Bier Flier

Medical renewed!

2009-01-21T16:07:00.000-08:00

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-go

2009-01-10T19:35:00.000-08:00

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...

Regressing

2009-01-10T10:29:00.000-08:00

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

My plane's famous!

2009-01-06T07:48:00.001-08:00

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.

Climbing

2008-12-28T14:15:00.000-08:00

I was just reading an article referenced from the iPilot newsletter (newsletters@ipilot.com) that I find immensely relevant to my recent pattern work. The article is called "Positive Rate" by Tom Turner on the iPilot Learning Center.

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

For Christmas...

2008-12-27T13:02:00.001-08:00

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

Trying to play nice with FSS

2008-12-22T18:53:00.000-08:00

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,
kb

P.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.

Scraping off the rust

2008-12-21T19:39:00.000-08:00

FINALLY got to fly this past Friday! Haven't been in the air since August for a variety of decent, even compelling, reasons. Still, haven't been in the air, so this was a wonderful day from the beginning.

Well, except that Friday was not exactly an ideal flying day at KVUO. Temp was right at freezing, ceilings were about 1400 ft, though winds were calm. The odd snowflake fell during preflight, which began at 1500 local with sunset at 1628. So this was definitely a stay-in-the-pattern kind of day.

My CFI(I), Cris Hain, arrived earlier than expected. So my plan to have the preflight done before he came was all for naught. Still, a quick listen to the ASOS, a gander out the window to the west toward the next wave of weather, and a short briefing from dispatch on how other flights had been going (pattern work only) defined the rest of the day for us. No night flying, no short cross-country work, just pattern work. Still, we're flying again, so it's all good!

N80347--a high-hour, mid-70's, 180-hp C172 in good overally condition--looked good during preflight except for a couple screws missing off a panel on the empennage. Got an AP out of the shop to put those in. Only 7 and 11 in the tanks, but since we were staying in the pattern, dispatch gave us a green light to flly without filling, thereby saving us another 20 minutes of precious daylight. Besides, it was pretty chilly out there.

Time to cold start '347. I mean COLD start. Temp's freezing and the plane hasn't flown for 9 days. Two pumps to the primer, but I was slow to the ignition. LESSON LEARNED: When priming, be ready to hit the starter so as to not lose the prime. Second time around she (pretty much) kicked right over. What a wonderful feeling when an airplane comes to life!

I could tell that things were going to be a bit ragged right from the start. Taxiing was no trouble, but it was taking far too much of my attention. I was listening to the ASOS and heard the winds, but missed the pressure even though it played through half a dozen times. Still, got the altimeter set before we got to the run up area.

Run up was uneventful, though I paid extra attention to everything since the plane had been sitting so long. Call PDX tower from the run up area; KVUO is a satellite of the Class C KPDX, so we establish communication with the tower before taking the runway. Cleared with Pearson Traffic, checked the skies at the hold-short line, took the active (08 on that day, the calm wind runway). We usually defer to the direction PDX is operating. With their essentially parallel runways (10/28) just across the Columbia river from us, they often overfly us, so heading in the same direction is prudent.

Lights, Transponder ON 1200, check no flaps, oil pressure, look down the runway, ease the throttle to full power, call the airspeed indicator as alive, verify vacuum, rotate at 60 knots, set the sight picture, shoot for Vy (call it 80), trim and fly the pattern.

Getting to Vy didn't go well. The 180hp engine loves to climb and I was 10 over before I knew it, then needing to turn and call base. Oh, wait, that's crosswind (reminded by my CFI). Slight fluster. Already time to turn downwind and I'm already at 1,000. Can't break 1,100 as that breaks Charlie airspace, which means at least getting yelled at by Portland Tower. So push it over to stay below Charlie and get yelled at to cut power NOT change attitude to control altitude. Sheesh, like I don't know that. I can feel the rust...

By the time I get my speed and altitude handled I'm abeam the numbers and already behind getting my descent set up. Has anyone else had a day like this? I bet so. In fact, I'VE had them, but it's been a long time since I've had them. Still, here I am trying to slow down, descend, get flaps in, get trim set... Oh, crap, carb heat... fast, high, call the turns, oops, missed calling base...

Landing 08 at Pearson takes you just south of downtown Vancouver (the highrise condo crowd just LOVES that), then a short base to the edge of the Columbia (can't crack that line or I'll be in Portland's airspace). Final is a curve along the river's edge toward the north tower of the Interstate Bridge, then a gentle left onto short final with the north tower just off my right wing and Fort Vancouver immediately to my left.

I think I'm aligned with the runway but Cris tells me to get aligned so I add a little rudder and he's happy. He's reminding me about controlling altitude with power and staying on my landing target. I've heard this all before, but it's just not happening. Cris has his hands in the controls the whole way down. Landing's fine, but the approach was anything but controlled and stable.

On the center line, carb heat out, flaps up, power back in, rolling, rotating and climbing.

Now, on the previous descent, Cris did me a favor by setting the trim. We were high, so there was a fair bit of trim in. I knew he was doing this; he told me. But did I remember? Oh no, not me. I was STILL behind the airplane. At rotation, the plane wasn't coming up like I wanted it to so I pulled back on the yoke and ballooned up, nose-high. Cris got the nose down and reminded me about stalls on climb out. LESSON LEARNED: Be darn sure your trim is neutralized before you "go" after "touching".

Little pieces of the second pattern were better than the first, but I put that pattern in the same sad category as the first. The third pattern was about 50/50. I was back in control of the airplane and felt like I was flying, but the pattern was very imprecise.

The fourth pattern started to get very hazy and dark as the next snowstorm began to arrive, though no precip yet. I flew the pattern in full control, had all the radio stuff done calm and perfect, getting everything done on time, was where I was supposed to be up until the turn to final. For whatever reason, I saw that we were high on the PAPI and I added power. Really, I added power! Cris very patiently asked me why I just ruined a perfect approach. I explained my reason to him, then said, "Oh."

He asked me what we do when we're this close to the runway and we're this high. I said that we do a front slip and laughed. He didn't laugh. I also know better than to slip a C172 with 30 degrees of flaps. So we did a go-around. Added power, carb heat out, started to retract some of the flaps and got yelled at again (and rightly so). First, I hadn't added full power and I pulled flaps before I had a positive climb indication on the VSI. Sheesh, I _really_ do know better than this...

Happily, patterns five and six were both very good. I added a little too much power on final, but just a little. Pattern six was as close to perfect as I've ever flown.

Again, happily, all five landings (not counting the go-around) were good one, though I skipped the first turn out on one so that I didn't have to lean into the brakes. Got teased for that, but it was the right thing to do, especially with no one else in the pattern.

Clearing, taxi, and parking were uneventful as I once again felt in control and confident. It was great getting back on the horse and I'm anxiously awaiting our next scheduled outing on 12/30. Weather looks awful here until at least the 27th, so that's likely the soonest I can fly. I'll get reauthorized for renting solo and I can start working without having to schedule my CFI (which is good since he's only available one day a week).

Hope there's a reminder or two in there for you, too, if you're a student. If you're new to flying and wondering what all this chatter is about, drop me a note. I'd be very happy to talk with you about it.

Peace,
kb

Learning to Fly -- an invitation

2008-11-29T16:57:00.000-08:00

Welcome! My other blog has turned into a purely work-related beastie with nowhere to write about flying, and perhaps other of my more personal pasttimes like radio and singing and family. So this blog will be about those.

If you choose to visit this blog, I hope that you'll find a moment reflect how your experiences with flying overlap with mine and perhaps jot a note or two with your perspective. I'd appreciate the opportunity to learn from you, and I hope you find a point or two herein that interests you.

This is one of those things that I've meant to do since I began flying three and a half years ago. I've wanted to write about the process of flying, as well as the experience. When I was just beginning, I wished that I could read about others learning to fly. I wondered whether what I was experiencing and feeling was "normal". It sure didn't feel normal...

So, beginning in retrospect, here are some of my experiences, shared in the hope that you find some meaning for your own flying experiences. I'm looking forward to taking this journey together. :-)

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I've become something of a professional student pilot. The first entry in my log 22 May 2005. My most recent is 14 Aug 2008. In that time, I've accumulated 58.0 hours total time with 15.3 PIC and 12.6 XC. I've done everything in the syllabus except for 1.2 hours of hood time (can't figure where those hours went, but they're not in my log, so they don't exist).

I don't have my PPC largely because I haven't been able to string enough hours together all at once, or keep a CFI long enough, to finish the thing. More on that later.

I remain deeply interested in flying and even when not training I've stayed active in reading about flying. So I feel that I've been gaining experience in all those three and some-odd years.

But I really, really want to finish. N7136V is (mostly) mine, and sits on the ramp at KVUO waiting to be started and warmed up each weekend, but purely in anticipation of actual flight. 6V is a 1974 Mooney M20E.

My primary missions will be to "commute" to work (a weekly flight from KVUO to KRNT on Monday and back again on Thursday) and long cross-countries to eastern Idaho (KRXE) as well as Utah. My secondary missions will be sightseeing around the Pacific Northwest. Having a 150 kt cruiser opens up a lot of territory within a 2- or 3-hour radius!

I wonder how many other folks have taken A Long Time to complete their PPC? Perhaps you can leave a note with your experience of finishing in 40 hours -- I had all the requirements completed for certification within 42 hours -- or longer.

For now, I'll post this entry and then later begin to fill in some of the high points along the way, and hopefully maintain a commentary (including personal flight reviews) as time in the air stacks up.

Peace,
kb