Flight 10

9/12/2009

Flight Hours: 01.6
Cumulative Hours: 13.0
Takeoffs:6
Landings:6

Plane: Cessna N1402F

Today we decided to do a short cross-country flight from Tucson to the Marana Regional airport. Taking off in Tucson, I had a pretty strong crosswind, but I'm pretty much past having issues with crosswind on takeoff. We flew over to Marana and made 5 touch and go landings. My previous flight had me making 6 completely unassisd landings, each one good enough that I could solo on them. However, the wind was relatively calm that morning.

This flight, I had variable wind on landing, meaning that during the landing approach sometimes it was a headwind, sometimes a 90 degree crosswind and sometimes it was behind me. While it was a little more challenging, I made all landings unassisted and good enough for solo flight. My instructor decided to make it a little more fun for me by having me remain at a higher than normal altitude during final approach. He did this so I could practice performing a side slope approach. You use a side slope when you are too high during final approach and need to lose altitude quickly without gaining much airspeed. Even with this wrinkle, things went well.

After we performed 5 landings in Marana, we performed some ground reference drills(S-
turns, turn around a point) and headed back to Tucson. The view coming back into Tucson from the Northwest was much better than I'm used to, as we flew over the heart of the city. To make it even better, as we were getting ready for landing, Air Traffic Control had me turn to a new heading and advised that I had two F-16's crossing in front of me from right to left. I wish I would have had my camera with me, as the crossed directly in front of me, at my altitude, about a 1/2 mile in front of me.

After clearing the traffic, ATC cleared us to land on the parallel runway as the F-16's and I knocked out landing #6. My instructor noted in my progress report that student is ready for solo. I think he's going to have me one more lesson with him and cut me loose.

Flight 6 - Shake off the rust

8/19/09

Flight Hours: 1.5
Cumulative Hours: 6.7
Takeoffs: 4
Landing: 4

Plane: Cessna N1408F

Hard to believe that it's been almost one month since I last flew. Between being out of town and freak rain storms in Tucson, I had some rust to shake off. My pre-flight got off to a rocking start when the plane I was getting ready to fly had a dead battery. Seems like the person who last flew it left the master power switch on, thus completely draining the battery. Went back in and picked up a new set of keys and pre-flighted another plane.

Today, I had a slight crosswind and my instructor introduced cross wind take off procedures. I've got the takeoff thing down and was able to maintain good runway alignment after lift-off. We flew south to the practice area and worked on steep turns and slow flight. My instructor pulled out the simulated IFR goggles and had me fly .5 hours under simulated instrument conditions. All that Microsoft Flight Simulator work must have paid off because I had no issues with flying blind. I was able to make turns, maintain altitude and all of that.

We flew back to the Tucson airport and I made 4 landings. To my delight, each one got progressively better and the final one was all mine. On the previous 3 landings, my instructor had to provide some input correction right at touchdown, but not on the last one. You may recall that my previous attempts at landing were a disaster, especially the last one. Since time was getting short, we taxied back to parking and called it a day. My next flight is scheduled for Friday, but the weather may not cooperate. It may not rain much in the desert, but it sure seems to rain on my parade.

Flight 5 - Flying would be easy without that darned wind

07/21/2009

Flight hours:             1.5

Cumulative Hours:  5.2

Takeoffs:  4

Landings: 4

Plane: Cessna 172 N-1408F

Today was much of the same.  I did all the preflight stuff, taxied to parking, did the run up and the takeoff.  This time, I used more right rudder at lift off and my takeoff was perfect.  I tracked the runway centerline during the climb out.  We headed South to the practice area and worked on the 4 fundamentals, climbing/descending turns and steep turns.  New to this session was gliding(pull the power back to idle and see how the airplane acts).  The plane I'm flying has a 9 to 1 glide ratio, meaning that for every mile of altitude, you can glide 9 miles.  We worked on finding a suitable place for landing if it was a real emergency.  After that, Nick demonstrated slow flight.  Slow flight is where you take the airplane right up to the stall speed, maintain that speed and do some shallow turns.  Afterwards, you learn how to recover from slow flight.  I did slow flight & turns with no issues except a little bit of white knuckle syndrome.  Even though I knew the airplane would fly, it was a little disconcerting to hear the stall warning buzzing in my ear as I tried to fly the plane.

After we worked on these items, I flew us back to the airport, where the winds had shifted from our takeoff.  The active runway switched and I had to set us up for that pattern.  We called for clearance to work on touch/go's which is where you land and immediately set the plane back up to fly again.  As I turned on to final for my first real landing, it was clear that the simulator was much easier.  The wind had shifted again to a 90 degree angle to my landing heading.  I had a hard time just getting the plane lined up on the runway center line due to the wind.  Because of focusing so much attention on that, I was high during my approach and had a pretty hard landing.  No issues came up with my takeoff and I entered the pattern for #2.  This time, I lined up better and had better altitude/speed control.  However, I still ended up sailing the plane up and down during the landing.  It finally settled and I was off for takeoff #3.  

I climbed back to the pattern altitude, ended up with a much better approach and actually had a relatively decent landing.  Setup for takeoff #4 and off we went.  Feeling quite confident by this point, I was sure I would nail this landing.  All was going well until we were over the runway.  I pulled the power and was waiting for the remaining altitude to bleed off.  Mother Nature decided to take me down and notch and I experienced a nice 20-25 knot gust, 90 degrees to my right.  My once stable airplane pitched up and over to the left.  Thankfully my instructor was their, took control and sat the plane down.  I taxied us to parking and was thankful to be getting out.

Nick said that his policy is to usually not put newer students in a situation with a 90 degree crosswind and that I handled it much better than I should have.  He assured me that my next landings without a 90 degree crosswind will seem like a piece of cake after the ones I did.  All I could think of was I sure hope so, because I think I saw my life flash before my eyes on landing #4.

Unfortunately I won't be able to fly for almost 2 weeks due to his time off and my being out of town for work.  Hopefully I don't forget everything I've learned.

Flight 4 - My First Official Training Flight

Date: 7/18/09

Flight Hours:           1.1

Cumulative Hours: 3.7

Plane: Cessna 172 N-1408F

I had scheduled my first training flight a few days ago, worked on filling out all the paperwork and learning how to pre-flight the airplane.  All of this ended up being a big dress rehearsal as the battery was dead on my plane and we couldn't fly it.  Since I was flying early in the morning on a work day, there was no way I could pre-flight another plane, fly and get to work in time.  So I called it a learning experience and scheduled for another day.

Today, it was my responsibility to fill out all the pre-flight paperwork(weight/balance and flight plan).  After that was checked out, Nick sent me out to the plane to complete all the pre-flight checks.  Given my dress rehearsal a few days before, this didn't seem like a daunting task. It still ended up taking me 30 minutes to complete it.  I sure hope I can speed that part up a little.

After a successful pre-flight, the airplane started and we were off.  I taxied us from parking to the run up area and went through all the required checks.  After calling for clearance, Nick informed me that the takeoff was all mine(power, steering & lift-off).  The takeoff was not the best looking takeoff I've ever seen as I drifted to the left upon take off.  There are 4 forces that require the use of rudder to correct during flight.  Of these 4 forces, 3 of them have a tendency to pull the plane left and 1 right.  What I didn't know was the 1 force that pulls you right goes away as soon as the plane lifts off.  Experienced pilots expect this and give a little more right rudder input.  Pilots like me don't correct for this and the airplane immediately turns to the left.  Got to work on that one.

We climb out to the practice area and work on old skills(4 fundamentals) and introduce medium & steep turns to the equation.  A medium turn in a Cessna is defined as a 20-30 degree turn.  I picked up on this quickly and was able to make my turns, losing very little altitude and maintaining my speed.  Steep turns are 45 degree turns and require quite a bit of attention to do right.  The grading standard for the test is to do a 45 degree turn, maintain altitude +/- 100 feet, roll out within 10 degrees of your heading and maintain airspeed +/- 100 feet.  My first turn to the left, I nailed all of these items.  It was a turn that would pass me for my checkride.  My turn to the right go a bit low(-300 feet), but I still hit the speed and heading.  We did one more to the right and I hit it.  As long as you stay ahead of the plane, steep turns aren't that bad.  I called for the weather and Tucson and the winds started to kick up on us.  The flight school I'm at doesn't want you flying if the wind is greater than 15 knots.  The weather report showed 12 knot winds gusting to 18.  Nick was going to have me do the landing but decided against that once we heard the weather.  I flew us back to the airport, he landed and I taxied us back parking.

Simulator Time (Flights 2 & 3)

Dates: 7/7 & 7/11/09

Flight Hours this session: 1.8

Cumulative Hours:             2.6

The school I'm using for flight training believes in the use of a Cessna 172 simulator for familiarity purposes.  During my two sessions, we worked on communications, taxiing, takeoff and the four fundamentals(climb, descent, turns, straight/level).  

All my years of flying the Microsoft Flight Simulator seem to have paid off.  I have done a good job with the four fundamentals, as well as taxi and takeoff.  To spice it up, Nick had me do a landing in the simulator.  He said that he was not a fan of simulator landings as they are harder in the simulator than they are in real life.  I hope that's the case because I was able to set the plane down with no control inputs from my instructor.  

Nick says I am progressing really fast and that I should sail through my training.  I just hope that's not wishful thinking on his part.

Taking Flight

6/24/09

Hours this flight:    .8

Cumulative hours:  .8

Takeoffs:   1

Landings:  1

After many years of wanting to learn how to fly, I finally made the commitment to make it happen.  I had previously met with my instructor Nick and we decided that today would be my introductory flight.  

Since it is Tucson, just about every day is a good day to fly.  We met at 6AM and Nick had the airplane ready to go.  We hopped in, me in the left seat, and taxied out towards the runway.  I surprised Nick when I knew how to taxi the airplane(with your feet) and did a reasonable job of keeping us on the centerline.  After the pre-flight check, we get our clearance and Nick informs me that he'll do the power/steering, but I would do the take-off.  We accelerate up to 60MPH, I rotate the elevators and off we go.  

During this flight, I worked on climbs, descents, straight & level and turns.  Quickly the time is up and I fly us back to the airport and enter the traffic pattern.  Nick takes the control and my first flight is up.