Snow
'Not a new member'
Well hello folkes and welcome to a new installment of life at FlightSafety Academy. This section will cover my timebuilding and comerical ground section of things as well as unusual altitude revovery and spatial disorentation training, enjoy!
Day 1 - Tuesday, December 2nd
Well I arrived for my first class of comerical ground about 40mins late but considering it was due to my checkride which I passed with flying colors I think I had a good excuse. I was actually suprised at the stuff we were doing, it wasn't exsactly covered by private ground but it's stuff we should all know by now just from flying everyday, weight & balance, preformance caculations etc etc.
Day 2 - Wednesday, December 3rd
No flying today, just comerical ground at 1300 so I got to sleep in (9am) covered more advanced stuff in comerical today, basicly expanding on concepts already explaned in private. Did some flight planning for my dual x-c tommarow, first flight as a private pilot!
Day 3 - Thursday, December 4th
Cross country early this morning to Opa Locka, which is inbetween Palm Beach and Mami airports. Flight went well and I took some cool shots of Palm Beach Intl as we overflew it at 2000ft, unfortunatly I don't have acess to a scanner at this time so I can't show you right now.
Landed at Opa Locka and went to get a bagle. There's a coast guard station there so we saw a CG helo training lowering a basket to someone on the rwy (not the active of course!) also saw a US Customs Office which had 10 or so old cargo planes, from cuba or south america no doubt, we're talking DC-3s and Lockeed Electrias here, unfortunatly I didn't get a photo as I was concentrating on taxiing. Also the FBO we stopped at had this big roof that went over the fuel pump and you'd sware it was a giant gas station, complete with chevron sign and everything. There was a falcon fueling up under the roofing too, it looked halirious, as if he just pulled up to some autoshop off the hwy.
Trip back was fun, we had to climb to 6500 to stay above the clouds and even then we had to dodge the rising cumulus clouds, you could actually see them rising up as you flew over, pretty cool!
Comerical ground that afternoon just covered advanced aero and systems, retract gear, constant speed prop etc etc. Also at the end of the class the head chese himself came to talk to us about how American Eagle has recalled all their pilots and that they'll be needing more soon, and the fact that things are begining to look better in the aviation industry in general.
Day 4 - Friday, December 5th
Ah another early morning start today, my first solo x-c as a private pilot, I managed to pickup my temporay certificate after class yesterday just before the offices closed. I knew my flight would be leaving before they opened this morning and that could be a problem, anyhow I got it ok and the real thing is 90-120days off.
Flew to Venice via La Belle, flight to La Belle was uneventful and I landed there and closed my FP, I have done touch and goes there before but never stopped. On the ramp as I taxied out I tried to contact FSS to no aval, I had to listen on the nav radio and for some reason it was really staticy, so maybe they heard me but I couldn't hear them, I tried again in the air and still nothing, I gave up after that and just got flight following. Also I was a little confused about the proceedures there because you have to taxi back along the rwy to get to the end of the rwy so I waited for 5-10 until everyone was out of the pattern because I sure didnt want to see any landing lights coming at me as I taxied down the rwy. Took off and headed to Venice, about 15min out I had to decend to 1000ft to stay VFR and approach must have lost me on radar because they cancled my flight following. The celling was coming down to 1000ft or so and I had to decend to 800ft to stay clear, while dodging other low cloud as well, I was considering going back but since the visibulity was still good I kept on and landed at the airport no problems. I was wondering if my fellow FSA student who was ahead of me going to the same destination made it or turned back. I taxied down the wet taxiway to the ramp and he was waiting there for me.
We called a cab to goto Sharky's resturant but unfortunatly we got there 30mins before they opened and we didn't have time to wait around so we called a cab to go backto the airport cafe. We did get a glimse of the ocean before we left however (Sharky's is on the beach) Got a mexican breakfast thingy (forget the name, it was good none the less
)
We were now getting worried if we'll make it back in time for ground school with only a little over an hour remaining to get back. We decided to fly direct by following a cannal which runs east-west and would take us home. My friend beat me out as well as 2 other planes so I had to wait my turn to take off. I lift off and head east as planned. After about 5mins the visbility comes down to 2-3sm and the celling lowers to 900ft, I'm getting a bit worried now but I can still see where I'm going so I press on following the road below. However pretty soon all I can see in front of me is what looks like a white wall so I do a 180 and head back, unfortunatly the visabilty is just as bad that way too. Vis goes down to about 1sm in rain and I'm cruising around at 500ft trying to stay VFR. I see the river and follow it SE towards Charlotte airport, it's way I came so I sorta know how to get back there and the weather looks worse behind me so that kinda ruled out going back to venice. After 10min or so I arrive at Charlotte and just as I get there I'm out of the rain and the vis goes back up to 4sm, although the ceeling remains at 1200ft so I flew the rest of the trip back home at 1000ft. I could just immagine the people on the ground looking up and going, who's that nut flying in this weather! I made it back to Vero with a plane much cleaner than I got it!
Although close to an hour late for ground school, eek. All in all it was kinda scarry and exciting all at the same time, although since I always could see the ground and had a general idea where I was (plus technically still in class G VFR mins), I never flelt I was in any real danger, although I had worked up quite a sweat by the time I had gotten back to Vero! Comerical ground more systems and areo yada yada yada....
Day 5 - Saturday, December 6th
Ah, yet another early morning flight. My instructor hadn't signed off the lesson so I had to go through my flightplan with an instructor there. Ended up leaving a little late but with no deadline this time (other than the dispatch 3pm closing time) I wasn't in a rush. Celling was 1200ft for the first 20mins of the flight so I had to fly low to stay below that, latter 20mins I was able to climb to 1500ft and remain 500 below. Once I got to Lake Placid the overcast disapered and I decided to do a little sight seeing, the lake there has lots of houses on the banks each with it's own jetty. Also overflew a paved private airport and downdown (remaining at 1000ft of couse!) Flew a 5 mile final into Sebring and taxied to the ramp. I'd have to say this is the best airport I've been to so far. They actually have a somewhat decent terminal building complete with cafe, pilot shop and a few gift stores. It really felt like a little version of a comerical airport terminal. Got breakfast, french toast and sauage, yum! while reading the paper and watching planes take off and land, (oh could it get any sweeter!
) Also saw a gyrocopter takeoff on the taxi way, man I'm glad it was him and not me, I was cold enough being only 50F or so at 1500ft in the cockpit! let alone being on a flying motorcycle!
Also saw a Pan Am plane come in, and was wondering why both the guys flying it were over 40, hum, maybe some instructors on a joy flight? I dunno, I said g'day as I left though. Took off with a rather unimpressive softfield take off, I bounced on take off, now that's a first! (note to self, don't do softfield t/o in gusty conditions!
)
Weather got pregressivlty better as I flew on to Charotte and i was able to get my 4500ft as planned for the first time today. Landed at at Charotte, got a quick snack and refueled. Another student pilot (some local fbo guy) came out and complemented me on my Cadet (obviously this guy hasn't seen many aircraft
) He thought the lack of wheel pants meant it had retractable landing gear lol
I took off and flew east and climbed to 5500ft to take advantage of the tailwinds, was getting 135kts groundspeed according to center. Things went fine and was enjoying not being bumped around under the clouds for once. Although I had a vacume failure about 10mins out of Vero, which didn't prove a problem since I had the airport in sight and was tracking the VOR in anyhow. Landed and got a total time of 3.0hrs exsactly, woo hoo! last 2 flights were over.
Going out to eat with some classmates tonight, to celebrate both me getting my private licence and my roommate for gettign 100% on the comerical FAA exam. Way to go Quin!
Thew.. Well that's all for now, I've really been racking up the time that's almost 10hrs in the past 3 days and I'm pushing 45hrs total time now with another week of cross countries to come. No idea where I'm going on Monday, any sugustions?
Till next time!
Day 1 - Tuesday, December 2nd
Well I arrived for my first class of comerical ground about 40mins late but considering it was due to my checkride which I passed with flying colors I think I had a good excuse. I was actually suprised at the stuff we were doing, it wasn't exsactly covered by private ground but it's stuff we should all know by now just from flying everyday, weight & balance, preformance caculations etc etc.
Day 2 - Wednesday, December 3rd
No flying today, just comerical ground at 1300 so I got to sleep in (9am) covered more advanced stuff in comerical today, basicly expanding on concepts already explaned in private. Did some flight planning for my dual x-c tommarow, first flight as a private pilot!
Day 3 - Thursday, December 4th
Cross country early this morning to Opa Locka, which is inbetween Palm Beach and Mami airports. Flight went well and I took some cool shots of Palm Beach Intl as we overflew it at 2000ft, unfortunatly I don't have acess to a scanner at this time so I can't show you right now.
Landed at Opa Locka and went to get a bagle. There's a coast guard station there so we saw a CG helo training lowering a basket to someone on the rwy (not the active of course!) also saw a US Customs Office which had 10 or so old cargo planes, from cuba or south america no doubt, we're talking DC-3s and Lockeed Electrias here, unfortunatly I didn't get a photo as I was concentrating on taxiing. Also the FBO we stopped at had this big roof that went over the fuel pump and you'd sware it was a giant gas station, complete with chevron sign and everything. There was a falcon fueling up under the roofing too, it looked halirious, as if he just pulled up to some autoshop off the hwy.
Trip back was fun, we had to climb to 6500 to stay above the clouds and even then we had to dodge the rising cumulus clouds, you could actually see them rising up as you flew over, pretty cool!
Comerical ground that afternoon just covered advanced aero and systems, retract gear, constant speed prop etc etc. Also at the end of the class the head chese himself came to talk to us about how American Eagle has recalled all their pilots and that they'll be needing more soon, and the fact that things are begining to look better in the aviation industry in general.
Day 4 - Friday, December 5th
Ah another early morning start today, my first solo x-c as a private pilot, I managed to pickup my temporay certificate after class yesterday just before the offices closed. I knew my flight would be leaving before they opened this morning and that could be a problem, anyhow I got it ok and the real thing is 90-120days off.
Flew to Venice via La Belle, flight to La Belle was uneventful and I landed there and closed my FP, I have done touch and goes there before but never stopped. On the ramp as I taxied out I tried to contact FSS to no aval, I had to listen on the nav radio and for some reason it was really staticy, so maybe they heard me but I couldn't hear them, I tried again in the air and still nothing, I gave up after that and just got flight following. Also I was a little confused about the proceedures there because you have to taxi back along the rwy to get to the end of the rwy so I waited for 5-10 until everyone was out of the pattern because I sure didnt want to see any landing lights coming at me as I taxied down the rwy. Took off and headed to Venice, about 15min out I had to decend to 1000ft to stay VFR and approach must have lost me on radar because they cancled my flight following. The celling was coming down to 1000ft or so and I had to decend to 800ft to stay clear, while dodging other low cloud as well, I was considering going back but since the visibulity was still good I kept on and landed at the airport no problems. I was wondering if my fellow FSA student who was ahead of me going to the same destination made it or turned back. I taxied down the wet taxiway to the ramp and he was waiting there for me.
We called a cab to goto Sharky's resturant but unfortunatly we got there 30mins before they opened and we didn't have time to wait around so we called a cab to go backto the airport cafe. We did get a glimse of the ocean before we left however (Sharky's is on the beach) Got a mexican breakfast thingy (forget the name, it was good none the less
We were now getting worried if we'll make it back in time for ground school with only a little over an hour remaining to get back. We decided to fly direct by following a cannal which runs east-west and would take us home. My friend beat me out as well as 2 other planes so I had to wait my turn to take off. I lift off and head east as planned. After about 5mins the visbility comes down to 2-3sm and the celling lowers to 900ft, I'm getting a bit worried now but I can still see where I'm going so I press on following the road below. However pretty soon all I can see in front of me is what looks like a white wall so I do a 180 and head back, unfortunatly the visabilty is just as bad that way too. Vis goes down to about 1sm in rain and I'm cruising around at 500ft trying to stay VFR. I see the river and follow it SE towards Charlotte airport, it's way I came so I sorta know how to get back there and the weather looks worse behind me so that kinda ruled out going back to venice. After 10min or so I arrive at Charlotte and just as I get there I'm out of the rain and the vis goes back up to 4sm, although the ceeling remains at 1200ft so I flew the rest of the trip back home at 1000ft. I could just immagine the people on the ground looking up and going, who's that nut flying in this weather! I made it back to Vero with a plane much cleaner than I got it!
Day 5 - Saturday, December 6th
Ah, yet another early morning flight. My instructor hadn't signed off the lesson so I had to go through my flightplan with an instructor there. Ended up leaving a little late but with no deadline this time (other than the dispatch 3pm closing time) I wasn't in a rush. Celling was 1200ft for the first 20mins of the flight so I had to fly low to stay below that, latter 20mins I was able to climb to 1500ft and remain 500 below. Once I got to Lake Placid the overcast disapered and I decided to do a little sight seeing, the lake there has lots of houses on the banks each with it's own jetty. Also overflew a paved private airport and downdown (remaining at 1000ft of couse!) Flew a 5 mile final into Sebring and taxied to the ramp. I'd have to say this is the best airport I've been to so far. They actually have a somewhat decent terminal building complete with cafe, pilot shop and a few gift stores. It really felt like a little version of a comerical airport terminal. Got breakfast, french toast and sauage, yum! while reading the paper and watching planes take off and land, (oh could it get any sweeter!
Also saw a Pan Am plane come in, and was wondering why both the guys flying it were over 40, hum, maybe some instructors on a joy flight? I dunno, I said g'day as I left though. Took off with a rather unimpressive softfield take off, I bounced on take off, now that's a first! (note to self, don't do softfield t/o in gusty conditions!
Weather got pregressivlty better as I flew on to Charotte and i was able to get my 4500ft as planned for the first time today. Landed at at Charotte, got a quick snack and refueled. Another student pilot (some local fbo guy) came out and complemented me on my Cadet (obviously this guy hasn't seen many aircraft
Going out to eat with some classmates tonight, to celebrate both me getting my private licence and my roommate for gettign 100% on the comerical FAA exam. Way to go Quin!
Thew.. Well that's all for now, I've really been racking up the time that's almost 10hrs in the past 3 days and I'm pushing 45hrs total time now with another week of cross countries to come. No idea where I'm going on Monday, any sugustions?
Till next time!
