Author: Dale

Wow, it’s been a while since I posted here.   As noted, though, I’ve been pretty busy!

Flight training has been moving along.   I’ve been flying a Cessna 172, mostly solo.   I passed the knowledge test last week, and am looking forward to finishing up and taking the practical test   (the “checkride”) soon.

I did my long solo cross country trip yesterday.   It was a pretty interesting ride.   As a student pilot, I have to have 5 hours of solo cross-country flying.   To be a cross country flight, one leg has to ne at least 50 nautical miles (67.5 statute miles) long.   For the long cross country, you have to land at at least three airports other than your home field.   Yesterday’s flight satisfied all of those requirements, in addition to covering two of the three required takeoffs and landings from airports with operating control towers.

The original flight plan was for KMLE (Millard) to KGRI (Grand Island, NE), a distance of 100 nautical miles (a nautical mile is equal to 1.15 “regular” statute mile) navigating by VOR (directional radio beacon) and pilotage (reading the map and looking out the window).   From there to KFSD (Sioux Falls), 172nm, also by VOR.   From KFSD I planend to go to KAIO – Atlantic, IA, 151nm.   I planned to use the GPS and/or pilotage for that — meaning pilotage, but I might cheat and cross check with the GPS.   From there I’d make the short hop back to KMLE by following the route I’ve driven countless times. It would take me through KOMA’s (Eppley Airfield) airspace, giving me a little more radio work practice.

Weather looked OK for the trip.   There was some rain south of GRI moving west, but it was going to stay south of my path.   There was also rain between GRI and FSD, but it looked like it would be clear of my route by the time I got there.   This was not to be the case.

My arrival and landing ar GRI was less than stellar.   The runway there is twice as wide as I’m used to, and when the grass disappears from your peripheral vision it’s tough to convince yourself you’re still not on the ground. I landed OK, but there was an authoritative thump.   I had planned a stop & go, but had forgotten to tell the tower that… or the fact that I was on my solo X/C.   I taxied over to the FBO and spent a couple of minutes re-hydrating and de-shaking.   It was my first solo landing anywhere other than Millard and I had just dropped in rather unceremoniously, so I was a little keyed up.

All the mistakes I made, I made at KGRI. I didn’t tell them I was a student on a solo X/C.   The landing there was the worst of the day.   I had also told the tower when I contacted them that I was 7 west… no, I was 7 east.   I made the correction, but apparently the controller didn’t hear that!   He was looking for me to the west and didn’t’ see me until I was crossing mid-field.   I told him I’d been mistaken but had corrected, which he may not have heard… he was laughing when he asked if that “W” on the compass had confused me.

Takeoff was fine, but getting to KFSD was interesting.   There was significant precipitation along the path, which I could tell I’d miss most of.   I was a little surprised to see it still west of my path, since I’d thought it would be well past there by now.   Still, none of it looked severe, just light rain.   I did fly through a little rain (another first for me) but I was well below the cloud layer and could see through it.   At one point, though, I watched as my altimeter spun from 5500 to 7000 faster than the airplane could possibly climb.   MN Center asked my altitude.   I asked for a new alitmeter setting, told them I must have crossed a front or something, because I was flying straight & level but my altimeter had just climbed 1500′ rather abruptly.   Nope, they said they showed me at 7100.   I boogied back down to 5500.   Apparently I’d caught a pretty big updraft, but it was very smooth, no turbulence at all.   I landed at KFSD and taxied over to Maverick Air — great service there.   I refueled and checked the weather; it was not pretty at all.   There was a line of storms headed right into my proposed flight path to KAIO, and now a conductive SIGMET to the south of FSD.   A conductive SIGMET means very heavy turbulence — like the “Don’t fly through this” kind of turbulence.

I waited about an hour, checking radar as I did. I checked with my CFI… I was thinking I’d just go back the way I came and pass behind the storms to the west.   He suggested I head to KONL (O’Neil, NE) for my third airport, then head south and turn east when I was clear of the storms.   By now it was getting a little later in the day than we’d have liked.   Getting back home before dark would be “iffy”, and I don’t have a logbook endorsement for solo night landings.   So I guess I’d have to either hurry up, or circle until morning.

Took off from FSD and headed direct to ONL on a VOR radial.   Oddly, there was no information I could find about the runways at ONL.   Nothing on the sectional chart, AND nothing in the airport facilities directory.   Oops.   The automated weather broadcast from O’Neil said that runway 4/22 was now officially open, so I planned to enter a downwind for 4 (winds were from 100 degrees at 5 knots).   As I got the airport in sight, though, I saw that 4/22 was a brand new, shorter crosswind runway.   I overflew and saw that 13/31 was a good choice, so I did a stop & go on 13 and was off to the races.

By now I had a text from my instructor.   Radar showed clear weather for direct to KMLE.   It was clear, but very hazy — I would say visibility was 10 miles at best, maybe less in places.   It had been hazy all day, and wasn’t getting any less so.   I wasted no time getting back home and landed just under the wire for what could be called a daytime landing… although I did turn the lights on.   While not officially night for aviation purposes, it was quite dark.   I was legal with about five minutes to spare.   I got to see a ton of fireworks going off as I got back over the Omaha burbs; it was pretty cool as a “big picture” although the fireworks themselves would be better seen from the ground.   Certainly the cool factor of seeing EVERYONE’s fireworks from the air instead of just what you can see from the ground, makes it worth doing at least once.

 

My life has become a routine…   work, sleep, touch & go.   Yeesh.   Last Friday it was an hour of crosswind T&G practice, with truly disappointing results.   The landings were just horrible.   Tuesday winds were calm and we did an hour of normal T&G, most of which were pretty good or better.   Yesterday (Wed.) it was back to gusting crosswinds, but this time I had a much better handle on it.   We did seven rounds, and most of them were passable if not the smoothest.   I’m at 19 hours now, and I’m finally feeling that I can land without assistance.   The last two we did yesterday ended up high and steep on final.   If I hadn’t had an instructor in the plane, I’d have either gone around or shallowed out the approach and landed farther down the runway for a full stop.   In retrospect, I should have said & done just that.   There is absolutely nothing to be gained by trying to salvage a poor landing to the point where the CFI feels the need to assist.

I’m flying again today at 6.   My goal is to keep his hands and feet completely clear of the controls for the entire flight.

I just got back from another hour or so just doing TnGs. By the time we called it a day I thought I was doing pretty well.   On the second-to-last one the instructor said he’d gotten on the controls only for the last couple of seconds, because he thought we were going to be short.   I told him, politely, that I had it and we’d have landed on the numbers…   which we would have had he not added power, which gave us a nice little float.   I’m getting to the point where it irritates me a little if he gets on the controls.   I’ve got it, if there’s a correction to be made I’ll make it.   Keep yer mitts off the yoke and pedals.

Anyway, the way he wants it done is WAY different than I have done it before, but it works.   Abeam the numbers reduce power, first notch of flaps… and from there on it’s all airspeed.   90 MPH on downwind, 85 on base, 80 on final.   Today we added 5 MPH to all three due to gusty winds.   As with Jerome (CFI #2), I ended up just managing position and airspeed.   This guy likes to come in steep, we are well above the VASI slope until we’re well over the fence and on very short final.   No problem, with full flaps the Cherokee will sink like a rock if you want it to.   I finally got the hang of “power for altitude/glide slope, pitch for airspeed”.   John (CFI #1) and Jerome both had the attitude of “set the throttle at xxx RPM and don’t touch it again until you’re over the runway”.   Today I used the throttle several times… and I finally quit trying to flare too early.   Over the threshold I’d level off and just let it sink, bleeding off airspeed until we were just above the surface, then use the yoke to set off the stall buzzer just as we touched down.   There’s a lot happening in about five seconds, but the mains set down nicely and the nose follows just a touch later.   Off the yoke, flaps up, check mixture and carb heat, line it up, full throttle and do it again.

Overall, despite the winds (15G23, I think it was) I feel like it was a pretty good day.   I know having that much variation in the wind on final gave me a lot of very valuable practice in managing speed and sink rate.   The wind was slightly off the runway centerline as well, so there was some crosswind component to deal with.   I still managed to keep the centerline at least between the mains… for the most part.

 

Yesterday I flew with Tyler for the second time.   When we finally landed back at Millard I was worn out, sweaty, and felt great!   We covered a lot of ground in an hour and a half — literally and figuratively.

After flying to the west practice area, we started with slow flight.   At 65 MPH he had me do turns — more than I had done before; we did 360 degree turns to the left and right.   The airplane is wallowing and barely flying at that speed, and getting it to do what you want is a real balancing act.   I’ve got a much better fell for it than I did before.

After slow flight we did power-off and power-on stalls.   I greatly improved my power-off stalls to the point where we lost very little altitude and stayed on heading, even after letting the stall break.   Power-on stalls are really a non-event.   Wait til you feel the buffet, then drop the nose…   duh.

Then it was on to steep turns; 360 degree turns left and right at 45 degree bank angles.   Again, not bad, after the first one I was able to hold altitude plus or minus 50 feet.   Then it was down to 2000′ MSL for ground reference maneuvers.   We started at 4500, so he had me do a forward slip to dump altitude.   NO problem there, John had me do a slip on every crosswind landing…   which is to say, every landing we ever did.   Full aileron, full opposite rudder, hold heading and sink like a rock.   Ground reference was not a problem with the very light wind, in fact it felt a little like cheating.   I want to practice in higher winds, but I hope it’s that calm for my checkride.

After turns around a point, rectangular course and S-turns, he told me to head back to Millard.   As we were climbing back to 3000 he reached over and pulled the throttle back to idle…   engine failure.   I didn’t need the checklist, but I could have picked a much better field (like one on our side of the river, and where I could land into what little wind there was).   Then it was back to the field for some pattern work and touch & gos.

All in all…   a lot of work, but a good flight.   I’m certain that if I had been able to fly with ONE instructor since I started, I’d have soloed by now.   Other than having a much better than average grasp on ATC communication, picking FNG as my flight school turned out to be a really bad idea.

 

Last week I showed up for my scheduled flying lesson with Flight! Nebraska Group.   My CFI wasn’t there, and I found out after making the drive down to Eppley that he wasn’t going to be able to make it that day – wasn’t feeling well.   Then the admin told me the really great news — the school was going bankrupt and closing its doors, as of the next day.   And of course I had only recently written them a check for a block of hours, so they still owe me several hundred dollars.

I’m now flying out of Millard with Pro-Flite.   My new CFI, Tyler , seems pretty good; we flew on Friday and I have more training time scheduled for this week.   I’m going to try to accelerate the training to finish up as soon as I can.   It was pretty windy and gusting the other day, which dind’t make for the best landings — but takeoffs were pretty good, and once I get used to the trim and throttle in the new plane I think I’ll be fine.