Snow does private...a FSA diary

Day 27 - Monday October 27th

Ah yet another day of private ground school, but the light at the end of the tunnel is getting closer. It's also good to know that this is the longest ground school we will have to endure until CFI (for those who opt to do it) Today we studied about federal airspace which really seems a bit of a rehash on the FARs we learn't before.

Day 28 - Tuesday October 28th

Woh hoo, last day of ground school! After 3 and a bit weeks, over 66hrs of class time it's good that it's coming to an end. Today we got to put all our knowledge together to figure out some flight planning, which after all is what all this stuff we've been learning has been leading too.

Had another flight this evening, we departed about 6pm, before we came off daylight savings it was still light at this time but it was dark this time so I got to log the whole 1.5hrs as night, even though technically all the pre-solo flights are suposed to be day. We did a lot of touch and gos and I think the airport and rwys are much easier to see at night all lit up than they are durring the day. I found you really need to watch your glideslope cause at night you can't see where all the trees are! Also did some simuluated IFR flying with the goggles, it was kinda cool doing it at night cause then you REALLY can't see anything, espically since we were mostly flying over feilds which are pitch black at night. After 5 mins or so of turns, climbs etc I took them off, and had no idea where I was, lol Plus it was kinda nice at that hour cause it wasn't much traffic around, just a flightsafety citation doing approaches.

Did a bit more reading before bed, but tommow's going to be study study study!

Day 29 - Wednesday October 29th

Ah, a free day to study, no class or flying today, it kinda felt like the weekend, did some shopping and went through all of the questions we needed to do for practice. We also got a new room mate today, he's coming in the private audit class so by the time he finishs that we should all be on the same level (they generally try to put people of the same level together) and be able to study together. Got a flight tommarow morning then the test in the afternoon so I'll need to get most my study done today, I'm feeling fairly confident, I still got 85% on my test run, it's mainly the inconsistancies in weather reporting methods that are getting to me, ie some use AGL, others MSL, and having the rwys in mag heading and wind in true heading seems kinda stupid to me. but oh well. Oh and tommarow is my last flight before my checkride...eeep! I feel a lot more confortable after my last flight and after talking to someone who did it recently, he said it's nothing major, they just wanna be sure you can do a circuit safely, it;s not like they're setting me loose just yet!

I'll probably report on sunday on all the goings on, till then.
 
Keep up the good work Mate, were rootin' for you!
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[ QUOTE ]
having the rwys in mag heading and wind in true heading seems kinda stupid to me

[/ QUOTE ]

Winds aloft are in true, winds you get off the ATIS are in magnetic.
 
Day 30 - Thursday October 30th - Final exam

Ok well today is the big quiz, due to the higher standard that FlightSafety holds us too, most people are more worried about this test than tommarow's FAA exam. I had intended on taking the day off to study in the morning but I managed to get a lesson in before the test reguardless, my last lesson before my check ride too. After running from the flightline to get to the test on time I managed to get only one question wrong, for a nice 98%, the question I got wrong was like the 2nd last question too, doh! So I was quite happy about that but not out of the woods yet with my FAA exam, checkride happening tommarow and maybe solo on Saturday. Although after my good preformance today I opted to not study further for the FAA exam and focus on learning some more emergncy checklists for tommarow's checkride.

Day 31 - Friday October 31st - FAA exam & Pre Solo Checkride

Today I took the FAA exam, it was done on computer and all multiable choice, they even have a flight computer built into the test software incase you need it, I prefered to use my steel version however. I passed it fine, gettting 93%, they don't tell you what you got wrong but I got a good idea, I had two pressure altitude questions with graphs and I had a total mind blank on those, ah well I can't compain I still did better than most.

Ah then the checkride, I must admit I was a bit nervious, I wasn't completely confident I could do everything required unassisted, also the fact it was blowing a gale outside didn't help either since i had only tried cross-wind landings the day before and they weren't too flash. After maybe an hour or so of oral questions and discusing the flight in the breif room, we were ready to go up. I was still worried about the 7-10kts cross wind, it was gusting 18-22kts too. I made the dicision to go since if I did fail the landing bit I could still complete the other sections and just have to redo the landings later. I decided to get the landings out of the way first, my attempt at a cross wind landing had me skiding across the rwy so the checkpilot took the controls and we headed out to the training area, I did the required manovers fine, stalls, slow flight, simulated emergency landing etc then it was back to the field for another go at landings. Fortunatly the crosswind had died down some what and my 2 landing were uneventful. Although I was sure I had failed the checkride because of that first bad landing. However to my suprise I passed it, also getting an execelent mark on the oral section. I relaxed a bit that evening but couldn't stay up too late cause my solo is to be tommarow morning (weather permiting)

Day 32 - Saturday November 1st

I head out to the flightline for my lesson and solo, however it was really windy, so much so I was blowing me around just walking, so a solo today as planned doesn't look likely. With the wind not looking to die down any, and I not being confident in my cross wind technique we decided to postpone the solo but still go up for a lesson anyhow. I spent the entire lesson doing touch and goes, must have done at least 12 or 13 crosswind takeoffs and landings. Setting up the wind low configuration a bit earlier in the final had me making unassisted landings fine, after 13 or so times around the circit I was becoming confident in my cross wind and circuit abilities. Too bad it was so windy, it would have been a perfect solo day otherwise, nice and sunny and hardly any traffic, oh well, better to be on the ground wishing you were in the air than in the air wishing you were on the ground!

Tonight I relaxed, knowing I had no classes or flights until Wednesday when I would attempt my first solo. It truely has been a busy past few days! 2 exams plus a checkride plus a flight lession all in in 2 days!

Day 33 - Sunday November 2nd

Well I slept in today, had a generally lazy Sunday (after all that's what Sundays are for
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) Played around with my simulator a bit not that our new roommate has a laptop. Um not much else to report, I'll make sure to post after my first solo, till then...
 
Day 34 - Monday November 3rd

Well no flying today cause my instructor works another part time job Mondays and Tuesdays during the day. So decided to try and gemini with someone. Went up with a class mate who had soloed the weekend before on a cross country flight to Pohokie and Obichoki (spelt the way they sound, not sure of correct spelling) It was nice sitting in the back seat for a change, I actually got to do a little sightseeing without my eyes stuck on the instruments or looking for traffic. Took a few snaps of the airports from the air, which I'd share if I can locate a scanner. Got a bit of a feel what's involved in cross country flying, checkpoints, correcting for wind etc. Flight was uneventful and i relaxed the rest of the day.

Day 35 - Tuesday Novemeber 4th

Still no flying today (see above) and I decided to gemini again with my classmate, this time on a night cross country. It was his first night flight but I'd been on a night lesson before, I actually prefer it, easier to see the airport, other aircraft and the air is smoother and cooler. Actually I'd have to say that 3hr cross country was the most turblent free flight I've been on since I've been here, my class mate agreed. Did some touch and goes at spacecenter regional and got enough for night pax carrying proficenty (3 full stop landings) We still had 1.5 hrs left to go since we didn't goto daytona as initialy planned cause of bad weather, so instead we went and did a touch and go at Orlando International! That was pretty sweet, spoke to 2 differnt approach controlers, tower, a departure controler all while being vectored and having an assigned squawk code. We landed behind a 757 and a Southwest 737 was holding short as we crossed the numbers at a speedy 90kts lol
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I waved as we flew past
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After that is was pretty much direct back to Vero with a bit of hood time. A fun time had by all.

Btw I've been told there's actually more traffic at the Palm Beach class C than there is at the Orlando class B and they were more than happy to accomidate us. Also I think from 500ft after taking off we could have still come in for a landing lol.
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I'm glad we had a IFR cadet however, all those extra coms came in handy!

Day 36 - Wednesday November 5th - First Solo!

Ah, the day of my first solo, take 2, hopefully weather won't ruin my plans today, fortunatly my lesson was moved forward from 0600 to 1030, not only for sleeping in a bit but a huge thunderstorm came through about 600-700 I was hopeing it would be gone in time for my lesson.

Got to the flightline 1/2 early to check weather and weight and balance, there was a row of thunderstorms of the coast moving north and wouldn't be a factor and it seemed only a bit of rain was pridicted towards the end of my flight. Go we decided to go, flew with my instructor to the training area for a few steep turns, stalls and slow flight, then back for a toch and go back at vero before we came back to the ramp for my instructor to get out. I taxied down to the rwy which came quick without having to to the runup checks. I took off did 3 circits with took about 30mins including taxi time. I did the last two in the rain and clouds coming in so I was glad I was able to make the 3rd circit before the rain really started coming down. All went well and I had to extend the downwind a bit on the last landing cause of an incoming FedEx caravan, the first two landings were really nice but the last one was a bit skiddy, which I later found out was cause of a 8kt cross-wind, most I've had thus far.

I actually wasn't as nervious as I thought I'd be, I was more nervious on my checkride. Between saying the checklist aloud and talking on the radio I really didn't have any time to get nervious, although I had worked up a bit of a sweat by the time I taxied back to the ramp, no doubt due to the 85deg & 95% humidty
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So I'm no longer a no stripe-er and I have my 1/2 stripe! Wings and full stripe here I come!

Going to see the Matrix Revolutions tonight to celebrate and I've just got a 2hr cross crountry breif tommrow so there will probably be a beer or two downed as well!

Stay tuned for solo to the training area!
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Congrats Snow on the solo....

I do agree that flying at night is a lot more peaceful, but not all airports are easier to find. Try and go to PBI (West Palm Intl), DAB (Daytona) or APF (Naples) at night. The airports are in the middle of the city lights and almost impossible to see until you are lined up with the runway and can see the runway lights/REIL's. You rely a lot on the approach controllers
 
Day 37 - Thursday, November 6th

No flying today, just a 3hr breif on cross country planning. We got the weather and did a mock cross country flight, marking out waypoints and calulating fuel burn and time. A rehash of what was already covered in gound school so not too hard.

Day 38 - Friday, November 7th

Today we got to do some flying, (6:30 flight, meaning I had to get up at 5am!) I got introduced to the short field and soft field t/o and landing techniques, soft fields are fun, although we an't allowed to land on any real soft fields in FlightSafety aircraft, if I get the urge I can always rent a plane from Sun Avation, good also if you want to go on a flight to the carabiean, although I don't think tranversing 60nm of open seas in a single is a real good idea, I think there's someone who rents twins here, oh well I'm getting ahead of myself now! Flight went well, relaxed a bit but 6:30am start tommarow so not a late night.

Day 39 - Saturday, November 8th

Since yesterday's flight was all touch and goes we didn't do anytoday and focused on all the manovers we missed yesterday instead, we did stalls, slow flight, ground refs etc etc etc Relaxed with my roommates that evening, watched a few DVDs, played Playstation and watched tv.

Day 40 - Sunday, November 9th

No flying today, had a laid back day, went to Wal-Mart and bought supplies and deck chairs for our balcony, sat out there a while enjoying the sunset, a/c landing and mild weather. (not stinking hot for once!)

Day 41 - Monday, November 10th - 1st Solo to the Training Area

Well another solo today, I must admit I wasn't as nervious but the 15kt winds had me a bit worried on the walk over. Fortunatly the winds were right down the rwy so crosswind wasn't a factor. Did my w&b, preformance and checked the weather, also since my instructor wasn't there today I had to get another instructor sign off the weather for me before I could get a plane. Seemed ok, bit windy and a few showers predicted, he just told me to land at another airport if it's too bad to land back at Vero.

Ok cool, I walk out to the plane, do the pre-flight, which takes a lot longer when you have to untie, check lights and switch tanks without a 2nd person. Had all that done, taxied, did the run up and took off. Probably 4 or 5 planes lifted off just before me. I did one circuit and touch and go, but on the 2nd time round I heard there was a DC-3 coming in so I decided to get out of the crowded pattern (only one rwy in op, rwy 4) and head for the training area. I did my postion calls, and the training areas were super busy today, hardly a gap in radio transmissions. I came within 1000 ft of other aircraft on 3 occasions, then I decided to climb to 5000ft get above the clouds, turbulance and traffic. It was much nicer up there but I kinda had to fly a large box pattern cause there were 7000ft high clouds on all sides around me. After having an enroute traffic plane come rather close, who wasn't on the traffic frequency I decided to go back down and try some ground refs, by then a lot of the lower level traffic had left. When doing slow flight it was so windy I was probably getting a ground speed of 15-20kts, I felt like I was hovering still in the air!

I was having a lot of fun and didn't really want to head back but I headed for home, I went full out battling the headwind on the way back. I called tower and was told to report base, however there was a lot of rain between me and the airport so I couldn't see the airport at all, however tower informed me vis was 10sm at the airport. I managed to dodge the worst of the rain and come in for a cross wind landing, however the rwy was wet and there was no way I could make the taxiway I wanted, I actually momentary locked up one of the wheels trying. Taxied back, tied the plane down with wet ropes and headed back to dispatch. It was totatly fun, much more so than last time, once your out of the pattern you actually have a bit of time to sit back, take in the view and enjoy yourself, I would have liked to keep of dodgeing clouds for at least a few more hours, oh well there's always the cross country coming up!

Thew!... that was a mouthful, ok I'll report again in a few days, wed-friday should be cross-country flights and if things go well, solo cross-country on Saturday! Till next time....
 
Snow, a bit of advice. If you were flying around in pratice area Charlie, it tends to be really busy there. I always had a lot better luck by heading north into area Hotel.
 
Snow, although I havent replied to your thread, I read everysingle post. And Im waiting for more. Very good job.
(It is hell just get a post in at Jetcareers)
 
[ QUOTE ]
If you were flying around in pratice area Charlie, it tends to be really busy there. I always had a lot better luck by heading north into area Hotel.

[/ QUOTE ]

Actually it was Hotel that was really busy that day, 2 guys around the street patterns, 2 guys over the lake, a guy up at 6000 and not to mention through traffic, it was crazy!
 
this has been a highly educational thread, and thanks very much for sharing so much.

i am probably going to attend the first of the year, but i will already have my private.

its nice to get a real good look at the way they do things.


keep it up
 
Day 42 - Tuesday, November 11th

No flying today cause my instructor has his other day job Mon-Tue, but if I haven't mentioned already he told me he's quiting that now that he has enough students,(went from 1 to 4 students in like a week's time) so in not too long hopefully I'll be able to fly 6 days a week, which would definatly be helpfull because with the absince of ground school I have a lot of free time on my hands, I've helped kill some of it by doing some of the comerical reading ahead of time.

Day 43 - Wednesday, November 12th

First cross country today, it took me quite a while to do all my flight planning, I got there an hour early and still didn't get it done in time, I'm sure it will come quicker as I get used to the format of it all. Flew to Pohokee and then Stuart before returning to Vero, my checkpoints and times were close, although making calls at an uncontroled airport is new, not to mention opening and closeing flight plans and requesting flight following, for my first time I think I coped well, but between it all I was quite busy making radio calls, recalulating leg times etc etc. My instructor signed me off for a solo x-c tommarow but I was sure I had another duel x-c beforehand, after a little looking throught the paperwork we planned a duel cross country for Friday since my instructor was going on a 7hr x-c with another student on Thursday.

Day 44 - Thursday, November 13th

Although I wouldn't be doing any flying today I did score a gemini ride in the Saab 2000 level D simulator, which I later found out was also the only one in the country. So if you ever need a type rating for one, Vero Beach is where you go. The flight consisted of two 2 hour segments with pilots switching sides and a short 'toilet break' inbetween. There were 2 jump seats in addition to the instructor seat in the sim. The sim was pretty cool, as you taxied around you actually felt the bumps in the taxiway, nicely detailed terminal and even taxiing traffic and a rather detailed golf course near the rwy on the approch to Savanna. The pilots practiced several precison and non-precison approaches with 200ft cellings and 1/4sm vis, as well as some steep turns. The instructor simulated some failures by simply selecting them from a touch screen monitor. Also you could feel the acceleration and deceleration of the aircraft as it flew, pretty cool, not to mention the 180deg view outside the cockpit.

Had the rest of the day off, just did a little reading to pass the time.

Day 45 - Friday, November 14th

Flew my 2nd duel cross country flight today, this time to La Belle and Obeechobe. Was a superb day to be flying! Not a cloud in the sky and I'd say vis was at least 30 miles, also as smooth as could be too. Not a whole lot to see on the way out to La Belle, just lots of farmland. We finally got to La Belle, man what a small rwy, just 50x3400ft ! it was like landing on a taxiway, since we were running a bit long on time we didn't stop, just a touch and go or two. Flew back to Vero under the hood and also did a simulated deversion.

Oh and the reason we were running late was because we had to return the plane and get another one due to a mechnical problem. It was kinda funny actually because it was the same plane we did the introduction to the pre-flight inspection in the first lesson (3hr brief) and it looked like it had been sitting there for a long time, for one there were cobwebs around the landing gear and the was a lot of dirt around on the ramp near the plane. I actually asked dispatch about it and they said it had been sitting there about 2 wks waiting for a part to come in. They eventually fixed it but I think we were the first people to fly it after it had the repairs done, so basicly this plane had probably not flown for a month or so, quite a long time considering the other aircraft fly on a daily basis. Anyhow.. as we were taxing to the runup area I noticed a grinding noise and a viberation, we figured it was the brakes catching on somthing and we returned to get another plane, as we taxied back I could actually smell the brake pads. No big drama but it did take a bit of time to go back and pre-flight another aircraft. Its just kinda funny cause as soon as we saw the plane we both though, uh-oh this could be a problem, and it was haha. But I'm sure it will be back to tip-top shape after a visit to maintance. Oh and I might add I wasn't charged for the 0.2hrs I used it.

Day 46 - Saturday, November 15th - First Cross Country Solo

Well today is my first solo to another airport which is kinda cool, there's only so much flying you can do in the training area ya know
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Flew the route I did for the first xc with my instrutor to Pohokee and then Stuart. Went well although I was unable to get flight following on any of my legs, which was less work for me. I did a taxi back at Pohokee and that gave me a bit of time to cancel and reopen my flight plans. Flying to stuart for some reason I flying the 65deg radial instead of the 45deg like I was sposed to, I noticed somthing was wrong when I started flying over all this swamp land I hadn't noticed before, also seeing the lockeed martin test facility gave me an indication that I was too far south, I quickly corrected my mistake and got back on course. I flew into Stuart and landed, I asked the controller about the FBOs and the JetAvation center sounded cool so I went there, I was directed by a 'follow me truck' to the parking spot and dircted in with hand signals. As cut the engine chocks were put in and cones placed around the aircraft, also a red carpet with "welcome to Jet Avation" was placed at the door. Talk about first class service! Although I did feel a little out of place being the only prop plane there. I was parked along with a Gulfstream 4, 2 LearJets, and a corperate helocopter. The inside was equally impressive, leather chairs for the pilot lounge, the toilet had mouth wash and a granate sink, also cable tv and a weather breifing room complete with internet axcess to the weather. I felt kinda guilty about not buying fuel actually, but there's always next time. After a short break I departed, unsure if I was expected to unchock my own plane or not. Flew back to vero and had a great flight overall. Afterwards it kinda hit me that I just flew an aircraft all by myself to 3 airport with a trip distance of about 70nm, pretty neat!

Day 47 - Sunday, November 16th

Ah got to sleep in, funny that 'sleeping in' now means getting up at 9am instead of 6am lol. Just kinda relaxed today, not much else to report.

Till next time.
 
Snow, if you ever get into Stuart again, swing into Flight Training International and introduce yourself. We have three CFI's, and all three of us are Flight Safety grads.
 
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