Friday, February 9th, 2007
Hours - 23.2
Another cold day for a lesson. This one was last Saturday morning. We used up some time cleaning the snow off the plane, but still got a good 1.2 hours in. I wanted to go up to 1B1, but that wasn’t going to happen…not enough time. I just can’t seem to get up to that airport. I really can’t wait for the good weather to come back. It seems like my life now needs warmer weather. I miss flying, hiking and landscaping. From my previous posts, you can probably tell that I like plants, shrubs and flowers. Oh well.
We hopped in the plane and did our thing. I climbed to about 3,500FT and headed towards SWF. I must say that I was a little razzled because of the cold and the snow. Also, my whole game plan had been thrown off, so I was in the middle of nowhere in my mind. This is probably good practice for what to do if an unexpected event arises while flying as pilot in command. Everything you do is good practice when flying.
Yigal was throwing things at me left and right. He had me head towards the Pawling VOR. Once I had that established, he told me to head towards the Huguenot VOR. Things were coming pretty fast. I tend to forget some things while under pressure, but I will get it. I was having a little trouble with the NAV part of the radio. I forgot how to refine the frequency after the dot…like 116.1. Then, he told me to land at SWF for a touch and go. I started to put in the frequency for Stewart, 121.0, but forgot to listen to the ATIS at 124.57. You need to listen to the ATIS before calling the tower while entering class D airspace. The ATIS will tell a pilot important information that would take up too much time for ATC to say every single time to every pilot. At the end of each recording, the ATIS tells you which version of information you just heard…like, “This is information Bravo.” The tower updates this information continuously throughout the day, so it is important that you tell the tower which version you heard.
I tuned in to the ATIS and listened to the information. Yigal started going over something, so I never got to record which version I just heard. I didn’t realize this until I made my radio call to the tower. I made my call, told them my position, my altitude and made a request for clearance to land for a touch and go. Right at that point, I knew I didn’t know what version of information I heard, so I left it off. Oh well. We landed for a touch and go and then came back for another.
After we were through there, I headed back to MGJ and entered the pattern just fine. Yigal wanted to land the plane because the runway was a sheet of ice. He did a good job, but I would’ve preferred it if he had asked me for some advice. I am rather good at these things you know.
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Wednesday, October 11th, 2006
I made it the flight school early again and wanted to get some of the preflight stuff out of the way, but the plane was locked. I figured it would be, so I cleaned the dew off the windshield. Yigal came and I got the key to do the whole preflight. We needed fuel, so we started the airplane and taxied over to the filling station. Putting fuel in a Cessna (high wing) is a bit different than the Piper (low wing). You need a ladder to get up to the tank caps. Other than that, it is about the same. The tanks were pretty low, so I put about 45 gallons in them.
Today was perfect weather for practicing more takeoff and landings. I am getting pretty good at them. The one problem I am still having is not gauging the height of the plane from the runway when we are almost at the touchdown point. We are generally higher than I think we are, so the touchdown is slightly bumpy. Also, in a Cessna, you need to keep the yoke pulled back while landing and after you land as well. If you don’t, you will put too much weight on the front wheel.
What really excited me about these lessons is that I actually learn things. This lesson, the major point I took away was to keep my speed at least 70kts when approaching the runway to land. During one landing, our speed was only 60kts, so when we approached closely to the touchdown spot, I stalled the plane to drop somewhat hard. Controlling the airplane at that low speed is difficult as well. I think the tendency for new pilots is to slow the plane down as much as possible to land, but that shouldn’t be the case. It just feels weird giving the airplane more throttle as you are approaching the runway. I will be sure to practice this next time, as I am sure we will be working on this more. Yigal wants me to practice staying above the blacktop at a height of about 3 feet for as long as possible. After that hard landing, I explained to him what I did wrong. That put a smile on his face. He likes it when his students realize what their mistakes are and plan on correcting them next time. He says that flying is all about corrections.
One of my mistakes during takeoff is climbing at too high of an airspeed (not enough pitch). I usually climb at 80kts, when it should be only 70kts. The way to lower the speed is to pitch the airplane up so you gain as much altitude as fast as possible. There are two reasons for this: 1. to gain altitude fast in case you lose your engine, and 2. to save fuel. I will be sure to work on this as well.
I am really starting to feel very comfortable flying these airplanes. If I had to do my solo tomorrow, I would be able to. I hope Yigal is not reading this. (haha)
After my sixth takeoff, I looked over at the ridge and told Yigal I can’t wait to start flying around to look at the beautiful views of the area. Since he seems to really love the Autumn colors, he said, “Let’s do it.” I said, “Yeah baby!” and headed towards the ridge. We flew about 10.5 miles Northwest, straight for the Mohonk Mountain House tower . I climbed to 3,500ft and we cruised all the way over at 2,200rpm (110mph). When we reached our point, I descended to about 2,000ft and we circled the Mountain House. We flew over Minnewaska State Park (earlier post) and further South along the ridge. I think I am pretty lucky to be learning how to fly in this area of the country. I really couldn’t ask for anything more.
We headed back towards the airport and I actually knew where it was. I figure that if I flew Northwest towards the ridge, I should fly Southeast back to the airport. I really felt like a genius. I descended from 3,500ft to 1,400ft and entered the airport landing pattern. When I entered the pattern, Yigal pushed the throttle to idle and told me to do an emergency landing. I banked for a tight left and kept my optimum glide speed of 70kts. I came in to land and we drifted slightly to the right. Yigal was telling me to use the left rudder, but we had already landed ok. He asked me what happened and I explained to him that we were in an emergency situation and I had to land the plane. He loves it.
Till next time!
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Wednesday, October 4th, 2006
This lesson was awesome. I got to fly the plane I really wanted to fly…a Cessna 172. This is a larger airplane than the Piper Cherokee I usually fly. There is more interior room and it has a high-wing configuration as compared to the low wing. The Cherokee had more power due to the engine modifications, so which is better is really up to the pilot.
We did more touch and goes today. The weather was good for it, so there were 3 other planes in the pattern. I did six take offs and landings. The touch and go teaches you a few important things…take offs, climbs, patterns, descent, turns, landings, runway management and communications. It also teaches you how to manage the cockpit with a passenger. Yigal likes to throw a lot at you when you are practicing. He was trying to distract me while I was flying to show me what is going to happen when I start flying with friends. He tried, but didn’t succeed. I am like an arrow heading towards its target (haha).
We had a lot of fun during this lesson. I like to keep things light and laugh. It helps me to learn. I also got to use my new headset. Wonderful!
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Wednesday, September 13th, 2006
I gave Freedom Air a call yesterday morning to see if they had anything available for that afternoon because it looked like rain today. I have a habit of calling last minute. I found out that they were booked. That was fine, the rain looked like it was towards the afternoon anyway.
I arrived at about 7:50 today to give the plane a preflight inspection. This would save some $$$ if I got this done early when the clock wasn’t running. Unfortunately, the plane was in the hangar and I didn’t have the key. Oh well, I took some photos like I said I would in a previous post.
This is a sea plane, as you can see from the upper propeller in back of the pilot.
This plane had “Experimental” written on the side of it, so I thought it deserved a photo. I have no idea was type of experiment they will perform with it.
The next one is a Cessna (the most popular small plane out there) and the last is the flight school across the way. If you look past the hangar, you can see runway 3.
Yigal arrived after me and we talked a little about the weather. I was concerned about the very light drizzle coming down and he said that wasn’t a problem, we could fly in the rain if need be. It was visibility that mattered.
He had me call the weather service again for a standard briefing. I was secretly apprehensive about making this call because the first time I called the service, a real jerk gave me a hard time. This time, Yigal told me not to let them get the best of me and had me put the call on speakerphone.
The operator came on and was a different guy than last time, or the same guy, just beat up a little bit from his supervisor. He was very, very helpful. I gave him the airplane tail number and the airport we would be taking off from. I told him the duration of flight time and he gave me a complete rundown of everything I could possibly want to know. He also gave his opinion based on his experience, which was nice. We had good visibility, so it was cool to fly. What a pleasure talking to him.
I gave the plane a preflight in the hangar and we pulled it out. We got in and taxied to the runway. Today, I was going to do touch and goes for about an hour and a half. This should be interesting. Landing an airplane is the toughest thing to do.
Basically, here is what we did. I took off and climbed to an altitude of 1000 FT. Then, I made a radio call: “Orange County, Cherokee turning crosswind at runway 3.” Then, I continued to climb, while making a left turn to1400 FT. When I hit 1400 FT, I lowered the throttle so the engine was running at 2000 RPM (cruising speed). Then, when I was about a mile out from the runway, I made another radio call: “Orange County, Cherokee turning downwind at runway 3.” We paralleled the runway until we passed the very end (where we begun our takeoff) of it, then, I raised the flaps one click. We continued past the beginning of the runway for about one more mile. Then, I made a radio call: “Orange County, Cherokee turning base at runway 3.” This is where I made the most mistakes. At this point, I had to make another left turn, lower the RPMs to 1700, raise the flaps one more click and begin our descent to about 900 FT. It took me a while to get this. It seems like the plane wants to climb when I should be descending and vice versa. When we were lined up with the runway, I made one last radio call: “Orange County, Cherokee turning final for runway 3.” There were about 3 other training planes up in the same airspace this moring, so there was a lot of chatter. I talked over one guy once or twice…I’ll have to correct that for next time. Note to self: Listen for open air before making a radio call.
So, at this point we were heading straight for the runway. I would line my angle of descent up with the lights on the runway (VIZI Lights?). When I was too high, both lights would be white (and I’ll fly all night), too low, both lights would be red (and I’ll be dead…a little saying pilots use to remember the lighting sequence), just right, the rear light would be red and the front one would be white. As we got closer to our touchdown spot, I would flare the plane slightly. Basically, I would let the plane fall, give it a slight flare, let it fall, and give it a slight flare. When we almost touched down, I would give it another flare to land the plane. Too many flares and you slow the plane too much and it begins to fall too fast for a hard landing.
It took a few times to get the entire takeoff and landing pattern down pat with no mistakes. I took off and landed 5 times and had two very good landings. The second landing was very iffy, as I over-corrected with the rudder to land kind of crooked.
Yigal says that I am doing excellent for a student with only slightly over 4 hours. Next step, continue with my ground school, start looking into my own headset and prepare for my next lesson, Thursday of next week at 5:30PM.
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Friday, September 1st, 2006
Ah yes, 8:00AM. It is September 1st and it is getting a little chilly around here. I am starting to wear sweatshirts in the morning. When I go sit on the couch to drink my morning coffee, I now have to wear a shirt. I guess it’s ok. Better than sweating. Laura doesn’t seem to have a problem with it, she HATES the heat.
Of course, I arrived at the flight school first again. I have a problem doing that. Perhaps it is because I can’t sleep at night, tossing and turning, thinking I am going to miss the alarm and screw up the whole lesson. You have to take them when you can these days due to all the rain we have been getting.
Anyway, Yigal arrived a little later than I did. He had me go out and do the pre-flight inspection. He chose a different plane this time…a little older and smaller, but just as powerful as the last. I believe this one was made in 1969. I did the inspection and suggested that we fill the tanks with fuel. They were below the markers. Also, when I took the sample of fuel from the left wing, a little water came out in the fuel. Yigal says this is due to the condensation created overnight. No big deal. I threw the fuel downwind.
I went back inside and Yigal had me call the weather service to get the current conditions as well as the forecast for the day. A pilot should always do this whenever they plan to fly. You always want to be sure that conditions are going to be ok from where you takoff from, your path and your landing area. Of course, this day, we tookoff from Orange County Airport and landed there too. A little note about this type of weather service - they throw out a whole mess of numbers. There is no handsome man in a suit in front of a large, easy to read map. I called the number he gave me: 1-800-WX-BRIEF. Here is what I had to do: introduce myself as a student pilot, give the tail number, tell the person that we were taking off from MGJ and landing there as well, let them know that we are staying in the area as well as our flight duration. Then, I had to request a standard briefing. I also had to ask if there were any TFRs (Temporary Flight Restrictions). I was looking for the ceiling hieght, visibility, the forecast and the wind direction and speed. Basically anything that we should be concerned about while in a small aircraft. Well, I screwed that all up. The operator on the other end of the phone was completely rude and had no patience. He totally unnerved me when he started sarcastically sighing. At one point he asked very slowly if I was writing this down. I felt like I was getting pretty ticked at him, but because of my point in learning, I was in no place to say anything. The reason he was getting frustrated was because I kept asking him to repeat things. I really don’t think these were big requests, since I did introduce myself as a new student pilot. I thanked him and hung up. Yigal asked me how it went and I told him some of the information I received. I also told him that the person was very rude and indicated what his attitude was. Yigal shot up and got quite serious. He immediately picked up the phone and called the operator back and asked for his supervisor. He made an aggressive complaint about the poor attitude of the operator and how new students have a difficult enough time learning all of this without having to deal with people like that. I really appreciated this from Yigal, as he showed he cared about my learning process.
We went out tho the plane and got inside. We went over all the things we needed to and I started her up. One thing that I forgot was to wipe the windshield down. There was dew all over it from the night before. No problem…parking brake and engine at 2000 RPM. No more dew. I lowered the throttle back to 800 RPM and taxied to the runway and went through the pre-takeoff checklist. I pulled out to the runway and tookoff. This all went much faster than last time and I was much more comfortable. I also made all radio communications. When we were at our altitude, I practiced straight and level flight and the use of trim, pitch and power coordination, traffic pattern operations, collision avoidance, power-off stalls, power-on stalls and approach and landing. Yigal let me land half-way. His hands were on the controls, but so were mine. It felt pretty comfortable. I think I will ready to give it a shot by myself next time.
A note about airplane stalls - I really thought this area was going to freak me out. Basically, you are simulating a stall while taking off and landing. One is with full power (takeoff) and one with no power (landing). To simulate this, you climb to 3000ft. and lower the flaps. Then you pitch the airplane past 18 degrees, the point of stall. The airplane shudders and falls. The trick is to regain control with minimal altitude loss. Yigal demonstrated the power off stall first and then had me do it axactly to the way the examiner is going to want to see it. It really wasn’t that bad. I kind of liked it. We did the power on stall next…that was a little more dramatic because we really had to pull up all the way to get the plane to stall. We were at a higher speed as well. The studdering is more profound, but recovery is easier. It is a great feeling to practice these skills because they really make you more comfortable with the plane. Once that happens, flying becomes easier and more fun.
I really like these lessons and I am thrilled that I got into this.
Next lesson, Sept. 8, 8:00AM.
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Friday, August 11th, 2006
Life is way too short. There are many reasons why someone would like to take flying lessons…for the thrill, the advantages of getting from one place to another in a shorter amount of time than driving, enjoyment, etc… Many reasons.
For me, the driving force is to get places fast. I really need to start visiting my family in North Carolina more. I need to see my nieces and nephews. I don’t want to be that uncle who never visits, or the one who the kids hear alot about but never really got to know.
My dream is to have my family waiting for me at the Wilmington International Airport (KILM) and for them to watch me land in my own plane. I really think that would be something.
My father has talked about getting his pilot’s license and getting a plane, but never got around to it. Maybe some day. Until then, he will have to sit in the passenger’s seat. Maybe I will let him fly…a little.
I looked around the area for a small airport and bumped into the Orange County Airport (KMGJ). It’s about a half hour from where I live. I called Quade’s Flight School. Gary answered the phone. He seemed like a very nice guy who has been around planes for a very long time. I set up the “Intro” flight lesson for $60. Basically, it is a half hour flight to get the tip of your toe wet. When you land, you say, “Sign me up, I am taking out a loan” or “Get me the hell out of this thing.” I said “Sign me up, but I will pay by check.”
We went up in his trainer…a Piper Cherokee. The intro flight consisted of learning about the pre-flight inspection of the plane, going over the checklist, taxiing to the runway, takeoff, some maneuvers and landing. The instructor, Gary let me perform some turns at about 2500 msl (mean sea level). That was pretty cool. I have never controlled an airplane before, so that was a thrill. I flew by myself for about 15 minutes. When we were approaching the airport for landing, Gary cut the throttle. He said he liked to do this for the new students to show that if an airplane of this size loses the engine in mid-air for some reason, you won’t spiral out of control and plummet to the earth. We landed very smoothly with no power.
After we landed and taxied to the hangar, Gary asked me if I was in. I said I was and set up my next lesson for Sunday, August 20 and 10:30AM.
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