Any other pilots out there

[MartyParsons]

Hello,
  I did my short Cross Country last evening. Destination was KOKV or Winchester, VA. Departed at 6:10 61 miles. Sun was going down fast, back to home 05PS Mill Brothers grass strip 2250' 8:10 pm. Topped of the fuel tanks at Winchester.  A little rushed but no issues. The operator at the terminal signed my log book as Made it alive to Winchester,  VA.  :
Long Cross Country on Thursday.
Marty

[beenthere]

   

Here's to some great flying weather on Thursday. Sounds like fun.

[sawguy21]

I am enjoying this thread as I spent a few years in the aviation industry although with helicopters on ground crew. I do enjoy flying.
That experience took me into remote country I never would have seen otherwise. One trip I honestly did not enjoy was to a remote logging camp in a PA-31 Navajo. Things were fine going up but the weather started to close in so we had to make a hasty retreat down the middle of the lake for the return trip.  I was in the right seat, that water looked awfully black and mighty cold. The pilot was top notch but still.

[MartyParsons]

 

 


Here is a picture on the way home. 3500 ' MSL air strip is at 1180' MSL I am between two mountains I think is was 10 min from the strip.
The small lake is Cowans Gap State Park.
Marty

[John Mc]

Nice shot, Marty.  Congrats on the XC trip. How did you feel about it as the flight unwound?

For future pictures, if your camera is an auto-focus, see if there is a way to force it into "landscape mode" or focus on infinity (or long distance).  Sometimes the plexiglass in the aircraft windows fool an auto-focus camera into focusing too close.

BTW, what kind if aircraft are you flying (sorry if you already mentioned that. I haven't revisited the beginning of this thread in a while).

[MartyParsons]

Hello,
Cessna 177 Cardinal. 180 hp Lycoming.

I am using the King school. I feel I know John and Martha King personally. They have been a great help for an old guy. I keep watching the videos again and again. I could read the training book but never take in all the info. I cant seem to read and understand and retain. If I watch the video I understand and apply much better.


I am lucky to get the picture taken. Right now I am focusing on flying not taking pictures.  I will keep in mind you advice. I do appreciate it.

Marty

[John Mc]

I fly a 172 w/ LR tanks that we upgraded to 180 HP.

The Cardinal is a great plane. It's really what Cessna should have restarted with when they got back into single engine prop aircraft again in 1986. Unfortunately, the model got a bad name due to some mis-steps on Cessna's part in the Cardinal's first years (mainly, it was grossly underpowered).  The 180 HP engine is a nice match for it.

[MartyParsons]

Hello,
I did my long Cross Country yesterday. Had to wear the fog goggles to imitate flying with instruments with the instructor for about 2 hours. 
With out the instructor at the towered airports landing were not the greatest. I keep flaring a little high.  :-[

I did get to see this at one location.

Marty




 



 

[beenthere]

I see a plane with a hole in it (missing a wing) and the brush saw combo used for clearing right-of-ways..  Any idea what caused the plane damage?

[John Mc]

Is that a hole, or just the shadow under the wing?

[MartyParsons]

Hello,
I think the picture angle is under the wing. Nothing wrong with the wing.
M

[Randy88]

Glad to hear your enjoying flying, its the greatest thing one can do in my opinion, as for being nervous, that's a good thing, means you thinking and aware of your surroundings, as for learning by watching and not being able to retain what you read, I'm the same way, but I can retain it if I'm read to, your not alone, there are a lot that do it that way.    Do instrument as soon as you can, the more you know and learn the better off you are to stay safe, and if at all possible, get ACTUAL instrument weather with someone trained sitting beside you, that's a ride you'll never forget.   

[Stuart Caruk]

I started flying at age 14 in Canada in the air cadets. Learned how to fly in a glider. Went to college when I was 17 and enrolled in the Institute of Aviation at Trinity Western. Had the great fortune to be taught by some VERY experienced pilots who had plied their trade with Mission Aviation Fellowship. Want to learn to really fly a C-180 - C-185.... hop in one with guys that have over 20,000 hours flying them into the most remote bush strips.... We switched aviation providers midway through my course. Skyways where we started used all piper products, and we switched to Langley Flight Center who had all Cessna products so we had to get checked out in an entirely new fleet of aircraft, which cost quite a bit. As a benefit, we had a C-180 donated to the college, and we could get all the dual instruction we wanted for just the price of fuel. Seeing that the experience with top notch instructors was invaluable, I put on about 200 hours in that C-180, going into and out of all the local 1 way strips the wrong way. Traditionally pilots would shoot a landing on some of the short logging strips off the lake by approaching over the water, and landing uphill. 1 way in, and 1 way out. The problem was that if a pilot overshot the strip or it became obstructed they were typically screwed. We learned to fly up the valley slow down and shoot a very steep full flap downhill aproach to the strip. Far more challenging, but with tons of options if you had to go around. The interesting part was in learning how to take off uphill into the rising terrain, but to use the sun, wind, and terrain to your advantage. When the weather was good, we were back flying right up next to the trees in the mountain passes. We learned the easy and smooth places to fly, but also how to fly safely in the nasty downdraft side of the valleys, right up close to the terrain when the weather was good. We learned to turn the aircraft on a dime and make change if needed. The training saved my butt many times when the weather was bad. I was already comfortable working close to the terrain, and knew how to use the winds, and sunlight to my advantage to provide extra room to maneuver. I spent 8 years flying the coast of B.C. and into the NW territories, specializing in operating out of very short strips. It was pretty cool being a young punk kid running a turbine powered Cheyenne into 1200 foot gravel strips. Funny thing is I had over 3800 hours before I was old enough to hold my ATP. I moved form Cnada to the US and flew as a test pilot / Line Captain for a regional airline. I quit after 911 and soem 15,500 hours. I got tired of the hassles of getting past the TSA on a daily basis. It's silly how they treat the crew as if they are criminals.  I always thought the 4 bars on my shoulder meant "This is my aircraft". The TSA apparently thinks they run the show. I alwasy said if you don''t like soemthing, go do soemehing else, so I figured I make more money running my machine shop in a couple months than I did flying in a year and went to running my shop full time. I don't miss it a bit on the sunny days (although I would go back and fly a turbine floatplane for a summer season in a heartbeat). I do miss it when the weather gets miserable in the winter though. I used to relish the 600 RVR departure into a mixed bag of weather with known icing over the cascades. Climbing out so as to avoid the worst weather and slinging ice off the props listening to the symphony of the ice flinging into the ice shields by rows 1 and 2. Breaking out into the glorious sunshine for a few minutes, then shooting an ILS to 1800 RVR and a rain slick runway. Now that was fun! Sadly, I rarely fly anymore. I seem to prefer 2 engines and a flight attendent. But I fly my paraglider and paramotor all the time. No radios, no TSA, no worries...

[MartyParsons]

Hello,
Thanks for sharing Mr. Caruk. Sounds exciting. Are you ready for a student? I really like hearing others talk about their experiences as a pilot.

I flew the cross country today with the instructor again. I just wanted to review the mistakes I made. Nailed all landings like smooth. I asked the instructor to only correct me if I did something incorrect. The tower this time asked me if I wanted to cross the field for R 270 or come in around the mountain for straight in. ( hey it is me, they did not make any mistakes) I understood this and had time to get all the numbers right.  No rush no jitters. The last time the tower just said R 270 cleared to land. ( I had no idea or lots of questions in my mind on what exactly he wanted me to do and there was traffic and the list goes on)
   I burnt some energy off before we did the trip by exercising. I think they call this the human factor and evaluate your personal stress level.  I also did the last leg with the fog goggles we did all the steep turns drills, turns around the point and he guided me into the pattern at the home strip all by command and with the instruments. I learned much on today's trip.
As for getting my instrument rating. At this point I am focusing on my Private Pilot. Hope to take the test next week. The money I saved for this adventure is almost gone. So we will see how it goes.
The last lesson last week we did do a ILS approach with goggles I hope to do this again after I get my license.

Thanks
Marty

[John Mc]

Turns around a point wearing foggles? That's a visual maneuver.

[MartyParsons]

Hello,
the instructor said that was what I was doing. He was giving me headings and change in altitude  I just called it turn around the point because we were flying around the circle or square. He had me counting seconds then turn to heading then count again then turn to the next heading.
Remember I am a rookie.  Sorry if I don't have the exact terminology correct. 
Marty

[John Mc]

OK, makes sense. I'm a CFI, though not actively instructing at this point. Giving directions to a pilot like that while on instruments is great practice. I was just wondering how you were judging distance and wind drift if you couldn't look outside to see the point. A 180˚ standard rate turn is a standard practice maneuver (simulates flying into trouble, then turning around without disorienting yourself to get back out).

Did he also have you intercepting and tracking a VOR radial or GPS course or similar?

[pine]

OK, makes sense. I'm a CFI, though not actively instructing at this point. Giving directions to a pilot like that while on instruments is great practice. I was just wondering how you were judging distance and wind drift if you couldn't look outside to see the point. A 180˚ standard rate turn is a standard practice maneuver (simulates flying into trouble, then turning around without disorienting yourself to get back out).

Did he also have you intercepting and tracking a VOR radial or GPS course or similar?

John

If you are not actively instructing right now what are you using as the most efficacious mode of keeping your CFI current every two years?

[MartyParsons]

Hello,
the instructor is old school. He teaches dead reckoning and maps and VOR heading radials.  He is just starting to use an old Garmin GPS he purchased off of ebay. There is two of these units on the yokes. I used them on my solo cross country. On my CC both gps stopped working about three times there was also times it was not working at all. I was never lost and kept right on my heading with the VOR.  I am using VOR radials heading to and from the stations. I am also using Sky Vector for flight planning. and I have my IPAD and phone with lots of info. I am learning the old way. I have new technology I have access to.  I plan on purchasing some other things for back up for trips in the future. I am just not sure what is the best and affordable from what I am doing. I looked at the Stratus 2S.
I do like the VOR heading indicator but it sounds like aviation is headed to all I Pad and GPS. If everything electrical fails I will still know how to figure headings, magnetic variation and wind and get where I need to go.  It sure is nice to have the technology.
Marty

[Stuart Caruk]

Hahahah I remember the old foggles days... I also remember Jake Wolk scaring the crap, out of me with his instructions. Jake was a crotchety old buzzard who occasionally got bored while teaching us for our instrument ratings. Jake was an old time water bomber pilot and had a wicked sense of humor. He'd slap a hood on your head and give you vectors for some made up NDB approach to go fly.

During the vectors it became apparent that something was burning and the stench was unbearable. I'd call out the smoke in the cockpit drill, and Jake would just laugh and exhale a puff of smoke from his cheap cigars into the cockpit. It was bad enough that you could almost skip the foggles...

Un beknownst to me, Jake would be vectoring me up some blind canyon off the end of Pitt Lake, or Harrison lake. He'd have me right off the rocks in soem hopeless position and then go "O/K take off the hood kid lets go home"... I'd pop off the hood only to see rocks in all quadrants with no sane way back out. JAke would cackle and point out the eagles nest as he'd have me slow the warrior down, crank on 40 degrees of bank, pop on full flaps to swing the nose through the turn with full flaps at minimum speed, and bleed the flaps back off. I'd be amazed at how much room we actually had to turn back around.... way more than I thought it would take. Good old Jake would ask if I saw the nest and when I said no, he'd have me swing back in for another look... We went in and out half a dozen times and each time I couldn't find the next... not surprising, I found out later that it never existed. Jake did teach me though how to project the turning radius of an aircraft and to know exactly how much room it takes to turn around if you really need to. Once you prefect a canyon turn in an aircraft with manual flaps, it really takes very, very little room to come back around.

Turns out that years later that skill came in handy many times flying pipeline patrols in greatly reduced visibility. Knowing what distance you can positively turn around in is mandatory in crappy weather. Knowing how to go from cruis to turning on a dime is a great skill to possess as well...

It's funny when I look back. We flew the coast with nothing but steam guages. Staying VFR was the secret to flying in the crappy weather, even if it meant flying at 100' or so. Flying IFR meant going to Vancouver, Port Hardy or Terrace to shoot and approach and continue to your destination VFR, or shooting one of the many made up NDB approaches to soem isolated inlet backed up with the weather radar used as a terrain mapping device. I'd have killed for a Loran, which was just becoming available. Compare that to what we have now.... man is life good today.

On the flip side, it's much easier to find the wrecks today. They almost always crash in a straight line from departure to destination, not some crazy off course route that the pilot was attempting in order to stay pseudo VFR.

[John Mc]

If you are not actively instructing right now what are you using as the most efficacious mode of keeping your CFI current every two years?

I had been using an online Jeppesen Flight Instructor Refresher Clinic (FIRC). I think this as done in collaboration with AOPA, if I recall. It was a great course. It took a lot of time and a lot of work, but I felt really up to speed when I finished.

Some time ago, AOPA dropped Jepp and changed over to collaborating with the Air Safety Institute. It was an incredible disappointment. Basically just a "pencil-whipped" renewal. I didn't learn much of anything, the answers to many of the test questions were often obvious, or could be arrived at with simple logic rather than any real knowledge or understanding of the subject matter (there wss often one answer that was just plain stupid, and two others that said the same thing in a different way - they couldn't both be right, so eliminate both of them). I was also quite dismayed to see the frequency of typos or grammatical errors, and the like (I thought it was especially ironic to find them in the section on "professionalism"). OK, everyone makes mistakes now and then, but this was supposed to be a finished, professional product.

In short, if all you want is a quick way to show your license renewed, this might be a good choice. If you actually want to learn something or get a thorough refresh, forget it. I sent them a letter with my observations, and got back a form letter response. Hopefully, they'll fix the glaring errors and turn it into something worthwhile. However, I'll be shopping around for another provider next time.

I'd love to take an in-person FIRC, but there are few in my area, and my schedule never seems to work out.

[garret]

Commercial SEL and Inst. Airplane.  Try to maintain my proficiency by flying at least one a week for a couple of hours.  Almost finished my Instructor rating.  Instead moved into rotorcraft.  Got my private privileges in helicopter just last year.  To hover IS divine! (and expensive)

[MartyParsons]

Hello,
   Check ride on Thursday!    Still working on the landing flair. Gosh I am not a natural at the landing thing. Saturday I did a purpose landing at the home strip 05PS. Gosh I hope no one saw it. Full flaps and just a few seconds to quick on the flair and 4 mph to fast will do it.  I then went on a short solo CC trip to the check ride location KSEG. Did two landings with no issues. Lots of traffic in the pattern and it all worked out. Landing back at home was also good to great.  Practice, practice , practice.
Do you experts have any tips? You can laugh at me if you want.
Now trying to cram all this information in my head for the test. If I don't freak out during the test I should be fine. I have three hours with the instructor this week before the test.
M

[John Mc]

The biggest thing I had to learn for the landing flair was patience. It was the same for several of my students. They'd level off, and immediately start pulling back on the yoke to flair. This would often result in flaring too high, or (especially if you have any extra speed) ballooning back up again, only to drop like a rock.

It seems to take a while to develop the feeling for letting the aircraft "settle in" a bit before really starting the flare, and as you do flare, add just enough back pressure to counter the sinking as you slow down. It's about responding to what the plane is doing, rather than just pointing the nose up in the air.

The other thing I kept reminding my students: RELAX! that "monster grip" on the yoke is NOT helping you. In fact, with all of those muscles tensed up, it's harder to make fine corrections, and it's harder to feel/sense what is going on (not just with your hands/arms, the monster grip seems to affect your entire body). Try this: grab a pencil and a pad of paper, put your non-writing hand in your lap, not on the table, both sign and print your name (you may need a weight or something to hold your paper still). Now grab that pencil like your life depended on it. Tense up your entire arm - hard. In fact, tense up both arms as hard as you can hold it that way for 15 seconds. Keeping things tense, sign your name, and print your name. Look at the difference in handwriting, both the formation of the letters and the evenness of the pressure. Which has better control? Which took more brain power to make happen? And that's with something you've been doing every day for most of your life. The effect is magnified with something that is not second nature to you.

[MartyParsons]

Hello,
Went on a trip today. 2.2 hours. Ground school also.   I do have a death grip on the yoke. The instructor was pumping me up today. Said I was doing good. We did 12 + landings.  1 out of 12 was not so good the rest was ok. I think the instructor was getting tired or going around the pattern.  We also did Fog goggles. Slow flight, Stalls, Steep turns 45 degree + g factor not loosing more or less and 100'. Patience, Patience . Relax, Relax, Relax. I have all my papers ready for tomorrow. Weather for tomorrow is showers. 

Marty