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.

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)...

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

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!?!

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...

minimum left for PPL: 26.3

Now what I need to do is get that written knowledge test out of the way.

Anyway, so, flight navigation planning. There is a lot of stuff to do, but it is very systematic. We planned a short flight (very short!) to College Station (CLL) from IWS based on a phonecall to the flight briefer at 1-800-WX-BRIEF. A lot of information very fast from him, but I got all the key stuff in the right place. Harvey showed me how to put things in, where they go, and what to calculate from them. We whipped out the plotter and sectional and drew a direct path between the airports, picking out visual waypoints about every 10 NM. I'll actually be a lot happier when I become proficient in cross checking VOR radials because making a waypoint like "Hockley" or "Waller off the left wingtip" seems a little loose to me, but with appropriately calculated headings with correction for winds aloft at our altitude, the checkpoints are really just that - points where you check how you're doing in your path.
Using the plane's manual, we could calculate the total fuel used in the takeoff and climb, and on each leg, based on the temperature and cruising altitude. All very well organized and common sense. It was EXTREMELY helpful, though, to have Harvey walk me through this simple plan. I definitely feel like I'll be alright in planning my cross countries.

I've got, as always, a lot to learn with this. I'll be using the GPS simultaneously as a cross-check, since I am supposed to use all the resources I have anyway. Sure, I'd love to be able to fly anywhere with just a stopwatch and the heading indicator/compass, but come on. It is nearly 2005 and you can get a full color handheld airnav GPS for 700$. Anything to reduce pilot workload sounds great to me.

Won't be back until Wednesday.

I went around for 1.2 hours doing 7 circuits with no go-arounds. A few of the landings were better, a few were worse. I did have a pretty severe ballooning once that almost stalled out on the top but I recovered. I should have added some power so I could maintain my flare attitude and lose some speed. Of all the control flipping I was doing, the throttle should have come on in that one. But anyway, not a bad day. I'm definitely feeling confident behind the yoke alone, now. In the worst case, as long as there is not a terrible crosswind (and when I finally landed the weekend weather started up and it was about 9 knots from the east) I can land just fine. As I was making those last landings with crosswind (whereas before it was fairly dead wind ALL WEEK... calm and variable) there was definitely moisture in the air that was visible at pattern altitude (1100' AGL). Neat.

So what is the benefit? Well, since I finished the supervised solo I can schedule the plane to do pattern practice time on my own. I am not allowed to leave the pattern, but this is definitely another big step!

I got to the airport around 1pm and did pre-flight. Harvey and I went out and I knew we'd be doing more pattern work. Harvey ran through the pre-takeoff checklist at the speed of light and taxi'd us out to the taxiway and gave me the controls. We were going to go around 3 times.

Ok, I take off and I go around. The first landing is actually pretty good. Then I go around again, mediocre landing but not terrible. So when I take off the 3rd time, Harvey pulls his headset and wraps it up and sits there. I know I have to go on my own this time and he is a safety feature I will soon be losing. I made it down alright and he instructs me to taxi to the front of the ramp.

He signs my student certificate and endorses my logbook for solo flight at IWS in C172. He pops open the door, tells me to get back in one piece and have a good time. So off I go for three rounds.

Well, actually the first circle was quite good and a smooth landing (relatively). The second I came in too high and fast, so I elected to go around. Then I did two more full stops and came in to parking, tied the plane down, and entered the building.

Well, West Houston doesnt like to destroy shirts (though I had been careful to wear what I could spare after my wife made me clean out my clothes) but I did get a cool certificate. I know I have a long way to go, but I am pretty pleased with soloing after one week.

I called my grandma and told her I had flown the plane by myself and she said "but your instructor was in there with you" and I said no "BY MYSELF" . A lot of people are under the impression that your instructor basically flies the airplane for the first 10 hours and then you get to handle the controls - this is clearly not the reality that student pilots live with. I called my sister and she asked "did you land?"

Well, obviously.

However, I did learn to spell maneuver today thanks to http://www.dictionary.com so hopefully in the future I will use the correct spelling in these entries.

So, with 7.7 hours of flight time logged in only 4 days, and with my building confidence in the plane, I'm pretty happy with what has been going on in my training. The more confident I am in the plane and the more familiar I am with the procedures, the better I'll be able to practice the techniques with my instructors, and eventually (probably sooner than later) in my solo hours. I am definitely looking forward to that, but I am sure that the main thing which would hold back my solo endorsement would be landings (from the base leg to the runway) and I have a feeling we will be practicing that pretty heavily in the next few flights. Tomorrow I'm flying with Scott, who I have not met yet, and that will likely be more traffic pattern and practice of what I already have been doing. In truth, these few simple procedures are really useful because they carry in them a lot of multitasking work. Rather than just working on climbing or descent (which still need work) or turns, you do them all in a specific order, along with changes in cockpit controls and radio use.

Definitely having a good time if nothing else.

Just a relatively short time out at the airport today, gaining 1.2 hours of flight time. The weather today was starting to get a little hazy/cloudy, and this was my first experience with rain showers on the windshield. As we lined up to takeoff (which, by the way, I am much more confident in now. My taxi'ing is not nearly as ... um.. all over the place as it was when I started) and got up to about 350 ft, rain started showing up. I commented "I don't guess this thing has windshield wipers" but in truth, once you get to cruise speed the rain is pretty well pushed out of the way.

At any rate, it was a relief to me that this kind of weather was not a problem for VFR flights and training. We had appropriate visibility and cloud clearance, and the forecast did not have any bad thunderstorms supposed to show up in our area soon.

So, we took off and went out to the practice area. I was feeling much more confident in handling the airplane, though nothing is perfect yet (and definitely not perfect enough for Hank, but that's a good thing I think since he may be my checkride examiner). We did more stalls, slow flight and forced landings. Then Hank asked me which way the airport was, and I started looking for I-10 and tracking slowly southeast. According to the GPS the airport should be just outside my left window, and there it was.

So, here we were to practice the traffic pattern. We entered the pattern and came around, then went around twice more. Each time, my pattern handling improved, my radio handling became much improved, and my actual touchdown was better. The third landing of the day was by no means spectacular, but at least I did my darndest to keep the plane in the air, which made Hank happier though the landing on the whole was not so hot.

Credit for 3 landings, and now I'm off tomorrow.
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hardware: This morning I went by The Aviator Shop near Ellington to try on and pick up my first headset. I did not want to get too cheap a set since they do get used nearly every day, and likely will be for a long time. I also did not want to get too expensive a set, nor any active noise reduction because they are very expensive and really not necessary for what I'm doing currently.

Harvey had recommended Flightcom's Denali model, and the shop had a pair on display that I tried on. They were definitely lightweight, and easy to adjust the size, but the seal was not as perfect as I'd expected. I then tried on Peltor 7000 pro GT. The cups are a little fatter on this, and it is very slightly heavier than the Denali, but the seal was VERY GOOD and they were much quieter than the Denali even when just using speech as the comparison audio source. So, I was quite happy with them and bought them. They come with a very nice protective bag and a lifetime warranty (the big selling point of the ASA sets).

So, this flight used them, and I have to say they are great. They cost less than the Denali also, slightly, so in the same price range I would recommend that if you're shopping with the Denali in mind, give the Peltor 7000 Pro GT a try. It may just be a matter of head shape and size that made the difference, but I really was glad that we still have a specialty shop around here that let me see that first hand instead of taking a risk ordering blind (deaf?) online.

http://www.theaviatorshop.com
http://www.peltor.com/peltor.com/comm_detail.cfm?prod_family=Aviation%20Headset&ind_prod_num=7000%20PRO%20GT001
http://www.flightcom.net/site/headsets/denali.php

The first flight of the day was with Harvey. We went back out to the practice area and performed some more power-off stalls. (We practice power-off stalls more because there are several important steps in the procedure that are not present/necessary in power-on stalls. Remember that power-off stalls simulate approaches, and so you have to deal with power changes, trimming to the max glide speed, flap changes, and all these same things in reverse. It is critical, for example, to remember to flip up the flaps immediately after full power is applied on the recovery.)

We talked about the traffic pattern, and I'm beginning to feel more comfortable with my orientation over and around the airport area. The GPS with its direct bearing is useful in locating home base, but I'm able to find the airport now just by orienting myself with I-10 and finding out where I'm at. Generally you want to enter the downwind leg of the pattern at 45 degrees, but since we were coming from the west into a left pattern on runway 15 (150 degrees) we planned on entering the pattern on the crosswind leg.

There is a lot going on inside the traffic pattern, even at an uncontrolled airport. Radio calls are coming in and being made on every turn. You've got to constantly be looking for traffic in all the legs, or coming in "illegally" and ignoring the pattern/going backwards or straight in on approach. In the meantime, you've got to orient yourself with the runway, make power changes, trim to glide speed, put in flaps, and concern yourself with maintaining that airspeed ABSOLUTELY while also making sure your altitude is in the pattern (in this case 1100 feet) until that speed is reached, and then concern yourself with losing altitude at an appropriate rate (flaps, power adjustments, etc) to follow the glidepath right down onto the runway. Not to mention crosswindws and slipping down are way different (but more manageable) in reality than in flight simulator.

So there's a lot going on in the landing approach. We made one approach where I flew low tracking the runway, and then went around the pattern again and touched down for full stop.

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With Hank today we really spent our time talking about emergency procedures and forced landings if, for example, the engine went out. We flew around looking at different terrain to see what would make the best possible landing site that would keep us safe, and the plane from being ripped apart. To simulate a forced landing, you pull the throttle to idle and immediately pitch up (without losing an inch of altitude hopefully) to the best glide ratio speed, which happens to be 65 knots on this airplane. If you had not already done so, decide on your emergency landing spot and map out your flight path to a landing pattern based on your current altitude.

What really was surprising about this to me was how close we came to the ground during the simulation. We had to come a good 50 feet or closer to the ground before putting on full power, setting the flaps up and climbing. I had no idea that this was even legal, but since in unpopulated areas you just have to stay 500 feet away from anything (people, buildings, vehicles) you don't have any lower limit on your height above ground level! So, we were basically buzzing farmland and I guess the cows were the only witnesses.

I wonder, however, why I have never seen light aircraft doing these practice maneuvres? Obviously I do not live in the country, and there is nowhere good around here to make a forced landing (except for the football stadium maybe, but with the aerial obstructions I'm sure a local field woud be preferred)... One could never practice this over a populated area anyway with the altitude requirements.

We also practiced landings and I ended up getting credited for 2. In neither one was Hank happy about how quickly the plane set down! The lesson here is that you have to basically pull and pull on the stick to make it maintain altitude for as long as physically possible, and it will come down on its own. Tomorrow's landings will surely be better.