28 October 2007 – Flight 19

Today was a beautiful day for flying. No winds and no turbulence.

During preflight I found water in the fuel while taking a sample from the left tank. Bob said he had to have a leak fixed on the tank. To make sure everything is tight they pressure check it with water. Obviously not all the water got drained out of the tank. It was not a lot of water, but it took several samples from the sump before all traces of water were cleared.

I did make some silly mistakes today. As we were taxing out to the run up area Bob noticed I forgot to raise flaps. That should have been done when I was preforming the startup checklist. In the run up area I did our clearing turn in the run up area in the wrong direction. Clearing turns should be done such that final is the last thing you look at. I caught that one myself and pointed out to Bob. Another mistake I was calling out the wrong runway number several times. Today we were using runway 35, but several times I said 17 and had to correct myself.

As we started heading out to the practice area, Bob pointed out the western bound of the practice area. The far west end is Shawnee lake. I remember him saying if I can not see the lake while I am climbing out, then do not go out there to practice.

After we got to the practice area, Bob first had me practice some 45 degree turns. I had not done those in several lessons, so it felt a little funny at first. I will need to practice those a little more. I did not hold my altitude very well.

Next we did more practice with the foggles. In addition to the usual turns, climbs and descents, Bob started adding in unusual attitude training. In this exercise, you look down so you can not see the instruments while the instructor executes a series of turns, climbs and descents. After he is done, I have to get the plane in to straight and level flight. You look at the artificial horizon to determine your orientation. If you are climbing you are losing airspeed. So you have to apply full power and bring the nose down until you are level. If you are descending you are gaining airspeed and losing altitude. So you pull power and pull back on the yoke. In both cases you need to get the wings level. After you are back in level flight you return the throttle to cruising power.

You can get into unusual attitudes because of disorientation while in IMC conditions. Even if you are not in IMC you could get distracted and the plane could get out of straight and level flight. In either case you need to quickly analyze the situation and take corrective action. Otherwise you fly into the terrain, exceed Vne or stall the plane.
Bob did have to take the controls from me once because of a nearby aircraft.

After the foggle training Bob started showing me the basics of operating the VOR. VOR stands for VHF Omnidirectional Range. In simple terms it broadcasts a signal telling you what magnetic heading you are relative the station. To fly on a particular heading to the station you adjust the receiver to the bearing you want. When you are on the selected bearing there is a needle that is centered when you are on the chosen radial or will move to the left or right if you deviate. If you do get off course you change course towards the needle and when it is centered again you change course to the match the radial.

Bob had me select different VOR’s in the area and maintain a heading toward them. He finally had me select a VOR and a heading that would take us back to Shawnee airport.

After getting into the pattern I did four touch and go’s with Bob on board. Since there was hardly any wind, the ground speed to touch down was noticeably higher. I did not really think I was doing a very good job on the landings, so I was rather surprised when he decided to let me take it around on my own. As he got out, he said I was making good landings and to do some more on my own.

It did not feel as odd being up there by myself as it had the previous times. It also helped that I was not getting bounced around as much as in previous times. Unfortunately, all three of my landings had something wrong with them. On the first one I turned a little early into base so I had to stop the turn about half way through to get a little further from the runway before turning final. On the second go around I turned final a little early and had to stop the turn part way to catch up to the runway centerline. Finally on the third go around I was a little high and fast on final. So my touchdown was further down than I had planned it to be.

The good news is that we are going to start working on cross country flying. Use of the VOR is only the first part. Bob said we will do a little bit of ground school so he can show me how to chart a course, get weather briefing, file a flight plan, etc.

Next lessons are

3 Nov at 9am
4 Nov at 9am

21 Oct 2007 – Flight Cancelled

As of 0730, the winds are from 180 at 16 and gusting to 25 and supposed to get even stronger. So todays lesson is canceled.

The next lesson is scheduled for 29 Oct at 11am.

20 October 2007 – Flight 18

More touch and go’s today. The winds were 170@14knots when we went up. It was somewhat of a bumpy ride, but not as bad as previous times I have gone up.

After 4 times around the pattern with Bob, he got out and I did one touch and go and then a full stop. My solo landings were better than last time. I was controlling my airspeed better and the plane did not suddenly sink on me on short final like the previous time. Without Bob in the plane, it also takes a little longer for the plane to set down.

Bob said I could do up to three touch and go’s, but it was up to me. Since the plane was much lighter with just me on board, I was getting bounced around a lot more and I felt it was throwing off my concentration. So I decided on my second time around to do a full stop rather than continue. My tolerance for less than ideal conditions will improve, but I need to give it time.

The winds are predicted to be quite strong tomorrow, but generally the early morning has been almost dead calm. So we moved tomorrows lesson from 11am to 830am.

13 October 2007 – Flight 17

When I got to the Bob’s office today he was in the hangar with the 152. He said the alternator was out, but the battery was good and was on the charger all night. So we can start the plane and run the radios. Since the cowling was still off I got a chance to take a good look at the engine again and figure out the different components. I was rather surprised to see how simple the intake to the carb heat was. It was a piece of sheet metal wrapped around one of the exhaust manifolds and a duct leading to the carburetter from there.

The winds were a bit stronger today. Around 15 knots gusting to 20 and quite turbulent again. We even had one bump that knocked my hand off the throttle. I did not feel quite as stressed out by the effect of the wind and turbulence like I was a few lessons ago. However I still was having difficulties getting good landings. I almost felt like I was back to square one in a way. Bob never had to take over from me, but he was having to prompt me quite often.

I did have the dropping problem again, but Bob said I was pulling back on the elevator too soon for flare and losing my airspeed. If I need to pull back on the elevator, I need to apply some throttle first. Once I started making sure I was doing that I had no more problems.

I next started having problems with maintaining rudder control on final. I just could not keep the nose pointed at runway. That may have been turbulence I was fighting, but just the same I need to learn to keep it steady. Being Oklahoma, we probably have more windy days than not. There is not much point in my trying to get a license if I can not deal with it. I do not want to be a fair weather pilot.

Needless to say, Bob and I both agreed this would not be a good day for me to try to solo again.

One thing I tried to do during my turns in the pattern was to try to maintain them as turns around a point. I had not remembered to do that in a while, but today was a good day to do that with the strong wind. I did a few right compensating for the crosswind and a few not so good. Bob did not say anything, but he seemed to notice I was trying.

There was one other airplane in the pattern today. Nothing eventful.

On my final landing Bob wanted to me shoot for being able to stop at the first turn off from the runway to make way for the plane behind us. With the wind down the runway, it was not problem.

Between the alternator problem and the weather predicted to be getting worse on Sunday and Monday, the lessons are canceled for the those two days. I at least managed to get two days in after several weekends of single lessons.

The next lessons are scheduled for

20 Oct 11:00
21 Oct 11:00

12 October 2007 – Flight 16

Even after eating lunch I still had a bit of time to kill before the next lesson. Since I had not been over to the FBO, I decided to visit and also pick up a DFW sectional. I chatted for a good 30 minutes with the person working there. He is a pilot as well and a Shawnee police officer. He is starting to take aerobatics lessons and gave me the instructors business card. I will give him a call and find out about getting some spin recovery training.

The second lesson got a bit more interesting than the first. On taxing out to the runway an AeroCommander came in. We were prepared to pull off into the terminal area to allow him to taxi in, but he held position on the turn off to let us pass. It was a single engine plane, but seemed to make the 152 look like mosquito in comparison. It was a very nice looking plane.

We started out with some more foggle training. It was a bit more turbulent up in the air. I was a little concerned that I might get nauseous after having a big lunch. Fortunately that did not happen. I just stayed focused on flying the plane.

Compared to last time, it did seem a bit more difficult today to keep the plane under control while flying with the foggles. While I did not feel scared while doing this, I am starting to get the feeling of how scary flying in the clouds could be. It would not take much to get completely disoriented and go into a graveyard spiral. Again the training is for cases of accidentally flying into a cloud. If it does happen, then you turn a 180 using instruments and get right back out.

After about thirty minutes of foggle training we went back for some more touch and goes. I did enter the pattern a little closer to the runway than I should have, so I had to move back to the west some to get into the normal pattern.

What made the touch and go’s more interesting this time is that wind kept changing direction from SE to SW. So I kept getting crosswinds in different directions and I think once it even changed while I was on final. None of my landings were that great.

During one pass as I was starting my turn from departure to crosswind, we heard an announcement on CTAF of an airplane approaching from the west. We started looking for him. I announced my turn from crosswind to downwind and about half way into the turn I spot him at 12 oclock and point it out to Bob. The plane is not moving relative to us. That means the other plane is coming right at us. Bob takes the controls and puts into a 45 degree turn to the right and the other plane announces he has us in sight and we can see him start moving opposite to us. Bob relaxes, gets lined up with the downwind direction and gives the controls back to me.

During this lesson another thing we noticed was that some radio transmissions seemed a little garbled. We did our usual run up checks before takeoff and everything seemed normal. On what became the last go around of the day, Bob suddenly noticed the radios are dead. The intercom seems to be working. Bob checks the circuit breakers and everything is in.

For those who are not pilots, losing electrical is not a total disaster. All the really important instruments for controlling the aircraft run off the vacuum system. So I still had airspeed, artificial horizon, vertical airspeed, etc. Unlike a car engine which dies if it loses electrical, an aircraft engines spark is derived from magnetos which are driven by the engine. In addition, there are two magneto systems. So if one fails, you still have a backup. Part of the runup check is to verify that the magnetos are working properly.

Bob has me land the airplane and taxi back to the hangar. I hang around a bit while Bob takes off the cowling. It is a first chance to see an aircraft engine up close. The alternator looks okay on visual inspection. He checks the battery and the electrolyte is low. I do not know if that is the problem or a symptom of another problem. Rather than speculate on what happened, I will wait until Bob finds out.

Because of the electrical problem, there may be no more flying this weekend. In addition the weather outlook is not too good either. I did ask about doing some training in the Cardinal. After discussing it with Bob, I decided that the plane is sufficiently different that for the few hours of flying I would do in it, it would probably be spent figuring out its features than doing any real flight training.

12 October 2007 – Flight 15

This post will have two parts because there were two sessions today.

I will give away the punchline, I soloed today!

Through out the week I was watching the forecast for Friday through Monday grow steadily worse. Fortunately the weather is good today. In the morning the winds were about 10 knots from 160. Since I had gone a weekend without a lesson I was not sure how I would do today. However I managed to do pretty well. We did three touch and go’s.

Before the third Bob said to stop on the runway because he was going to get out. He wanted me to take off from where I stopped, go around once to a full stop and meet him in front of the terminal area. He said without him in the plane it should take off and climb much more easily.

After looking over the instruments, making sure flaps were up, carb heat off and Bob was clear of the airplane, I advanced the throttle. I hit 60 knots much more quickly than before and then the plane was in the air. The climb out, turn to right crosswind and turn to downwind no problem.

I did not fully appreciate what I was doing until I was at midfield and starting the landing procedures. My heart did beat a little faster for a bit, but I reminded myself that this is no different than any of the other landings and just do what I had done many times before. So I focused on my procedures and did not give it any further thought. Turn to base and final were no problem and before I knew it I was back down. I did turn off one taxiway too early, but it was not the first time I had done that. Though usually I have had Bob to remind me. I need to remember this stuff for myself.

I taxi to where Bob is waiting for me. He walks out, shakes my hand and said the landing looked good. He said for me to take it around one more time and then taxi back to his office.

I start down the taxiway and suddenly realize that I somehow put a big smudge right in the middle of my sunglasses. As I taxi back to the runway I review my options for this dilemma. Flying with a big smudge on my sunglasses is not safe. I really did not want to taxi all the way back for a bottle of windex. I finally decide to hold short of the runway, take the glasses off, wet my finger, wipe across the lens and wipe it off with my shirt. Problem solved. On the one hand it was not a big deal, but when you are trying to go up for your second time alone it can seem like a big problem.

I wish I could say my second time around was a flawless as the first, but it was not. The first thing I realized as I was getting up in the air is that I forgot to put my feet down to floor. Probably because I got distracted by the smudge problem. So I got them down and continued to fly the airplane. The rest of the pattern was uneventful until I crossed the threshold. I pulled power and started to flare when suddenly it felt like plane was dropping. I quickly added a bit of power and touched down no problem. I then taxied back to Bobs office. I did take the correct taxiway this time.

Bob had noticed what had happened on landing as well. He was not sure what happened, but he did notice the nose drop some and then I added power. I hope I did not give him too much of a scare. He thought maybe I had let my airspeed drop a little too much. I know I had checked my airspeed just before threshold and I was at 70 knots, but I may have bled off airspeed faster than I expected. I had the same problem when we did the second lesson. It may be that I am pulling power too fast and I am not compensating properly with up elevator. I will mention that when we have the next lesson.

Bob wanted to do the traditional cutting of the shirt tail, but I did not wear a sacrificial shirt. So I told him I would bring one next time.

We took a break for lunch and started the next lesson at 1pm.

7 October 2007 – Flight Cancelled

The weather strikes again. Low ceilings and scattered rain. So no flying. It is possible that things could clear up later, so I might get a call later in the day.
The weather chances are looking better for next weekend. I have scheduled lessons for 12-15 October to make up some time.
For my own reference the times are
12 Oct 10am,1pm
13 Oct 10am
14 Oct 10am
15 Oct 10am,1pm

We may try to fly some afternoons as well.