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

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

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

First Solo!

I woke up Sunday Morning wondering why the alarm was going off when it was still dark outside, then I remembered, Today would be the day (again)!

As I was getting ready and making a cup of tea, Melodies mother Jan pulled into the driveway, she had decided to come and watch today's attempt.  We eventually hit the road around 6:40 AM and headed to Riverside airport.  As you might imagine, traffic was pretty light, so we made good time. 

The sun was just rising over the horizon as I finished the pre-flight inspection, the plan for the day was to do a few trips around the pattern to get warmed up and any final kinks worked out, then drop Bob off at the viewing area where Melodie, Jan and Mike were waiting to watch my flight.  

We got the Cessna 152 fired up, and taxied toward the sunrise, we had the airport to ourselves as we completed the run-up and got lined up on runway 19 Right.  We were given clearance to make a left turn into a left traffic pattern so we could do our work on the parallel runway, 19 Left. 

The sky was clear, and the winds just starting to blow gently from the southeast as we completed our pattern practice, when I noticed Bob pull my Medical Certificate / Students Pilot License out of my log book, he was signing me off for Solo flight!  He radioed the tower saying "We're going to do a taxi-back on this landing so we can drop off the Instructor for a students first solo"  

I didn't even try to keep the grin off of my face.

I landed the plane, exited the runway, and taxied to the run-up area in front of the viewing pavilion.  Bob asked me if I had any last questions, I said no, and he climbed out.  Just before he closed the door, he told me "Good luck, and have fun!" then I was alone in the plane.

As I eased in the throttle to taxi back to the runway, I thought to myself "Why am I not scared right now? Why should I be? I want to do this!"  I got to the holding area at the end of 19L, and waited, Bob had told me that I shouldn't have to ask for clearance, as the tower would be watching anyway, so I waited a bit more.

After about a minute, I decided heck with it, "Riverside Tower, Cessna 69212 is holding short of 19 Left for close pattern work"  Maybe that was a part of the test, because I was immediately cleared onto the runway and given the go-ahead for a left pattern.  I lined up on the runway centerline, gave everything a quick check, then pushed in the throttle.  As I reached 50 knots I eased back on the controls, and the plane lifted off the runway.

"This is it," I thought, "now I Have to land."

Without Bob in the right seat, the plane climbed much faster, so I was at pattern altitude before I even made my turn on to the downwind leg.  I ran through the after takeoff checklist, then I was abeam the numbers, so I got set for the descent.  I came in high on the first landing, and landed a little long, but still had room to get slowed down before my runway exit came up.  



"That's one of three done!" I thought to myself.  The tower controller told me to exit the runway, taxi back to the start of 19 Left, and that I was cleared to take off.

As I was taxiing back to the runway, some small birds were flying around right in front of the plane, sometimes landing on the taxiway right in front of me, I was worried about running them over, but I guess they are used to the airplanes, so they stayed just barely out of the way.  I got back to the runway, pushed in the throttle and took off again. 

My second landing was a little low on the approach, so I waited before dropping in full flaps, and kept the engine RPMs up until I was back on the proper approach path, showed by the red and white lights next to the runway.The landing itself was pretty good, as I was starting to get used to the way the now lighter plane was flying without Bob next to me.
 





"Two down, one to go"

Again I was given clearance to taxi back around and immediately take off.  I told myself that the third landing needed to be perfect, I had done high and low approaches, so this one should be the Goldilocks version, Just Right.

I made the turn from base to final just a little early, so I had to make a small correction to get lined up on the runway, but I was showing one red, and one white, so I was at the correct altitude.  I dropped in full flaps, pitched the nose down to maintain 60 knots, and absolutely greased the landing, I was so pleased with myself.

I exited the runway and taxied back to the viewing pavilion, Melodie was grinning and waving, Bob and Mike came over to the plane and congratulated me on my first solo.

Bob climbed back in and as we were on the other side of the airport from our flight schools parking area, we took back off, did a right turn pattern, and Bob explained that we would try a "soft field landing" and walked me through it.  The idea is to keep the plane airborne above the runway and ease it down, while keeping the nose high and holding the nose gear off the ground for as long as possible.  When we touched down, it was a little rough when the main gears hit, but we still kept the nose up for practice on that part.

We got the plane tied down, and talked about the flight, now it's time to start thinking about Cross-Country trips, and more practice maneuvers. 

First Solo Complete! Still a lot to learn!

Hooray!

-Gareth

Lesson Fifteen, Cross Wind Landings

Saturday morning was absolutely perfect, clear skies, light winds from the south, cool temperatures.  I arrived at Riverside airport just before Noon with butterflies in my stomach, today was going to be the day I would solo!  Melodie and her Mother met me at the Roadhouse Aviation flight school building, and I showed off the Cessna 152 that I am training in as I did the pre-flight inspection.  Bob was already out by the plane, getting a couple of gallons of fuel added to the tanks.

As we got the latest ATIS information, we learned that the wind had shifted to the south east, and picked up to about 8 knots.  I got the plane started up, and got clearance to Taxi to runway 19L.  After the run-up checks were completed we got onto the runway and took off.  The wind was starting to pick up even more, the wind sock was showing at least 10 knots, and still swinging around from south to east. 

I took off, and got clearance from the tower for a landing on 19R, with the option.  As we climbed through the pattern, the wind conditions continued to deteriorate, to the point that I overshot my turn from base to final quite badly due to the tailwind on the base leg.  Compensating for the wind, I landed the plane, but didn't apply enough right rudder at the touchdown, so it was a bit rough. 

We did another several patterns, getting blown around by the wind the whole time, until Bob asked me "Well, it's up to you, we can call it quits, we can just keep going for crosswind practice, or I can get out and you can solo."  I thought for a minute about what I wanted to do, the wind was still getting rougher, and my last few landings hadn't been very good, calling it quits was coming rapidly to the top of the list. 

Then I thought, if I give up for the day now, then I will have ended in a bad mood, with a bad landing, and without having figured out how exactly to handle this kind of wind.

I told Bob that although I didn't feel comfortable solo-ing in these conditions, if it was OK with him, we could continue to do pattern work until I got some acceptable landings done. He agreed with my decision, and up we went again.

By this time, the wind had swung so far around to the east, that it was giving us a slight tailwind on Final, Bob suggested that I try the approach using 20 degrees of flaps, instead of 30, and an airspeed of 65 instead of 60, that way we would have a little less resistance and shouldn't get blown around quite so much.

I got us lined up on Final, with the wind still trying to push us away to the west, lowered the second notch of flaps, and tried to keep us lined up on the runway.  Bob had explained that as we approached the runway, I should use the rudder to get the nose of the plane pointed straight down the runway, and use opposite ailerons to prevent the plane from being blown sideways.  This time, I managed to get the plane down nice and gently.  We decided to do another landing before calling it a day, and that one went just as well.

So although I didn't solo again, I still ended the lesson on a high-ish note.  Bob told me after we got the plane tied down, that delaying the solo again was the right call for me to make, as conditions really weren't very hospitable.

I have booked a flight tomorrow morning, Sunday the 29th, from 7am to 9am, when the winds should be gentler, so maybe I will finally get to solo tomorrow.
Wish me Luck!
-Gareth

Lesson Fourteen: Night Pattern Practice

Wednesday Evening was clear and calm, I arrived at Riverside Airport just before 8pm and started the pre-flight inspection while there was still some light.  Everything checked out ok, and we had plenty of fuel for the lesson, so I went back inside to find out the plan for the evening.  Bob told me that we could either fly up to Tulsa International and practice pattern work, or stay at Riverside and practice pattern work.  I figured we could probably get a landing done in the time it would take to get up to International, so I elected to stay at Riverside.

We got the plane started up, and taxxiied to the FBO before radioing our intentions to the Ground controller.  There was a new student pilot trying to talk on the radio, I thought back to my first fumbling attempts, and felt a bit bad for him, while at the same time feeling happy that I was now a little more comfortable talking to Air Traffic Control.

We got clearance to taxi to runway 1 left, so we headed to the run-up area, performed the run-up checklist, got the clearance from the tower for takeoff, and headed out onto the runway.

I got the plane lined up on the runway center line, and gave it full throttle, we accelerated up to 50 knots on the airspeed indicator, I eased back on the controls and we gently lifted into the air.  The tower gave us clearance for a right turn to make right traffic patterns as we would be working from the parallel runway, 1 right.  At 1100 feet I started the first turn while continuing the climb up to pattern altitude.

We levelled off at 1700 feet, and performed the after takeoff checklist, Fuel on, Undercarriage check, Mixture rich, Power as required, Seats and Seatbelts adjusted.  By the time we were done with that, we were almost "abeam the numbers" or parallel to the runway end markings, so I pulled on the carb heat, reduced throttle to 1500 rpm, dropped in the first notch of flaps, and put the nose down to maintain 80 knots.  After about 200 feet of descent, I turned onto the base leg, dropping in the 2nd notch of flaps and pitching the nose to maintain 70 knots.

I turned onto final a little early, because I mistook some ground lights on the hangars for the runway as I was glancing out the side windows, once I started the turn I realized my mistake and extended the turn until we were pointed at the runway.  I dropped in the last notch of flaps and pitched to maintain 60 knots.  We were above the ideal approach slope at first, as indicated by the two white approach lights, but as we continued toward the runway the top one started to get a pinkish hue, so we were pretty close to where we needed to be.  The ideal approach is to maintain one red and one white light all the way to the runway.

I managed a pretty good landing, reset the flaps and carb heat, pushed in full throttle and we went up and around again.

On the fourth takeoff, as we were climbing out off the runway, I saw a brief flicker in the darkness ahead of the plane, then WHAM, something hit the windshield right in front of my face, slid off to the left side, and disappeared under the wing.  We had hit a bird.  Bob told me that he had seen it a split second or so before it hit, and it was a good sized bird, not something small like a sparrow.  I kept an eye on the engine temperature and oil pressure as we completed the pattern to make sure nothing had been damaged other than our nerves for a minute or so, but everything looked fine.

We got in another four laps around the airport before deciding to call it a night.  We got the plane parked and tied down, and I looked for any damage, but I couldn't see anything obvious, as it was pretty dark by that time, and I was using the red-lensed flashlight that is part of my night flying equipment.

We had done Nine landings in 9/10ths of an hour for the logbook.  Bob told me that if I can run the pattern that well on Saturday, that I would solo for sure.

Next Lesson: Solo? Hopefully!
-Gareth

Lesson Thirteen: Pattern Work

Saturday morning I woke up to overcast skies, with the lowest clouds around 1,200 feet.  Fortunately the sky started to clear shortly before my lesson scheduled for noon.  Melodie and I got to Riverside airport several minutes early, she had come to watch if I soloed.  I had just started the pre-flight inspection of the 152 when my dad arrived for the same reason.  I finished the pre-flight, as Bob finished the previous students lesson.

Today's lesson would be traffic pattern practice, the wind was variable, swinging from west to north at about nine knots on the ground.  We got the clearance to take off to the north and headed to Tulsa International, the wind was a little rough on the ground, but as we climbed it got rougher.  We bounced and jostled our way north and east to Tulsa International where we were given clearance for a landing on runway 1 left, "with the option" which means that we can do whatever we want, go-around, touch and go, full stop or pretty much anything, and we don't have to contact the tower for any extra permission.

We ran through the traffic pattern several times, working on getting everything just right, but the wind was still misbehaving, which wasn't very helpful when I was trying to maintain a perfect heading or airspeed.  We did get to watch another Southwest jet land though, it came in on runway 8, passing below and behind us as we were on a downwind leg.

I was pretty consistently high on my approach onto final, so we practiced some forward slips and a go-around as well.  After a couple more landings, we headed back to Riverside.  

I was given clearance to land number two behind a Beechcraft Bonanza that was coming straight in from the other direction, he landed while we were on the beginning of our downwind leg, so the tower requested a short turn onto base and final.  As we were coming down on our final approach, they gave another Cessna permission to taxi across the end of the runway we were about to land on, we had plenty of room to get over it, or perform a go-around if necessary, but it was disconcerting to see him pull out in front of us.

I extended the approach a little further down the runway, just to be sure, but I forgot to add power to keep my airspeed at 60 knots, so by the time I was easing back on the controls in the flare, we dropped faster than Bob or I would like, and landed pretty hard.  I am not sure if we bounced or not, but if we did, it wasn't far.  We had already decided that I wasn't going to solo today due to the weather, but as we taxied back to the parking area, it felt like everyone was watching me after that horrible landing.

We got the 152 parked and tied down, and went back inside to go over the days events.  Wednesdays lesson will be from eight to ten again, so I should get some more night landings taken care of, and we'll probably practice turns and stalls again.  If the weather cooperates, maybe I will solo next saturday.

I went to meet Dad and Melodie at the viewing area on the other side of the airport, I hadn't been over there yet, it's pretty nice, a large covered gazebo with a fireplace in the center, but it's open to the air, and not cooled other than with shade, so they were sitting in the air conditioned car taking pictures of the different planes that were flying in and out that day.

We headed to our respective homes for lunch.

Next lesson - More Night Flying!
-Gareth