March 14, 2005
Step 2
Well, I'm about to head out of the house down toward KAXH for the first time to meet my new instructor...
The airport is located south of beltway 8, just west of 288... Interestingly enough, this airport is also very near Highway 6 as 6 passes just as you turn off on Mckeever to get to it. It should be, however, much closer than KIWS... Just a quarter turn around the beltway. Still, with traffic and it being 8am now (I don't have to be there until 8) I am sure it will take some time.
Today I have to go up there and fill out my paperwork, show my docs, etc. I'm not actually sure what we're going to do today, but in case anybody is listening, this is the beginning of the "Career Pilot Program" @ ATP.
My instructor is named Josie. My wife was surprised to hear that my instructor is a girl.
I do know that we are going to do the multi-private add-on to my PPL (AMEL) *before* burning off the 30 hours of Cessna time I have left. This is unexpected. Anyway, more details as they come.
Posted by Chris Mitchell at 07:51 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 10, 2005
An explanation...
I have a tendency to post things using vocabulary or abbreviations used by pilots... just to clarify:
PPL ASEL = Private Pilot, Airplane, Single-Engine, Land...
as opposed to, for example, Commercial Pilot, Airplane, Multi-engine, Sea (multi engine seaplanes? wouldn't like to be in one of those... or Private Pilot, Rotorcraft... (helicopters)...
Posted by Chris Mitchell at 08:05 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
PPL ASEL completed
The first major leg has been completed... yay.
On Monday I went up to IWS and sat for my oral portion of the private pilot exam. I was overprepared, to say the least, but that was a good thing. It took about 3.5 hours all told including a good deal of oldschool stories from Hank which go with the territory. There was a line of TStorms all across the area and things were breaking in the sky, so although there was about 1.5 hours of clear air we could have tried to do some flying in, we decided to hold off on the flight portion of the exam until today.
So we got off the ground at about 10:30am this morning and after about 2.1 hours (which he reminded me constantly included a good portion of me "wasting time") and a lot of sweating, we touched back down the last time at IWS. To be honest when we came in, I was not sure if I had passed. I knew that on every maneuver I had done better in practice than in the actual test performance. My pilotage also got a good beating down, since he took my map and circled one place and said "go here" and it took me a long time to find it - then followed by another circle in an area I'd never been to and "ok now go here"... My first power on stall recovery was absolutely hideous, but I laughed it off (after not spinning the plane of course) and said "man, I've got to do that again that was awful) and I did it again with barely any loss of altitude.
So what do I have to work on? Clearly everything needs more work, and I get the idea now that it is a lifetime of practice to actually get these things second nature. My accuracy landing was not bad, but I did not hold my slip long enough and trust that I'd make it down right on the mark so I ballooned. My soft-field landing was only good because I kept the power in and got off the runway without stopping/braking, but it was not particularly "soft" ... my short-field takeoff/landings were not awful, but I ballooned on the landing again (something about wind free days make me a little weird)... in all those maneuvers, I was chastised for not trusting what I was doing and for being rough on the controls (which I do not think "rough" is really an accurate description)... keep in mind, the examiner has tens of thousands of hours of experience, so although you learn a lot from him everytime you fly you are NEVER GOOD ENOUGH. hah..
Pilotage - definitely needs work, so tomorrow I will probably go back out and fly to Bay City or some other area I've never been into and just mess around with my chart. I have to fly another 2.2 hours to complete the 55 logged hours at IWS. If I had not broken my arm, I'd probably still have a ton of hours to fly out there... so, in a way this is actually better.
Not that I don't enjoy the people and facilities/planes at IWS. It is a fantastic small airport, and makes experience at the large airports seem awful in contrast... but I just am ready to move on. I do wish I had come out of my PPL with more PIC time, but you know what, that would benefit my logbook but the more dual I received actually benefitted by flight abilities so I think it balances out. This is life and death stuff we're dealing with here, not riding a bicycle ...
So now I'm scheduled to start out at Houston Southwest on Monday at 8am (!)... !! .. ! .. this is several days earlier than I had expected to go out there, but I think what is going to happen is that I'll fly up to Dallas with Josie (one of the current Houston Southwest, hereafter KAXH or AXH) and stay in the ATP apartments for a few days to burn off the 30 hours in their 172. Wish they could get that silly plane down here instead. Incidentally, however, this means that I may start flying the Seminole on the trip up and down, depending on how they want to bill me for it. I don't want to waste Multi hours on a cross-country just to get to a single engine plane, as I only have limited hours on each segment to work with. Still, that's kind of neat.
This means that I'm now reading the Instrument books with pretty great fervor, as I'll need to start taking these other knowledge tests as soon as practical. The Instrument rating and Instrument Instructor written exams are based on the same pool of questions, and those are what I have to take first... I also need to memorize all the checklists for the outlined procedures in the Seminole supplement, as well as all the numbers.
Should be interesting... anyway. Hey I'm a pilot now :P
Posted by Chris Mitchell at 07:34 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 07, 2005
PPL ASEL Oral Exam done..
I sat for the Oral Exam today but the weather was awful... TStorms and low ceillings all around the state..
This took a LONG TIME... I was actually half relieved when I got through this, because it took several hours and was very comprehensive... It was not as deep as it could have been, but I was prepared to answer a lot more than I actuall got asked. I think my confidence in my basic knowledge helped make me feel more at ease about the exam (which was really more like a long conversation about all things VFR) and made my instructor feel inclined to tell TONS OF STORIEs.
At any rate, I'm scheduled to take the flight portion on Thursday. Can't wait to get this milestone behind me.
Did I mention I still love flying!?!
Posted by Chris Mitchell at 08:02 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 04, 2005
Cramming again
Well, since we are hoping to schedule my checkride for Sunday (it is currently Friday), I am meeting with Jacques tomorrow from 1000-1200 to do a last oral exam cram session. I've been reading all week, but honestly not as much as I thought I would. The things I'm most worried about? Remembering the ceiling/visibility requirements for the airspaces - especially Class G which is just all kinds of overcomplicated.
Posted by Chris Mitchell at 11:50 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 02, 2005
So I'm not dead after all...
You might have wondered where I've been, that is if you happen to be one of the myriad commenters who are constantly inviting me to play Texas Hold'em Poker on their web casinos. I do love to play Hold'em, but I DO NOT LOVE THESE BLOG SPAMMERS.
In case anybody actually is tuned to this frequency, I was prepping for my checkride to be taken the 2nd week of January, but on the 8th of January 2005 I broke my arm in a motorcycle "slide." (I avoided hitting the blind jerk that pulled in front of me and slammed on his brakes, then proceeded to drive off while I was sliding on the pavement.)... So that put me out for a while.
Just as an update, though, I'm still on the same schedule with ATP so I need to finish my PPL, fly 30 hours in their 172 and prepare for my instrument exams on the 22nd of March... That's 20 days from now! We'll have to see if they really expect that to happen, getting the 30 hours in may be a stretch to say the least. Nevertheless I'm sitting at about 51 total time now and will do my final ground prep on Saturday, then hopefully schedule the checkride with Hank (ugh) for Sunday.
BTW, I will approve non-robotic comments...
Posted by Chris Mitchell at 08:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack