at least half of those days happen and that I can get reauthorized for solo training so that I'm not quite so constrained by my CFI's unavailability (he only trains on Sundays). Getting solo again will mostly set my schedule to PPC based on weather and my availability, which is as good as it gets right now.I want to be flying my Mooney this Spring.Granddaughter #2 is in the oven right now and I'd like to be able to fly to Utah whenever the weather's good for a visit. Also have kids in school in Provo, UT and Rexburg, ID who I'd like to pop over to visit and family in Boise, so I expect to get good at East-West to Idaho/Utah for family and North-South to Seattle for work. Should build XC hours quickly ahead of beginning my instrument training next Fall.Hope the Christmas season has been wonderful for you and yours. Best wishes in these challenging times for a Happy and Prosperous New Year. :-)Peace,kb
Just read a note that Lockheed Martin Flight Services (http://www.afss.com/) has implemented a neat tool that supports pilot profiles that prepopulate forms with a pilot's boilerplate information and even up to 20 "favoriate flights". Well, that sounds pretty cool.Unhappily, the articles don't cite a URL so I had to search for the site. Turns out to not be all that easy to find. Still, eventually found it and just tried to complete the form to register as a pilot and gain said access to the site. Here's the link all spelled out (http://www.afss.com/index.cfm?regid=%23%2E%40%3C%2B%0A&fwnavid=%23%2EP8%29%0A&navMode=%28%3FT%3D%3A%28Y%3EJ%3B1%5C%20%0A)Anyway, easy form to complete except for two things. First, you can't sumbit your information until you've clicked the "I have read the Privacy Statement" button to "Yes". Except when you do that, the "Submit" button still doesn't light up. Nice. Second, there's no link from the form to the Privacy Statement. So if you answer this question affirmatively, you're either more clever than me and found the form without any help from Lockheed Martin's web developers, or you lied.Seems like a barrier to entry. Maybe I'm the first person to try to use this feature. Maybe I'm the first person to have difficulty with the form. Then again, maybe I'm not.Peace,kbP.S. BTW, I found the Privacy Statement in one of the main menu drop downs. Unfortunately, there's no acknowledgment available on the page nor does the site appear to set any cookie, so there's still no way for me to get the "Submit" button to light up on the Pilot Access Request Form. Oh, to submit feedback on the site--to tell them, for example, that the Pilot Access Request Form is broken--requires first successfully completing the Pilot Access Request Form. Not impressive in any positive fashion. I think I'm stuck...UPDATE 12/27: I was able to make the form work using Firefox. Still busted with IE7. I'll let them know.
Posts
No flying today. Kept watching the TAFs & METARs hoping that the fog would lift enough to get us to the practice area but finally called it at 2:30 PM. Visibility finally got up to 5SM after most of the day at 1SM or less but the skies never got above 900 feet.
at the home field (KVUO). Some stuff goes perfectly. Some stuff goes awfully. I flared at about 5 feet on one landing and dropped the plane to the tarmac. Terrible. I've been trying to be gentle on the throttle, but in cold weather that plane refuses to descend if I'm flying by the numbers. Plus I'm too fast early in the pattern. So many things to fix. The best thing about all this is that Cris told me it's not only OK but it's necessary to add or cut power as-necessary to hit the altitudes we want to be at, presuming that I'm flying the correct airspeed. That's fairly liberating.
