Flight Training Blog

Lessons 4 & 5.

2008-06-15T20:19:00.000-07:00

Well, first off, i got my 3rd class medical certificate! I was really stressing myself out over nothing. Basically, they had me fill out a questionaire about my medical and criminal history, which luckily both are pretty clean. The Nurse had me pee in a cup and checked my blood pressure, which luckily wasn't too high. Then, the doctor came in and checked my breathing and heart. That's all there is too it. Piece of cake!

I've had two more lessons since my last post. I see a pattern developing, where i'll have a lesson where everything goes great, followed by one where i completely suck. I think that might be the way its supposed to be. I feel like i learn a bunch of new stuff on one lesson, and suck at it, and then polish my technique on the next. Not a bad way to do it, actually.

So, i'm continuing to get better, but i'm not quite sure where i'm at, compared to other students. I think i'm doing reasonably well. My radio work is improving, as is my taxiing. I taxied completely on my own the last lesson, and did a really good job of staying on the yellow line. I've gotten really comfortable with take offs. I feel like my turns still need some work, and i really need to work on holding my altitude in the turns. I also don't feel like i'm entirely proficient at slow flight. But its all good... i can feel myself improving with each flight, and i'm sure it'll click at some point.

This last lesson was mostly touch and goes. We flew from SDL to Glendale airport (KGEU) and did 3 there, and then did one more touch and go at SDL and then a full stop. I did a good portion of the flying in the pattern, and on the landings. I'm most definitely NOT proficient at landing yet, but i'm starting to get the jist of it.

Oh, and i did decide to switch to the 172P, and i'm very happy i did. Here's some pics of N66018, my new steed:

So, that's it for now.. another one this Saturday!

Total Time: 7.8 hrs

Total Spent: $1320

Lesson 3

2008-06-04T15:10:00.001-07:00

This one made me feel better. I arrived early again, so i preflighted the Cessna 152 by myself again. One problem though, the flaps wouldn't go down. After quadruple checking everything, and finding Miguel and confirming with him, we concluded that, yup, they're broke. Although one can easily fly without flaps, we decided to switch to their Cessna 172P. They were even nice enough to only charge me the Cessna 152 rate ($84 vs. $110).

I did a little more of the taxiing this time, which is something i really need to get more comfortable with. It feels like trying to steer an elephant on roller skates. The brakes are really touchy too, and i need to use them a little more gingerly. I again did the radio calls, which i'm getting better at, but still screw up on occasion. My takeoffs are getting better, they're actually one of the easiest parts of flying. Line it up with the centerline, keep it straight, rotate at 60kts and you're airborne.. not much to it.

The Cessna 172P performs much better than the 152. After the last flight i was already questioning whether to continue in the 152 because of its poor performance in the heat, and now i'm pretty sure i"m gonna use the 172P from here on out.

So, once we were up there, we did much of the same stuff we did on the last flight. Power on and power off stalls, tight turns, medium turns, slow flight, and a few touch and goes. I don't know if it's the good night of sleep, the practice, the more powerful plane, or a combination of all 3, but i seemed to do much better at all of it today. He still has to correct me quite a bit, but that's to be expected i guess. After the flight, he even commented that i did really well today.

As far as book work goes, i'm using the official FAA book Airplane Flying Handbook, and i'm up to chapter 7 so far. I've also been thinking about the written test, i need to consult with Miguel and see when he thinks i should have it done by. He mentioned the FAA medical today too. I'm way more apprehensive about it than i probably should be. I think my blood pressure is a little high, and it goes through the roof whenever i'm about to get it checked. It's called "white coat syndrome". Oh well, gotta get it over with, so i'll probably do it soon.

Next lesson is scheduled for Sunday.

Total Time: 4.8 hrs

Total Spent: $730

2nd Lesson. Slow Flight, Stalls & More Tight Turns

2008-05-29T18:29:00.000-07:00

I had my 2nd lesson today, and i think i'm back to feeling overwhelmed again. To save time, they asked me to preflight the plane myself, which is the first time i've done this alone. No prob, i've been through it a bunch of times now, since both times we had to reschedule we preflighted the aircraft before deciding to postpone the flights. After preflighting, i snapped a few photos of of the Cessna 152 i'm training in, they're posted below.

Man, in the heat, the little 152 was having a really hard time climbing. It was in the mid 90's today, and there were several times where we had the plane in a nose up climbing attitude, but we still continued to lose altitude. They had previously told me that the max weight with a full load of fuel is 370lbs, which Miguel and I add up to almost exactly that. I think i'll give it one more try in the 152 and see how it goes... i may have to upgrade to the 172, since its just gonna keep getting hotter. We'll see.

He once again had me do the radio calls, which i'm getting a little better at. I just need to remember the 5 W's:

1. Who i'm calling

2. Who i am

3. Where i am

4. What i have (the ATIS information, a recording with weather and other info)

5. What i want

What that translates to is: "Scottsdale ground, this is Cessna 66991 at Tango parking, with Hotel (the letter representing the most recent ATIS info) requesting taxi to active runway"

Or something like that. So i again took off the plane and we headed out west toward Lake Pleasant. We again practiced tight turns, which i seemed to do much worse at this time. The heat was causing the plane to get kicked around a whole lot and i found that i had a much harder time getting the plane to do what i want. After that, we tried slow flight, where we throttle back and then try to maintain flight without stalling the aircraft. Once again, i found it difficult to control the plane. I think part of it was the fact that, even at full throttle, the plane wasn't performing all that well, and once we reduced throttle we started dropping pretty rapidly

We then went into stalls. People seem to get really freaked out over stalls, but they don't seem to bother me at all. As long as you are at a safe altitude, it's not difficult to recover. I found it quite fun, actually. Of course, a stall would certainly freak me out if i were 500ft above the ground on final for landing, but that's the whole point of practicing them, to know what it feels like, so that you can prevent them from happening.

We also went over the emergency procedure. He did most of it, so i'm definitely going to have to try to memorize it a little bit. He cut the engine down to idle, and said "ok, the engine just quit" and pointed out a relatively empty road below and declared that as our landing strip. We trimmed the aircraft for landing, i think with 20 degrees flaps. He circled around and lined up with our "landing strip". Now this is the funny part. We at this point were pretty damn low, coming in on final for landing on this road, and i noticed one car on the road. He said "don't worry, if we were actually landing, he'd pull off". Right as he said that, the guy actually pulled to the side of the road. You know you're low when you're actually scaring cars off the road!

So after that we headed back to the airport, did one touch and go, and then came in for a landing. Overall, we did a whole lot this flight. I'm not sure if i really learned anything though. I feel like i kinda stumbled through everything he had me try today, but i also know that a lot of what we did might be a little beyond the skills of someone with 2 flights under his belt. After the flight, i ran into another student that is working on his cross country. He said he was completely overwhelmed at first too, and to just try to stick to one thing at a time, and not to get discouraged. I like that advice.

So, i've got another one scheduled for next Wednesday.

Total Time: 3.3 hrs

Total Spent: $474

Here's the pics of Cessna 66991, click to see full size, but they may take a few to load:

First official flight lesson

2008-05-26T10:44:00.000-07:00

Well, after two weather delays, i finally had my first flight lesson yesterday. Well, I had left the intro flight a little overwhelmed but after the first lesson i feel completely, hopelessly hooked He had me do the radio calls, which i did, but not very well. I kept forgetting what to say, and was getting a little flustered. I taxied out to the runway and actually did a pretty good job of staying on the yellow line this time. He had me take the plane off again, and although it definitely wasn't the worlds prettiest take off, we still got off the ground without any damage. From there, he showed me climbs, descents, and holding a heading. We flew out over Lake Pleasant, and practiced some turns. I must have done them well, because we then went right into tight turns, which i also seemed to do pretty well. He said he didn't do tight turns until his 3rd flight.

We saw a boat on fire at the docks at lake pleasant when we were flying over. All the boats on the lake were heading full speed ahead towards the burning boat, probably to gawk. After the flight, i heard on the radio that the engine had caught on fire when they first tried to start it. There were a couple kids on board who got burned and had to be taken to the hospital, but they said that they were going to be ok.

It's funny, i seem to do fine with the actually flying part, now i just need to get used to the radio. It must be all the R/C and simulator i've done.

Anyways, it was an insane amount of fun, and really boosted my confidence up a bit. I have another lesson scheduled for Thursday. I can't wait!

P.S. I'm going to start keeping an ongoing tally of my flight hours, and how much i've spent.

Total Time: 1.8 hrs

Total Spent: $246.20

It Begins!

2008-05-21T19:52:00.000-07:00

Hi! My name's Jason, and after a life-long fascination with aviation, i've decided to start working on my private pilots license. Two weeks ago, i did a $59 intro flight with Southwest Flight Center, located at Scottsdale Airport. I did a lot of research online at different flight schools located here in the valley, and they seemed to have reasonable prices and their website didn't seem as sales-y as a lot of other sites i looked at.

For the intro flight, they set me up with Miguel, who, in addition to being a CFI (certified flight instructor), is also an engineer. He walked me through the preflight checklist and explained all the gauges and different controls. We fired up the engine on the Cessna 172SP, and he let me taxi it onto the active runway. Steering with my feet is definitely going to take some getting used to... i was constantly swerving left and right. Once we were on the runway, he advised me to give it full throttle, keep it straight, and pull back on the yoke at 55kts. Holy Jesus i was nervous, not about flying or even crashing, but in fear of screwing up (which i guess could potentially involve the crashing part).

Luckily, everything went fine and we got off the ground just fine. Once in the air, Miguel took over and got us to the correct altitude, which from what i recall was around 3500ft. He asked if i wanted to try some stalls, which i said "sure!" We did two of them, one of which the right wing dropped really bad. They're pretty freaky, the entire aircraft shakes like crazy and there's a stall buzzer that goes off. After, we brought it in for a landing, with my hands on the controls, but he was doing all the work.

Overall, I was very impressed with both Miguel and Southwest Flight Centers. I'm the kinda person that likes to research every aspect, and shop around, but i had a very good experience, and see no reason not to go through them for my PPL. I called a few days later to let them know i'd decided to go through them, and set up an appointment for 9am Wednesday, 5/21/08 (today).

To save money, i decided on the Cessna 152, which is $84 an hour instead of $110 for a 172P and $130 for the 172SP. It's a much more "cozy" aircraft, but they reassured me that we'd be within the weight limit. Luckily, Miguel weighs less than i do. So, i show up today, nervous as hell but excited to be flying, and we go through some basic radio calls, and then go out to the 152 and go through the preflight. The wind was blowing pretty hard, and i asked Miguel if it was gonna be too much. He said he has no problems flying in the wind, but that it would be difficult for me, especially for a first lesson. We decided to postpone, and rescheduled for this coming Saturday. I purchased all the books i need, so i'll be doing some studying between now and then.

Wish me luck for Saturday! I'll post again as soon as i get to fly!

Here's some pics of their aircraft from their website for reference:

Cessna 172SP

Cessna 172P

Cessna 152