SDFCVOH's Flight training thread.

sdfcvoh

sdfcvoh

This is my Custom Title
Well - here goes . . .

I swore I would spend some time rambling about my training experiences; and since today was my first honest day, I'll begin in just a moment after this quick post.

Just for some background: I'm posting this in the right category, as I was in the insurance industry (in Ohio) for over 13 years, and decided to find a way to switch to aviation about a year ago. My wife and I are now living in Tucson, and while she is employed at a public school as a K-5 Art Teacher, I'm on my way to enough hours to apply for a job with the best office view in the world. Hope you enjoy reading!
 
DAY1

Started this morning at 6am. Did a little one on one classroom with my CFI, and then headed out to the 172. After going over the initial preflight, checklists, etc., we taxied out and off we went. He spent the very beginning of the flight in total control. Then handed over the controls to practice turns, climbs, and some combination turns and climbs. Those seemed to go pretty well, and we moved onto turns around a point and S turns across a road. After going over those for a while and getting comfy, we worked on power off stalls, which were a blast. Then a little pattern work before lunch: He let me fly into the pattern, then took over for final once I lined her up.

After a couple of hours in the classroom after lunch, we headed up again. This time I took off (right rudder!). After some more turns and climbs, we worked on power on stalls to include steep banked power on stalls. The stalls are really fun to do, and I like feeling the plane get all sloppy before recovering. After practicing those for a while, we headed to a secondary uncontrolled field, and I took her almost all the way down for a landing, but b/c there were some serious gusts whipping up, my CFI took over right before touchdown and did a quick touch and go.

We ended up landing at our home field in about 30kt winds with 40kt gusts right as the weather moved in properly. Quite a fun ride.

More tomorrow! 3.4 hours today.
 
You'll be in total control before you know it. I remember I had a hard time landing and usually needed help getting it back on the ground. One day all we did was touch n goes for about 4 hrs. and it finally clicked. Now I can safely and confidently do some of the softest and shortest landings you could ever imagine. I also used to go out on the windiest days when nobody was out and purposely abuse myself in the pattern practicing my x-wind landings, that has helped more than anything i've ever practiced!

Good Luck
 
DAY2

Another great day. Spent this morning practicing slow flight and more power on stalls with recovery. It was a little cotton ball cloudy, so we took about an hour vectoring through some clouds getting happy with the instruments/trusting them. I guess I've done that enough on sim to understand the general idea, but until you actually get into them you don't realize that you need to use the instruments and not trust your inner gyro!

Then onto the landings! Only got in three before a full stop for lunch. After lunch it was a traffic pattern/touch and go bonanza! Climb out, enter the pattern on crosswind, turn downwind, call tower midfield downwind, turn base, final, land takeoff; repeat 20 times!

I'm having a bit of difficulty getting comfortable with bleeding off speed before touchdown. Lining up, even for a bit of crosswind feels pretty natural. But once I get close enough I never want to really kill the throttle - that causes me to be a little hot, and I need to slow down so I'll stall out just right on touchdown. I'm sure this stuff comes naturally after a while. Right now I'm looking forward to coming in at that perfect speed and greasing it! (someday:D)
Thanks for reading!
 
Try pulling the power to idle when your sure your going to make the runway like 150'-200' from the threshold and you'll be greasing those landings in no time otherwise it just lengthens the landing distance. I had trouble with that too, but even more trouble flaring too high like @ 20' off the ground and expecting the plane to take itself the rest of the way down...doesn't work like that. After I learned to flare @ 3-5' off the ground and fly it out I had it licked.

Another technique a guy showed for learning purposes mostly was to come in really slow and use the engine to keep yourself on the glidepath and when you pull power you set right down on the runway. That technique has come in handy on some short strips I fly into occasionally and we have to go into our first stop REALLY HEAVY cuz there's no fuel at our final destination. Probably pushing the wieght limits but the guy I go with was an Alaskan bush pilot and he said they could legally be 10% over max up there.

Wait till you learn forward slips!! Wierd sensation at first but really a cool way to bleed off speed for no flap/short field landings. God I had a lot of fun learning to fly!

Keep the updates coming and good luck tomorrow. NW_Piolt, out!
 
Best advice I got about landings, before you takeoff, lower the seat so the horizon is JUST at the dash level and your eyes. For some reason, that was like magic to teach me the correct sight picture.

As for power, I usually grip the ball of the throttle with my palm, and put "rearward pressure" on it while putting forward pressure with my fingers on the neck where the throttle control protrudes from the dash. That ensures a SMOOTH reduction of power, which REALLY helps so you don't slow down too fast. Just like the flare has to be smooth, so does the power reduction.
 
gypsimac said:
Best advice I got about landings, before you takeoff, lower the seat so the horizon is JUST at the dash level and your eyes. For some reason, that was like magic to teach me the correct sight picture.

As for power, I usually grip the ball of the throttle with my palm, and put "rearward pressure" on it while putting forward pressure with my fingers on the neck where the throttle control protrudes from the dash. That ensures a SMOOTH reduction of power, which REALLY helps so you don't slow down too fast. Just like the flare has to be smooth, so does the power reduction.
Click to expand...

Oooh, I had forgotten about the seat trick. I had to do the same thing for a long time too and I guess I still do it. I used to take a little round yard sale price sticker and put it on the windscreen too (inside of course) for a visual reference LOL. I haven't used them for years but i'm sure there's still some in the bottom of my old bag.
 
DAY3

Today started out with a little more classroom; going over radio procedures in more depth for some class C hops in a couple of days. Then onto the flying part. We started out right into closed traffic for pattern work and touch and goes. Somehow overnight my mind got me prepared for touchdowns, as they were no problem at all today. Thanks to a couple of you folks for some great input on dealing with touchdown, also! (Yesterday I felt like I was right on the edge of control getting down to the runway without smacking down out of control.)

We kept on with the touch n' goes until some interesting weather started rolling in and took me a bit out of my comfort level with some decent gusts (which I'll look back and laugh at in another week probably!).

Yesterday my CFI said he have me solo in a couple of days (which terrified me). Today I feel a lot more confident in that respect. After getting in another 10 or 15 touchdowns this morning, I'm really starting to feel comfortable with the thought of having this sucker all to myself!

Am I really flying every day? Somebody pinch me! If you are reading this, and thinking about taking the jump from your current job to do something you've dreamed about your whole life - I say get on it!

Thanks for reading . . .
 
Yep, if you keep at it those wind gusts will seem mundane before too long and it'll take some really beefy gusts to scare you off.

I remember the first time I soloed, I was scared to death...I soloed at 36 hours but only because I wasn't going often enough. I was plenty confident in the plane but I was certain I was going to die right there on the runway.

On another note...I got to go up in my buddies Christen Eagle biplane this afternoon, we did some loops, rolls, a little inverted, etc.. We were airborne at about 400' of runway but stayed about 20' off the runway till we hit 120 kts then into about a 60 degree climb to about 2000'. We headed "out west" for a series of loops, rolls, inverted, and the like it was a real kick in the a$$!

Don't get too cocky out there though, I remember one early incident where I was doing some x-wind landings and a gust knocked me from one side of a 150' wide runway to the other...I thought for sure I was going to smack up the plane but managed to keep it together, still scared the crap out of me!

Looking forward to tomorrows' report cadet! NW_Pilot...out!
 
Just stumbled onto this thread. Thanks for posting it! And, keep it coming.

I am just a couple of months ahead of you, but at the rate you are going now, you will pass me in no time at all. I am a career changer myself, and I love the Oprah show moments that I can read something that someone else is doing which is similar to what I too am doing.

I'm not really one to offer advice much at this stage in my game, but if I can tell you one thing.....make sure to keep the ground school coming. And, I would even recommend getting a second PPL software course to compliment the one that you are already using. I used the King CPC course for my PPL. I am working on the Instrument and Commercial right now and I am using the King CPC course, Sporty's course, and the Jeppesen course. I'll finish a lesson on one particular subject and then find the same lesson on the other 2 courses. Trust me, it really helps hearing the subject being taught 3 different ways.

I almost busted my PPL checkride because I was very weak on the oral. If I would have used the same strategy that I am working now, while doing my PPL, I would have been able to skool the examiner on the things he stumped me on.

Trust me, more people are reading this than you might think. Keep posting, as this type of stuff really does help others out. You are already paying it forward and you probably didn't even know it! Keep up the good work.
 
I failed my first checkride...nothing to be ashamed of. Actually I was "confused" for lack of a better word which led to my failing 10 minutes into it. I completed the rest of the checkride without a hitch but it was kind of emberassing, I had to come back and redo that portion which took all of 5 minutes and I was signed off and legal.
 
DAY4

Welcome to crosswind landings 101!

Spent a good bit of the morning in class going over aircraft systems and emergency checklists. Also got a good bite into more communications and with class B&C procedures. After a while, we got into the plane and got onto the good stuff!

It was a beautiful day for some flying, and we took off for a couple of touch and goes before heading into Tucson (TUS) for a full stop at the real deal. It was pretty overwhelming remembering the different freqs, and happily my CFI was like 17 steps ahead of me with the kneeboard, writing everything down. (Its almost like he's done this before!)

One of the coolest parts of the quick trip into TUS was being active on a frequency that was shared by other call signs like "Southwest xxx" and "Skywest xxx". Wow, that was cool. Had a smooth landing and remembered to keep back pressure on the stick for more aerodynamic braking (which I've been trying to remember, but maybe it's finally sticking.) We stopped into the executive terminal and I bought the first of my one million and fifty sectionals and my first AFD.

Taxiing out to the runway, we went behind and perpendicular to a Southwest jet (probably a 737) and WOW! The "calm" thrust hitting the side of our little Skyhawk was enough to push me about 4 feet left off the taxi line. (Makes the youtube video of the truck being blown over by the 747 wash seem more realistic.)

We flew back to RYN for touch and goes, and kept in the pattern for another hour practicing crosswinds. I think it was only about 10 kts crosswind, but enough to be a good example of technique. I think I greased the final full stop, too, but I was too busy concentrating on braking to pay attention. My CFI was grinning - so I'll chalk that one up. Of course - since I said that its going to be another month until I grease one again:D.

Got to dive back into the books. Until tomorrow - hope you enjoyed reading!
 
Flying into those bigger airports is a real kick. Shoot man, before you know it you'll be soloing...sounds like your picking it up pretty quickly. Go hit those books and we'll hear from you again tomorrow! Good luck
 
hey I'm at about 17 hours of flight time. My instructor was going to have me solo last time out but for some reason I had a terrible day. There was a 90 degree crosswind but only at about 8 knots and i just could not master it. I kept landing rough and quite crooked on the runway. I seemed to have trouble with the correct approach speed also. The only reason I'm not too down on myself is the day before with no wind i had several great landings. Seems that crosswind just through me off. any advice is appreciated.
 
Landing can be hard enough itself, throw in a x-wind and things can get even harder. I had 165 landings and 39 hrs when I soloed, it will happen soon enough!
 
d_mckerrow06 said:
...There was a 90 degree crosswind but only at about 8 knots and i just could not master it...
Click to expand...

I'm far from the expert on this subject, but I've found it best to line up as usual onfinal first. When the wind starts moving you, think about dealing with it from two directions - first, since the plane wants to turn its nose into the wind at slow speeds, use your rudder to keep the nose lined up, while not getting too uncoordinated. Next, as the plane starts to drift with the wind, use the ailerons to dip that wind side wing just a little tiny bit to keep yourself positioned over that centerline. Then just balance it out as needed and go with the flow. You'll get comfortable with it soon enough.
 
DAY5

I'm getting used to these early mornings, but still can't wait to sleep in on Sunday! Today started at 6AM at RYN. We went over filing flight plans, along with some more detail on airspace restrictions as well as getting more involved with sectionals. With some iffy weather moving in around noon, we headed out to try for my dual long CC. Its a ton of fun learning so many things that I'm just excited about, and what a great way to learn (when you really want to learn!)

We passed off through TUS with flight following from Albuquerque south toward Tombstone. Tombstone is such a cool little runway in the middle of nowhere, too. I guess I didn't expect it to be so remote, but hey - we're in the desert! For any of you who've landed there, I think you'll understand why its fun for a new student pilot. For those of you not familiar; Tombstone's runway has a little slope to it, and if you are landing to the West, you've got to climb and turn pretty quickly in order to avoid the hills coming toward you after takeoff (or TnG in this case.) It took me a couple of tries to set down properly, but I'm not bashful about firewalling the throttle for a go-around either at this point.

From Tombstone we headed South to Bisbee (DUG) for another TnG. This time there was a pretty significant amount of x-wind. I think my instructor has really been great disseminating information and technique, because I didn't feel at all uncomfortable with the landing. On a side note, it's weird setting down at an "INTL" airport that's uncontrolled. The only sign of life was an army encampment near the side of the field. I guess they are protecting us from a Mexican invasion or something. and I always thought the Canadians were the dangerous ones!:sarcasm:

Okay - seriously then. . . from DUG we headed north to Cochise for a remarkless TnG, then to Safford (Wilcox). Safford is another awesome landing spot. The terrain is really rising up in front of you on the landing, and then right at about 1/2 mile there is a cool little canyon dropoff, then it rises again right up a cliff to the runway. Super cool. Also, if you're using that approach there are some sweet updrafts right before landing because of the canyon wall.

We climbed out West back to Tucson and RYN from there, up to about 12500 for some rockin' air conditioning, and a little rain and precip before descending back into RYN for a bit of a x-wind. The interesting thing about today was that there wasn't anyone out there flying b/c it looked like some weather might move in, but it was smooth as glass!

More after tomorrow . . .
 
SOLO

DAY6

SOLO!!!

Now THAT was fun. Practiced some maneuvers, finished up the pre-solo written, and then my CFI hopped out and gave me the big thumbs up. I'm sure most people feel the same as I did when they solo, but I was happy that it really didn't seem any different than anything I've done with my CFI. As a matter of fact, as I was landing for one of the TnG's I could hear him somewhere in the back of my mind saying, "Hold it back, hold it back, hold it ... Good!" What an awesome and free feeling to fly. Somebody pinch me - I'm flying!

I can't wait until Monday to get back at it again. I'll take tomorrow off (need a break!) and then probably do a long cross country solo on Monday.

Now I just can't wait to get my test finished so I can take my wife up with me. Jeez - I'm giddy like a kid in a candy store! Until Monday...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top