Sweatin' the C-172...

Hacker15e

Hacker15e

Who am I? Where are my pants?
So I'm going to go get checked out in my local Aero Club's C-172R tomorrow...

...and thought you guys might be amused that tonight I'm sitting here surrounded by Cessna manuals, checklists, EPs, ops limits, etc, and studying it frantically like tomorrow was my IPUG ACT mission in the F-15E (I know that's probably Greek to most of you, but it was probably one of the toughest non-combat flights I've ever flown in my entire career. @hook_dupin, @MikeD, and probably a couple others know what I'm talking about).

My wife looks over at me sitting in the corner, eyes closed, verbally rehearsing emergencies, and says:

"Overachiever! It is a Cessna, you dolt, you're not leading a combat mission over Iraq."

Can't help it...my mind is just programmed this way. I've gotta have my "head work" right before I get to the airplane, regardless of what kind of iron it is. Airmanship habits are a bitch to break!
 
hook_dupin said:
My experience transitioning fighter guys back to the mighty 172: you'll round out high and won't put in enough rudder right before touch-down.
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The good news is, last year I got my ATP-SE in a 172S, so I have much more recent experience in Cessna's sardine can than I do in a pointy-nosed death dealer.

I got those crappy landings out of the way with the DE on board evaluating!
 
Master on, beacon on, prime, start, mag check, carb heat check, fly. Throw the checklist out the window and have fun.(ducks) The wheels are welded down so there's nothing you can really do to screw it up. You don't even need the flaps.
 
IMO, the flying the in the military is more difficult but the check rides in the civilian world, especially simulators..much harder.
 
Hacker15e said:
Can't help it...my mind is just programmed this way. I've gotta have my "head work" right before I get to the airplane, regardless of what kind of iron it is. Airmanship habits are a bitch to break!
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You gotta adapt brother, even if it feels like you're slacking (which you wouldn't be).

We have some newbies where I'm at who I fly with as "seeing-eye PIC" to get them dialed into the mission. All are prior military, and some of the rigidity of tunnel vision, the "A before B before C before D, etc", the "we must plan something before we go, right?", kind of mentality I have to break from these guys drives me up a wall. Get out there, get preflighted, lets launch to our working area, and handle things as they come......plan on the move. This is the civil equivilent of XCAS, not a preplanned deep-strike interdiction to hit the Hanoi thermal powerplant (other things we do have a certain element of preplanning, but not most). Trying to unscrew some of these guys makes me want to pull my hair out
 
I'm probably fortunate that I had a lot of that "launch on the ATO, and then get your tasking airborne" in the MC-12.
 
z987k said:
Master on, beacon on, prime, start, mag check, carb heat check, fly. Throw the checklist out the window and have fun.(ducks) The wheels are welded down so there's nothing you can really do to screw it up. You don't even need the flaps.
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Basically, none of that (baleeted) matters. It's an aeroplane. Bloody fly it.
 
Minuteman said:
I'll pay five bucks for each time you can prove you said, "Well in the Air Force we…"
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It is a USAF Aero Club, so all of it technically is still "in the Air Force".

That being said, it is a massive social faux pas in the AF to talk about how things used to be in a previous squadron, previous base, previous airframe. In the fighter community, such comments are met with rapid and forceful bean-cracking. It is not a habit I have, regardless of what new environment I am in.
 
Hacker15e said:
I'm probably fortunate that I had a lot of that "launch on the ATO, and then get your tasking airborne" in the MC-12.
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One of the bigger issues I get in the light helos, from career medium-heavy lift guys is "......hey dude, make the decision. This isn't flying by committee anymore. It's all you. Often no crew, no door observers to clear your tail, [for former fighter guys] no SOF, no WSO, no co-pilot. Make the damn decisions."
 
MikeD said:
One of the bigger issues I get in the light helos, from career medium-heavy lift guys is "......hey dude, make the decision. This isn't flying by committee anymore. It's all you. Often no crew, no door observers to clear your tail, [for former fighter guys] no SOF, no WSO, no co-pilot. Make the damn decisions."
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Yep, unfortunately that is the (121) world I'm going to hopefully transition into.

Pretty tough decisionmaking habits to break there, too.
 
Hacker15e said:
Yep, unfortunately that is the (121) world I'm going to hopefully transition into.

Pretty tough decisionmaking habits to break there, too.
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Actually more similar than you think, as you came from crew aircraft......-15E, MC-12; so not as foreign as you thing, and with an open mind it's easier to transition single to crew, than it is from coming from crew reliance, to single seat ops. At least that's generally what I've observed. So the crew stuff should be fairly transparent to you.
 
An old boss of mine who flew F-16s said he had a hell of time in the Cessna and opted to transition with a DA-20.
 
SeanD said:
An old boss of mine who flew F-16s said he had a hell of time in the Cessna and opted to transition with a DA-20.
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Does he fly from the right seat? I've seen that before, power lever/ throttle must be in the left hand. It was a little odd. He didn't want to hear how everyone else in the world that flies a Cub/ Pitts/ Husky/ Stearman/ Citabria also manages in to fly other aircraft with a right hand on the throttle.
 
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