Friday, September 24, 2010

Hooray for the TSA

I haven't posted on here in a little while, because I haven't been flying in a little while.  I am taking the ground school portion of my training at the minute, which while very important, isn't actually very interesting.  Well, It's interesting to me, because I want to learn this stuff so I can pass my written test and actually become a pilot some day.  We have been learning about regulations and the theories behind why an airplane actually flies, Newtons laws of motion, Bernoulli's principle and things of that sort.  The last lesson was about Weather and how it is formed and how it relates to how we fly.  Which basically boils down to stay away from the clouds.

In other news though, apparently the Transport Safety Authority has an Alien Flight Student Program, and neither I or anybody at the Flight School had heard of it, so Michael was very surprised when he got a call from the TSA after submitting my paperwork saying I had soloed.  Fortunately they waived the $2500 fine, as this was the first time it had come up, and I had given them copies of all the paperwork the TSA would have requested anyway.

Bob had to sign up with this AFSP program as a training provider, which he did this week, and I had to submit a "Training Request" through their website.  Currently I am waiting for an email with further instructions of how to pay the $130 processing fee, and where I need to go to get my fingerprints taken.  The downside is that I am effectively grounded until this is all sorted out.

Fortunately with Ground School from 6 to 9 three nights a week, I was going to be cutting down my actual flight time anyway, so this all happened at the best time possible really.

Stay Tuned for more (probably sporadic) information!
-Gareth

Monday, September 13, 2010

Lesson Seventeen, Short Field and Soft Field Landings, and Clouds

Saturday morning was nice and cool, I arrived at Riverside airport just before my scheduled lesson time of 8am.  The Cessna 152 was a little low on fuel, and someone had tightened the oil dipstick until we needed a wrench to get it out, but everything else checked out, so after getting about five gallons from the fuel truck, Bob and I went inside to discuss the days lesson plan.

I had a choice, the syllabus we are using called for more stall and ground reference maneuver practice, followed by short field and soft field takeoff and landings.  Bob told me that we would probably only have time to do one or the other this time, and finish up later, so I chose to do the takeoff and landing work.

We got in the plane to fly to Tulsa International, they have a longer runway so we can do full-stop landings without having to taxi off and back to the end of the runway.  

Bob explained the theory behind the short and soft field operations, and said we would be doing a short field takeoff first.  A short field takeoff assumes that you have to get off the ground quickly, and get above an object past the end of the runway.  Once we got the clearance to taxi onto the runway, we headed right for the edge of the tarmac, so as to have the most possible runway ahead of us, got the plane lined up on the runway center line and dropped down one notch of flaps.

Holding the plane in place with the wheel brakes, I pushed in the throttle and waited for the revs to climb to maximum, while checking the oil pressure at the same time.  Once the engine had stabilized at about 2300 rpm, I released the wheel brakes, and started the takeoff roll.  As soon as we hit 50 knots, our rotate speed, I pulled back on the controls, but brought the nose up to maintain 54 knots, instead of the usual 67.  54 knots is this planes "Vx" or best angle of climb speed, whereas 67 knots is "Vy" our best rate of climb speed.  The "V" section of my Pilots Handbook of Aviation Knowledge glossary is very crowded with all these V-whatever speed definitions.

Once we had cleared our imaginary fifty foot obstacle, I lowered the nose for 67 knots, raised the flaps, and we climbed up to 2000 feet, headed north east.

We were given clearance to land straight in on runway 36L at Tulsa International, and Bob told me we would do a short field landing.  It's the same as a normal landing, but assumes a short runway, so you have to get stopped fast once you are down.  I got lined up on the runway and brought the plane down for a passable landing.  As soon as the wheels had fully settled onto the tarmac, we raised the flaps completely, stood on the brakes and pulled back hard on the controls.  This brought the plane to a not-quite screeching halt, as locking up the brakes on a wheel is to be avoided.  Pulling the control yoke back raises the elevator, which takes a bit of pressure off of the nose gear, but also acts as an air brake at the lower speed after landing.

We got everything reset, dropped down 10 degrees of flaps, and did a Soft Field takeoff.  Soft field takeoffs are just what they sound like, if you are operating off a grass or dirt runway, you have to do things a little differently to avoid digging the nose gear into the turf.

I gave the engine full power, and immediately pulled back on the controls, the idea is to keep as much weight off of the nose gear as possible.  We took off at 50 knots, then leveled off ten or twenty feet above the ground, still in the Ground Effect area of increased lift.  Once we reached 67 knots, we started a normal climb, raised the flaps, and turned for a left traffic pattern.

Next up was a Soft Field landing.  Again, it's a normal landing approach, but once the main gear tires touch down, as gently as possible, you keep the pressure back on the controls to keep weight off of the nose gear for as long as possible, and just let the plane roll to a stop without using the brakes.

The next few laps around the pattern were alternating soft and short field operations. 

However, the fun for the day was just starting!  The temperature and dew point on the ground were within a degree of each other, so as the air rose and cooled, small wispy clouds were starting to form at about 1500 feet.  Our pattern altitude is 1700 feet.

As the 152 is not certified for "Instrument Flight Rules" or IFR flight, and I am certainly not rated for IFR, we are not allowed to fly through any "visible moisture", but Bob explained that flying around the clouds is fine, as long as we give them some leeway.  There was a light breeze from the west, which was blowing more clouds over Tulsa from Keystone lake.  This meant that on each lap of the pattern, we had to move in closer and closer to the airport to stay out of the clouds, until on the downwind leg, we had to fly around one, at which point we decided to call it a day and head back to Riverside.

We climbed up through a gap between a few clouds, until we were above them at 2500 feet.  This was my first time seeing clouds from above in a small plane, and they are a beautiful sight.  As a VFR (Visual Flight Rules) student pilot, I am allowed to fly above clouds, as long as there are gaps between so I can still see the ground.

We flew back to Riverside at 2400RPM, as we were just ahead of another student and instructor in a faster Cessna 172, and wanted to beat them home for bragging rights, although it later turned out that they had had to reduce power to keep from running us over.

With the wind behind us on the base leg of the pattern, we were still fairly high on the turn to the final approach.  Bob said we could probably land somewhere in the middle of the runway, and suggested a forward slip.  I pushed in full right rudder, counteracted with left ailerons, and held the slip almost all the way to the ground.  We touched down just past the runway number markings.

I will be starting on Ground School this week, it's 6-9PM Monday, Wednesday and Friday until October 8th, so I will probably only being flying on Saturdays.

Talk to you soon!
Gareth


Thursday, September 2, 2010

Lesson Sixteen, More Maneuvers

Bob called me Wednesday afternoon to let me know that his 6PM lesson had been cancelled, and would I like to fly then instead of at 8PM?  Sure!

Melodie and I ate a quick dinner, and I hit the road, arriving at the airport just as Bob finished up with his 4-6 lesson.  I pre-flighted the plane, which had just had its Annual Inspection, and we decided to head to the west practice area.

After getting taxi clearance, we headed to the end of 19 Left, performed the run-up checklist, then took off to the south, turning west once we climbed 500 feet above the ground.  Bob told me to climb straight out west to 3,500 feet, and handed me the IFR Practice glasses, which are just black plastic glasses that block your view out of the windows, but still allow you to see the instrument panel.  I continued the climb, when we got up to 3,500 Bob told me to make a right turn to the north, then left back to west, so I did.

With the IFR Training complete for the day, we did some slow flight practice, making right and left turns with the plane at 40 knots, just above a stall, then lowered the flaps, and did it again at 35 knots.  We got back to normal flying setup, then did some practice stalls.

When we finished the stall practice, we headed back to Riverside airport for a little pattern work before calling it a day.  The wind was straight out of the east at around 10 knots, so it made for good crosswind practice.

After getting the plane tied down we went back inside to talk about Cross Country trips, I need to start thinking about where I want to go, but Bob suggested Stillwater, as we can take the airport's courtesy car to Eskimo Joes, a popular local restaurant, or some other airports that had Italian or Mexican restaurants close by.  The other option is to head up north to Independence Kansas, where we might be able to get a look at the Cessna Manufacturing plant, which would be really neat.

We did decide that we would take the larger Cessna 172 on the cross country trips, as it has better range, better top speed, and Melodie can come along for the trip in the back seat!

Bob also let me know, that as I am taking to flying so well, I might be finished with my training as soon as Thanksgiving!

That would be really cool, Can I have an airplane for Christmas? :D
-Gareth