Guess I'm not the VFR pilot anymore....

So here's an update on what I've been up to...

QUEST FOR MY INSTRUMENT RATING

So I’ve decided to get my instrument rating, after waiting quite a while to have both the time and money at the same time. I searched high and low for what would be the right way for me to do the training, and finally decided that an accelerated course would best fit my schedule. There are many accelerated Instrument training schools throughout the country, though they can get pretty pricey…and also it has to be factored in traveling there and having a place to live during the training as well. So I looked high and low to see if there was an accelerated course closer to where I live, hopefully close enough that I could commute daily, rather than have to pay for a hotel as well. Somehow, I stumbled across an ad for Ellsworth Instrument Flight School, located in Timmonsville, SC. Only about a 45min drive from where I live…so I decided to look into that a bit more. I found there was a web page (http://www.instrumenttraining.com/) for the school that answered a lot of the questions I would have. The price was by far the cheapest I had run across…40 hours in a nicely equipped Cessna 172, no simulator, for $4795. The instructor, Gerold Ellsworth, is retired ATC, and has been instructing for longer than I’ve been alive...sounds good so far. I went up in February to meet him and take a look at the plane, after seeing the operation and getting to know him a bit, I was satisfied and put down my deposit money for a 10-15 day course at the beginning of April. The first hurdle was getting the written test out of the way prior to starting the class. Studied pretty hard for a few months and got a good score on the test in March. Otherwise, I needed to get a little more PIC XC time prior to starting as well, trying to get that time up to around 40hrs before starting the course. After that was accomplished, it was a waiting game for a couple weeks before the course started…and so it begins.

DAY 1 – Monday, Apr 2, 2007

Started with a little ground school. Went up for 1.8 hrs. Began with some attitude inst flying, climbs, descents, climbing/descending turns, etc. Began with ILS 9, followed by GPS 1. Starting to figure out this garmin 400. He handled most of the comms...felt like I'd never been in a plane before and was way behind everything. Came back to land, couldn't find the grass strip too easily, learned some landmarks for downwind, base, final, etc. Came back for lunch and more ground...he said I was doing very well, perhaps a couple days ahead of where I should be...that's good I guess. After lunch, went over appch plates a bit more, and set out for more approaches. Started with ILS, followed by GPS, then a VOR. After the VOR, I was feeling a bit queasy...probably due to the hot temps with the sun beating down, lots of turbc, and lack of seeing out the windows. He suggested I take off the blinders and fly vfr for a while, did a full stop ILS at FLO and took about a 30min break to recover. Went back up, proceeded with a GPS, then VOR, and finally one more ILS before heading back home. He did most of the comms for the day, but started giving me more of that responsibility as our flights went on. Second flight was about 2.5 hrs. I'm still thinking my biggest problem will be with the comms...just not that used to the lingo and dealing with the tower. Coming back, was able to pick out the airfield and pattern references...did showed me a quick way to slow the plane if you need to...pull up and dump in the flaps...went from 100 to about 50 in 2-3 seconds...as we hit about 50, he nosed over into the craziest rollercoaster ride of my life, about crapped my pants and screamed like a little girl. Forgot to mention that we had to set his vertical card compass, so learned how to do that too. Overall, a very demanding day, but lots of fun as well...except for the queasiness...hope that doesn't become routine. Learned that the instructor is pretty picky on things, but I consider that a big plus...will make me a safer, more precise pilot...”more right rudder!!” Anyway, was pretty worn out by end of the day, especially my right leg.

DAY 2 – Tuesday, Apr 3, 2007

Approaches, approaches, approaches, and a lot of holding patterns. Spent the day doing all of the above. Had a bit of an oil leak along the side of the cowling after the first flight, then checked it out. Took the cowling off and made sure everything looked ok...probably just a seal beginning to go. Threw everything back together, then more approaches and holding. Worked our way up through published missed procedures and holds and finally to intersection holds with both two and one VOR receiver. Was a good day overall, though very tiring. Overall, did about another 4 1/2 hrs of flight for the day.

DAY 3 – Wednesday, Apr 4, 2007

Had planned to head out to Myrtle Beach. I spent the night prior going over the plates for MYR, though when we arrived, I found that we were going to CRE instead...wasted time before I guess...should have asked about that. Planned that we were going to be spending the day out there doing approaches. After arriving, about 1.3hrs, went out to eat at a nice little "breakfast all day" type of place, then back to the airport. We then decided we'd head to CAE. Forgot to mention that it was windy, very windy, and lots of turbc...so was a lot of work. On the way to CAE, had a strong headwind...got passed by several cars along the roads from what Gerold was telling me...didn't go direct, but it took us about 2.5hrs from CRE to CAE...long time to be under the hood. Going into CAE we did a visual to 29 on the localizer, since my glide slope and second radio "failed". Also to give me a bit of a break from the hood for a few minutes. Landed at CAE and stretched our legs for a little while, then did up another flight plan back to FLO, where we'd shoot a few more approaches before calling it a day. Went in to FLO on the GPS 9 approach, went missed and followed up with a GPS 27...missed, then back to Timmonsville. Was a very long, grueling day and 5.9 hrs of flight. Forgot to mention that Gerold scheduled my checkride for next Wednesday...one week from today. Seems pretty quick to me, but he's confident that I'll be ready. That'd only make the checkride on my 10th day of instruction.

DAY 4 – Thursday, Apr 5, 2007

Wow...another 5.9hrs for the day. One day of that was enough, two is a killer. I hope we don't do that much tomorrow. Anyway, today was spent all our time at FLO doing approaches. We started into the partial panel holds and approaches through the day, then moved on to steep turns and unusual attitudes. Our plan for today and from here on out, other than the long XC, is pretty much checkride prep doing everything as I will on the big day next Wednesday. Also near the end of the day, we did my first VOR DME arc approach...didn't go too badly, sounds a lot harder in the books than actually performing it. The partial panel took a bit of work to get used to, but after adjusting to the new scan, it wasn't all that bad...plus it makes you appreciate the vacuum system that much more. Well, my brain is pretty well mush for the day, so I think this is about all I'll write about it.

DAY 5 – Friday, Apr 6, 2007

Started with approaches at FLO...checkride prep. ILS 9, published missed and hold, then in on the VOR-A, followed by Full GPS 1. After all that, out to the practice area for steep turns and unusual attitudes. In the afternoon, we did approaches to other places around the area. First we were off to Darlington for the GPS approach, then to Marlboro county airport for another GPS approach, then back in to Timmonsville and called it a day. Total for the day was 4.8hrs.

DAY 6 – Saturday, Apr 7, 2007

Did our long XC today. Went to the FLO VOR, then along V259 to CRE for a touch and go...30kt crosswind, was glad I had an instructor with me because that was rough. Never would have tried that one myself. After the touch and go, we headed SW along V1 to KIMMY intersection before heading westbound towards the VAN VOR. Had groundspeeds of about 60kts going west with a strong headwind. Constant Mdt turbc was the rule for the day, and it got old quick. We ended up landing at OGB for lunch and gas. Ended up meeting my examiner while there, seems like a nice guy. Also bumped the checkride up to this coming Tuesday, rather than Wednesday since the weather looked bad. After that, we headed back towards FLO for the ILS...of course about halfway into the approach we had a sim failed glide slope and finished up the approach with localizer only. Headed back to Timmonsville after the missed approach and called it a day, finishing up with 4.5hrs. Only a few days left till the checkride, so the light is at the end of the tunnel.

DAY 7 – Sunday, Apr 8, 2007

Continuing with checkride prep and just building up the hours towards the min requirements since we've covered everything. Approach after approach was the deal for the day. Our checkride prep involved taking off on 14 at 58J, picking up the FLO ATIS during our climb, turning westbound and calling approach, and then getting vectors to the ILS 9 approach. The approach went pretty smooth, though it was again a pretty turbulent day outside...also a little cold once again. After reaching our decision height, I'd follow with the published missed procedure and hold at the VOR. I flew about 3-4 laps in the holding pattern, and "poof" just like magic, I had a vacuum failure and we were then into the partial panel portion of the flight. I flew a few more laps in the hold partial panel, then extended our outbound leg prior to turning inbound for the VOR-A approach partial panel. My instructor had tightened up his tolerances quite a bit by today, so it felt like I was on day 1 again with all the corrections/adjustments he threw my way. "Watch that altitude!"..."don't let that needle swing out of center!". Following the VOR-A, we magically got our vacuum system back and proceeded to the full GPS 1 approach with the full panel. Everything here went pretty smooth. After the GPS 1, we headed out to the practice area for the steep turns and unusual attitudes...a few of each with the full panel, then a few of each again partial panel. After going through this entire list of things once, we did it a couple more times before calling it a day. Total flight time for the day was 3.2hrs. Only one more training day left before the checkride!

DAY 8 – Monday, Apr 9, 2007

Today's training was a little more realistic in a way apart from the usual round of approaches. We had to go up to FAY to get his GPS worked on, so we'd be doing another short XC. I drew up our flight plan and called in to get a quick briefing before we headed out. Looks like the weather today would be quite a bit better (turbulence wise) compared to the last several days. It was a glass smooth trip up and back. I couldn't believe how busy the approach/tower freq's were up at FAY...was tough to get a word in. Appeared that there was quite a bit of the Army guys up flying around at the time helping to congest the approach controller. We hung out there for a few hours while getting the work done on the plane and while we grabbed a bite to eat before heading back. Before calling it a day though, we went through one more round of the "mock checkride" at FLO before landing back at 58J. Last day of training has come and gone...I hope I'm ready! Gerold assures me that if I can fly to his standards, I'll have no problems...let's hope so. Total flight time today was 3.3hrs.

DAY 9, Tuesday, Apr 10, 2007–THE CHECKRIDE

Well, it's checkride day, and I hope I'm ready. I show up today about 11, the appointment with the examiner is at 1. We go over a bit more ground school while lounging around the office and making sure all the paperwork is in order. After that's wrapped up, we kick back and watch the King IFR DVD to see if there's anything good in there that might be useful for my checkride. The examiner showed up at about 1:30 and we started in on the oral portion of the test. Everything here went pretty well, several questions about enroute charts and approach plates. A couple questions about weather...but after he figured out I was a weather guy, we skipped the rest of the weather questions he had lined up since I had taught him a few things already. He'd been questioning me for about 30min and said "OK, let's go fly!". Wow, I thought the oral portion would last a bit longer than that, but I won't complain. So we strapped into the plane and I made sure to get everything done on the ground that I could. Made thorough explanations of everything I was doing with the preflight and run up before departing. While climbing out, I tune in the ATIS and hear "ILS 9 not operational". What?? I had to hear it again to see if I heard wrong. This isn't good, the last thing I need on the checkride is some out of the ordinary, but at least it’s a realistic problem. We call up approach and ask about how long the ILS will be down. While waiting on a reply, my examiner explains that the ILS needs to be done, and the next closest one is at MYR. A bit of a flight out of the way, but I guess if we have to do it, we have to. Approach comes back on and informs me that the ILS is still useable and that it is scheduled to be worked on later in the day, so they clear us for the vectored ILS 9. Great...back to the plan. The ILS approach goes flawlessly, probably my best one yet. Though by this point I also notice that the Lgt-Mdt turbulence is again back today...hope it doesn't get much worse though. After the ILS we wanted the published missed and hold. We didn’t get to do it exactly as published, but pretty close, so it went ok. Had a good entry into the pattern, then departure asks me to climb to 2500, rather than the published 2000. OK, no big deal, will just have to keep in mind that there's an extra 500ft to lose when we go inbound for the VOR-A. After 2-3 circuits in the hold, the vacuum system fails and we do 2 more holds partial panel. I extend my outbound leg by a minute before turning inbound for the VOR-A...and losing that extra altitude. The VOR approach went much better than it had on a few other occasions, though this turbulence is trying to get the better of me. Constant power changes are in order to keep our speed where it needs to be while gaining/losing altitude induced by thermals and downdrafts. After passing the VOR inbound, I forgot to start the timer and began my descent to the MDA. It took about 20 seconds before I realized it...and after the examiner asked how I'd know when we got to the missed point. I started the timer and explained that I would subtract 20 seconds from the 2:36 listed on the approach plate as an approximation. Everything else on the approach went smoothly. After that, we headed out for the full GPS 1...no problems at all. Next, we headed out to the practice area for the maneuvers. We started with the unusual attitudes, both full and partial panel, then the examiner told me to head back to 58J to land. After landing, we taxi back up to the hanger and shut down. The examiner tells me that I did great and he'll meet me inside while working on the paperwork for my temporary certificate. I made it! The flight lasted about 1.3hrs all together, and I'm now an Instrument rated pilot!

A Series of Flights

Well, it’s been a while since I’ve added anything to the page, so now it’s time to enter a series of flights that I had on a recent trip. If I had the money, this would likely be about a flight to my destination in the Midwest, though since I’m poor, that won’t be the case.

A view of the local scenery


Instead, I flew just over 6 hours around the Midwest a within the past couple of weeks. To begin the adventure, I had to receive a checkout from the airport since it had been over two years since I had last flown with them.

It turned out to be a nice day for the checkout and everything went according to plan. I performed a few stalls, both straight and turning, some slow flight and finally finishing up with a sim engine out and a landing.

One of the lakes in the area


After getting the formalities behind me, it was time to take the plane home for a few days. Heading for home was nothing of a surprise, as well as the plane I was flying. It was an older 172 that was pretty beat up, and I had flown it in the past. The one biggest difference with it this time around would be the one thing that gave me grief during my flying adventures.

The nosewheel on the plane had been jacked way up by the flight school that I rented it from in hopes to save it from the hard landings of student pilots. The problem with this is that it makes the plane sit very low in the back which can be pretty awkward. The airplane would want to take off before I hit rotation speed, so I’d have to hold it on the ground for a bit before climbing out. This wasn’t too big of a hassle, but when coming in to land, it made things pretty exciting.
Wind generators all around



Trying to land a very tail low plane can be quite a chore when you aren’t used to it, and I wasn’t. As soon as I’d touch down, it wanted to bounce right back into the air because of the nose high attitude. This created the opposite of what normally would be done while landing.

Instead of trying to keep the nose up after landing, I had to work to keep it down on the ground, and this resulted in 2 bouncing go arounds during my time with the plane and several less than par landings. It was enough to make me uncomfortable at times, though I had handled it pretty well, and expected it with each landing.

Somebody out for a day of water skiing



As far as the flights went, I didn’t fly anyplace in particular for the most part, mainly just some sightseeing flights with family and friends, including my 4 month old’s second, third, and fourth flights. I hit another milestone during these six hours as well, one that included my 100th flight.

One of the flights took me to a new airport in the area near a busy Class C airport just up the road to go and visit my sister and her husband. The weather for the trip was questionable at first, even though it was clear and seven.

A veiw over the home town




Through the few days preceding this flight, the winds across the region has been pretty strong, around 20-25kts at the surface, and a bit stronger a couple thousand feet above.

When the day of the trip came, I had decided to go out and get the plane ready and make the weather decision after getting everything ready to go. The plane was rocking around quite a bit on the ground with the gusty winds, though they were oriented nearly down the runway. This would provide a bit of a crosswind situation on take-off, pretty close to 12-15kts from what I had calculated. My worry was more along the lines of turbulence and wind shear with the strong winds.

A nice shot of the ISU Cyclones stadium


I decided to take off and if it was too bumpy, we would return and make the 2 hour drive instead. After getting airborne, I found that there was very little shear with the winds, and it was one of the smoothest days yet.

About 45 minutes later, I had arrived at our destination airport and entered into the traffic pattern on a left base as no one else was around. After turning on to final, I once again felt the strong winds try to push me away from the centerline of the runway.

It took just about all the rudder that was available to tame the crosswind, though I was still coming down fine. By this point, there were two other aircraft behind me in the pattern.

As I leveled off just prior to touchdown, the winds kicked up stronger right as my wheels touched the ground. Perfect timing for an airplane with a nose high attitude.

Bounce one, bounce two.

"Traffic, 440 going around, watch out for a wind shift just above the surface,” I stated on the radio providing a bit of information to the flights just behind me.

Going back through the pattern was pretty uneventful and we had a much better touchdown and landing. The next hurdle was to find a parking space. As I taxied near the FBO, I found that there was only one tie down left, looks like we got here just in time.

I tied the plane down and we headed out to meet our ride with my sister who had come to pick us up.

Even with the issues with the plane, it was still a fun trip, and it added another 6.1 to the log books, along with a few cross-country hours that I need before moving on to the instrument rating.

Hopefully now that I’m home again, I’ll be able to get up and flying one of these days as soon as I get the time.

Down and Locked

Well, I got the complex endorsement out of the way a while back now, and it was time to get onto the next phase of transitioning to the Arrow. My instructor had suggested that I fly the plane for 30-45 minutes solo in the pattern before heading anywhere in particular. So here I was, ready for some solo flight in the new plane, ready to accomplish this and get a little more comfortable in the aircraft.

It turned out to be a great day for my first one up by myself in the Arrow; only a few clouds, light winds, and not too warm. For a change, I managed to get out to the airport in the morning, hoping to escape the afternoon heat and turbulence.

Once at the airport, I made my way out to the Arrow for the preflight. I Looked things over carefully, as there is nobody to tell me I missed something, and I find that everything is in order. The tanks are topped off and ready to go, I am now set for 45 minutes or an hour in the pattern. I hop in, get settled, and begin the pre-takeoff checklist. I go through each item on the list and everything’s good…time to get rolling.

I start the engine, make a quick look over at the windsock, and see that the winds are favoring runway 23 today, so I head out and am on my way.

Arriving at the runway, I complete the pre-takeoff run-up and taxi onto the runway. I add full power, noticing even more how much power this plane had with only myself in it, and before I make it to the first taxiway intersection, I’m in the air.

“Passing through 50ft, positive rate of climb…gear up…lights are out,” I tell myself as I climb up towards pattern altitude.

Once turning onto downwind, I am set at pattern altitude and trimmed for 120. By this point, it’s already time to begin the pre-landing check.

“Fuel tank, fuel pump, gear down…three-green and locked, mixture, prop, seatbelts”, or so the GUMPS mantra goes.

Once I was abeam to the numbers, I pull back the power and drop in 10 degrees of flaps. Trim back for 100 and I’m ready for the base leg.

After my radio call for base, and leveling out in the turn, I increase flaps to 25 and trim back for 90mph. The patterns go very quickly moving along this fast, and as I get settled in, it’s nearly time to turn final.

Rolling out into final, I make the last adjustments prior to landing. Speed back to 85, gear down three-green and locked. With everything looking good, I find I am a little high, so I slip it just slightly, bringing the Arrow back on the proper glide slope. I glide above the runway threshold and reduce power to idle, coming in for a slightly bumpy landing. Not my best landing, but as my instructor said, landings in the Arrow are generally a little more firm than in the Cessna, plus it’ll take a bit to get more of a feel for this plane.

I do several more take-offs and landings, and decide to attempt a go around, just for a little practice. I come in over the numbers, still a little high for a normal landing, and would have likely gone around as it was being this high.

“Full power, positive rate of climb…gear up…lights are out.” I tell myself as I execute the go around. Once climbing to a safe altitude, I gradually bring the flaps back up.

I complete several more circuits around the pattern and am now ready to come in for a few more, as I still have about 15 minutes left for the day. I get the plane trimmed out on downwind and am again ready for the pre-landing check.

“Fuel tank and pump, gear down…not locked?!” Well, there’s a problem.

Looking at the gear indicator bulbs, I see that the nose gear light is not illuminated. The first step in troubleshooting the problem is to try a different bulb. I swap the bulb with one of the ones for the main gear, which are working, but to no avail, the light is still out. Realizing that I may have the nose gear not extended, I notice that there is a Mooney holding short at runway 23. I call my base leg and ask the pilot waiting to check my gear as I make a low pass. I purposely come in a bit high as I turn towards final and am hoping the other pilot has good news for me.

“Piper, I’m checking your gear,” the other pilot says over the radio. It seems like a while before he finally says, “it looks like the nose gear is all the way down.”

Exactly what I wanted to hear, I proceeded to add power and go around. I raised the gear once I got the climb established (which I later find out is not the correct thing to do), and head back around for another pattern. The lights all go out when I raise the gear, and the sounds are normal. The FBO calls me on the radio and asks if the gear went up alright and if I had tried a different bulb when I was having problems. I tell them yes to both and by this point, I’m on downwind, ready to begin the checks once again.

As I lower the gear this time around, I pay even closer attention to the gear bulbs and the light tap felt on the rudders when the gear go down as they should. All three bulbs illuminate and I get the familiar tap on my feet.

Seeing that the gear went down correctly, I decide that it’s probably time to call it quits for the day. I bring the plane down onto final and have the smoothest landing of the day, a great way to finish up.

I taxi back into the parking spot, complete the shutdown checklist, and clean things up a bit. After tying down the plane, I head back inside. Once inside, my wife, who heard all the commotion over the radio in the FBO, asked what had happened. I told her what had happened and how I had handled the situation, and proceeded to fill out my logbook. Another 0.8 in the books, 11 take-offs and landings, and my first PIC (pilot in command) time in an Arrow.

As I take the clipboard back up to the front desk, I talk to the guy working for a few minutes about the gear problems. I explained to him in a bit more detail what had happened, and just as I finished telling my story, he began with his.

“When the other pilot checked your gear and said they were down, you should have landed then and brought it in to get looked at. We thought you were coming in, but then we saw you added power and lifted the gear. The old guys around here wondering what the heck you were doing!”

He gave me a little tip on what should have been done in this situation, luckily though, everything turned out fine the way I had done things. He said that having the gear verified down, I should have landed and not raised them back up, incase they might not come down the next time.

That thought had occurred to me, though when I was over the runway, I was skeptical that the gear was in the “locked” position. I’d hate to land only to find out that it was down, but not locked, thereby collapsing once there was weight on it. Apparently, though, this was not the correct thing to do, so the other people at the FBO had their turn at me.

After realizing how I should have handled things, I was happy that things turned out well without any further problems. On the way out to the car, I run into one of the older guys that hang around at the airport on the weekends, and he asks me about what happened. I guess he was one of the people inside giving me crap as they saw me going back up.

I told him my story, and he helped to end the day on a little better note.

“Well, you did alright up there and I probably would have done the same thing. It’s a lot easier for us guys standing down here to say what you should’ve done, than for you up there your first time. You did a good job though.”

I appreciated hearing this and it made me feel a bit better about the whole situation, but at least this is one lesson I won’t forget.

Complex Aircraft Endorsement: Part 3

Again, the posts show up backwards, so if you haven’t already, start with the first one of this series below and work your way up.

Well, today was the day to go back out to the airport and finish up my complex aircraft training. It ended up being another nice day (not sure how that happened) but a little windy, just the same. My wife and son decided to come along with me today hoping to take a few pictures and to meet my instructor.

I go out a little early to begin the preflight of the airplane, and everything looks like it’s in good shape and is ready to fly. Just about the time I finish up, my instructor meets me at the plane and is ready to go.

As I mentioned earlier, it was quite windy out today and if we were to take off using the paved strip here, I’d have a pretty stiff crosswind to compete with. I take the challenge, and head out to runway 05 for takeoff.

I’m starting to get a better feel for the plane now, and the taxi is a little better than I had done the previous day. As we line up for takeoff, I make my final checks on the plane. With everything looking as it should, we depart, headed to the north to do a little VOR work. I level the plane off at 3500 inbound to the Chesterfield VOR and I practice a few intercepts as we’re discussing the plane a little more.

“Do you see the air traffic over to the left?” says my instructor, pointing across me out the left window of the plane.

“Is he high or low? I’m not seeing him out there.” After a few seconds of scanning the air to the left of us, I suddenly feel like we’re climbing. For the time being, I disregard the traffic and bring my scan back inside the plane to the instruments. Sure enough, we’re flying along with our nose about 30 degrees up.

“We have an electric trim malfunction,” states my instructor, as I notice he’s holding the trim switch…and I thought he was pointing towards the traffic outside my window.

“We sure do,” I say as I reach ahead of the yoke to hit the electric trim button to disable it. I level us out and re-trim the plane manually and we’re set.

He got me pretty good there, I really thought he was pointing out the window at traffic…crafty flight instructors. After a few minutes of VOR work and it’s time to head back towards the airport for some landing practice.

I navigate back to the field using the Loran in the aircraft, which is still a little new to me, as normally I use either pilotage or VOR’s for my navigation. Once I have the airport in sight, we decide that since there’s such a strong wind, that we’ll set up for a pattern entry for runway 32, the grass strip.

Once established in the pattern, I go through the GUMPS check and we’re good for the landing. We do two landings and takeoffs from the grass strip, then come back in for another landing and I set up for a short field takeoff.

“Flaps to 25, brakes set, full power, release brakes…climb at 65,” I say aloud as I begin the procedure.

The 200 horses get the plane off the ground before we arrive at the intersecting paved runway, and we’re up again for another go round.

By this point, we decide to begin using runway 05 once again to work on a few crosswind landings. The first couple go pretty well, and as we’re climbing back around for another go at it, My instructor and I notice a problem. Looking at the ammeter gauge, which shows the battery/alternator information, shows that we have no charge coming from the alternator.

I state that this isn’t an immediate emergency, though it is still something where we should land in a timely matter to have it checked out. First, however, I’ll try some quick troubleshooting. I proceed to switch the alternator off for a couple seconds, and then flip it back on. What do you know, it worked, and our alternator was again producing a charge.

That was my first actual problem that I’ve encountered so far in my flying career, and I was able to handle it in a timely matter and get it resolved. It’s good to know that I’ve been trained well enough to spot a problem and know what to do to fix it without freaking out.

With the alternator problem out of the way, I do a few more landings, including a go around on one of my not so great approaches, and finally head back in to shut down after about one hour of flight time.

Thinking that we couldn’t be done yet, I ask my instructor what we’re doing.

“That’s it, you know what you’re doing and are ready to go,” he tells me.

I was a bit surprised by this because I had planned on about two hours of flight time today before I would be signed off. Either way, here I was, now ready to get endorsed on flying complex aircraft, and it even cost me a little less than expected…something I never thought I’d say in the same sentence as anything to do with flying.

So now the mission is complete, and I have a new endorsement in my logbook. Just one more step towards becoming a better pilot. Now all I have to do is schedule my next flight!

Complex Aircraft Endorsement: Part 2

These posts seemed to come in backwards, be sure to read the Part 1 post below first.

Upon arriving at the airport for the checkout, we started with the ground instruction portion of the training going over all of the different aircraft systems, how they work, what makes them work, etc. After my instructor was satisfied that I had done my homework, we headed out to the plane to do a preflight inspection. Here is a picture of the plane I will be flying.



After finishing up the preflight, we get strapped in and are ready to go. I take a few minutes before starting up the engine to get familiar with the different layout of the panel. There are not a whole lot of differences in the panel from what I am used to flying, though some items are located in a different place, and there are the new items, such as the autopilot. Here is a picture of the instrument panel in this aircraft.

As we begin to taxi out to take off, I notice right away that this aircraft is quite a bit different from what I am used to. The biggest thing on the ground is that the plane is a lot tougher to turn than a Cessna. It takes a lot more of a push to get those rudder pedals moving to turn the plane. At the same time though, this stiffer control seems to make it easier to go in a straight line once you are moving. With the winds being out of the south today, we will be taking off from runway 23, and then heading to the east towards the practice area.

As we roll down the runway, it’s easy to tell that this plane has a larger engine, as it set me back in my seat pretty good. We lift off at about 65mph (yep, the airspeed indicator in this plane is in mph, rather than in knots…will take some getting used to), and the plane seems to leap right off the runway and into the air. So far, the plane seems a lot more stable in the air than the Cessna’s do.

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Heading towards the east, I level it off at 1200 to remain under the class C airspace above us. This particular aircraft is equipped with DME (Distance Measuring Equipment), which we use to determine when we can safely climb without busting the class C airspace. DME is nothing more than a receiver that picks up VOR navigation signals and computes the distance from it. Not all VOR stations contain DME information, but the one we are using provides this. This will be something that I’ll get into more in the future when I begin training for my instrument rating.

Once out to the practice area, we begin with a couple 360 turns to make sure there is nobody else flying around that we’ll interfere with during our maneuvers. We proceed to climb up to 3500ft to begin the real training. For starters, my instructor suggests slow flight. I bring the power back, followed by the prop lever, to establish about 70mph, which simulates coming in for a landing. The controls at this point get what can be described as mushy, as there is less airflow over the control surfaces due to the reduced speed. This aircraft normally cruises at about 150mph, so this is much different from flying along as usual. After doing a few turns in slow flight and getting the feel for it, it’s time to begin the stall practice.

Here is where I had a little trouble, as this plane stalls quite a bit different from the Cessna’s I’m used to. First off, when breaking into the stall, you really have to drop the nose to keep it flying, followed by immediate full power, flaps up, landing gear up, etc. It took me a few tries before I finally got this right as I wasn’t pitching down enough as we stalled, leading to secondary stalls. In the Cessna’s, you can barely notice the sink in a power off stall, and it almost recovers on its own. In the Arrow, it makes things a lot more exciting and instantly shoves your stomach right up into your throat. Either way, after a few more of these, I get the hang of it and proceed to the power-on stalls, simulating a stall while taking off at full power.

After the stalls are out of the way, we move on to steep turns. These include 360+ degree turns at a 45-degree bank angle…doesn’t seem like much, but it feels like you are almost straight up on your side. This plane, I’ve noticed takes quite a bit more power in the steep turns to maintain altitude than the Cessna, but other than that, it isn’t much different. My instructor then asks if I’ve ever done really steep turns; 60 degrees of bank. I tell him that I have not, so here we go. Now, if the 45 turns felt like being up on your side, imagine how the 60 felt. To maintain altitude in this configuration, it took nearly full power, and a full 2 G’s to keep the airplane turning while maintaining altitude, makes me wonder what it’s like to fly a fighter plane or other high-performance aircraft. The 60 turns were a lot of fun, but we just did a couple of those so I could get the feel for it, and then we were now ready to cover some emergency procedures.

For today, all we would cover was an emergency descent, something that may be needed incase of an engine fire during flight. The goal here is to lose altitude as quick as possible while maintaining a speed of about 105mph. To do this, I lower the landing gear and flaps, to increase drag, pull the power back to idle, and point the nose towards the ground. This was actually quite a bit of fun in a way, I’m not sure what our nose-down pitch was, but if I had to estimate, I’d say about 40 would be a reasonable number. Either way, it seemed as if we were in a nosedive straight to the ground.

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After finishing some emergency work, we head back to the airport for some landing practice, or so I thought. About 10 miles from the airport, we suddenly lose engine power. I go through the engine out procedures and find a suitable landing area nearby; a plowed field that looked to be about 3000ft long…perfect for an off airport landing. Of course, this was all simulated, and it was my instructor who pulled back the power. This is a common practice any time there is an instructor in the plane with you, but if it’s ever need, the practice will be well worth it.

After arriving in the pattern, it’s time get to the real deal in this new airplane. In the pattern, I now have a new checklist that I’ll need to follow. It’s easily remembered by the acronym, GUMPS. Gas, Undercarriage, Mixture, Prop, Seatbelts. Gas, meaning, make sure that the fuel tank switch is on the fullest tank and that the auxiliary fuel pump is now turned on. Undercarriage, meaning to lower the landing gear and verify that they are down and locked. Mixture, means to increase the mixture to the full rich position. Prop, means to set the propeller controller to full speed. Finally, Seatbelts, means to ensure that everyone in the plane has there seatbelts on. After completing the checklist, we’re now ready to land the plane. All of this takes place in just a few seconds time while on abeam to the runway, and all of this needs to be completed before proceeding. As we turn onto final for the runway, there’s one more checklist item. In the past, with the Cessna’s, it was to verify the final approach speed in my mind. Now I can add to that. When on final approach in this aircraft, I verify the final approach speed and once again that the landing gear are down and locked.

As I begin the roundout over the runway, I settle the plane into a flare.

“Too much,” exclaims my instructor as he takes control and finished landing the plane.

He explains to me that you cannot flare an aircraft like this as I would in a Cessna. To make a long story short, here’s the deal. In a Cessna, normally you touch down on the runway at the moment that the wing stalls, which will normally end up with a very smooth landing…a greaser. I’ve gotten pretty good at these in the Cessna, and my instructor says that normally you can expect a greaser about 1 in every 4 times in a Cessna, whereas, in the Arrow, because you need to come in and land more “flat”, that they are more like 1 in 50. Normally, you can expect a harder landing in this plane, he continues.

Now that I’m armed with a little more knowledge, I take off again for another pattern. Coming in to land this time, we do a partial flap landing, where the flaps are only set to 10 degrees, normal being set to 40. With less flaps, this means less drag and less lift, so the approach speed needs to be higher. I bring the airplane onto final approach with this in mind.

“Final approach speed, 90, gear down and locked,” I say aloud, appeasing my instructor.

I bring the plane in nice and flat over the runway and round out about 10ft above the ground and the plane slowly settles onto the runway…a greaser. I guess it must be beginners luck if I can only expect a greaser once for every fifty landings. It looks like most of our time is up for the day, so we taxi back to our parking spot. I got one more point with my instructor when I was pulling the plane into its parking spot. I was pulling in between two other aircraft, which would necessitate pulling straight in, turning around 180 degrees, and lining up on the parking spot so I can tie down the plane.

“If you can get us on this parking spot, I’ll be really impressed.”

I reply, “Well, lets see here…just a bit more…and…there.”

Nicely done, and as we get out of the plane, we both notice that I’m right on the line for a perfect park job…in my opinion, one of the hardest parts of flying is getting around on the ground. Well, it looks like I’ve rambled on enough for now, and I’m not even finished yet. Tomorrow, I’ll be completing my checkout as I have about another 2 hours of flying to do before I get endorsed. Until then…

Complex Aircraft Endorsement: Part 1

Today I began instruction to get my complex aircraft endorsement in the local airport’s Piper Arrow II. I wanted to do this several years ago, though I ended up leaving the area before getting around to doing it. I finally ended up with the time and money to get started doing this.

First, I’ll give a little background on what this entails. With a private pilot license, I am allowed only to fly certain types of aircraft; these being 200 horsepower or less, and non-complex. Complex aircraft are ones that have retractable landing gear, a constant-speed propeller, and flaps. Previously, with just the private certificate and no endorsements, I wasn’t allowed to fly these types of aircraft. The local airport had available a Piper Arrow that qualified for the complex aircraft type. This aircraft contains many things that would be new to me as a pilot. It has, of course, retractable landing gear, a 200hp engine, and an autopilot. All of these things would obviously require a little extra instruction before I would be competent to fly such an aircraft.

My training in the new aircraft began a week or so ago, when I started reading up on the aircraft that I would be checked out in. This involved spending several hours reading and learning the operating handbook for the particular aircraft, to learn about how the retractable landing gear, constant-speed prop, and autopilot work. Reading through this, I learn all the ins and outs of the different systems and how they operate. A constant-speed prop is something that works similar to a transmission in a car. The way it operates is that instead of the throttle controller how fast the prop spins, it is always turning at a constant speed, which is controlled by the prop lever. This produces a more efficient propeller for flying. Setting the prop lever full forward, for example, produces maximum RPM for the prop, while the angle of the blades is at a minimum, taking a small bite of the air. Moving the prop lever aft reduces the RPM of the blades and increases the angle of the blades; which takes a larger bite of the air. This is a simple explanation of the constant-speed prop works, but that pretty much covers what it does.

An example of how the constant-speed prop benefits the aircraft would be this. If you are flying along at altitude, and were to pull the prop lever aft, this would slow the speed of the propeller, thereby reducing gas consumption. To be able to attain the same airspeed as before though, the angle of the blades must be greater than before, as the speed that the blades turn is slower. The prop lever adjusts both of these to attain that configuration. The below is an example of the different configurations using a crappy drawn side view that I did to help show this.

After I became comfortable in the workings of the aircraft, it was time to get ahold of my instructor and get scheduled for the training. He tells me to expect about 3 hours of flight time and an hour of ground instruction before being endorsed to fly the aircraft.

Conor's First Flight

Well, the time finally came to take our first flight with our little boy, Conor, who is just over 2 months old. We had wanted to take him for a flight for a while now, but we had an obstacle to overcome first.

Here's one for you, try finding some sort of hearing protection for a baby sized head...you can't. I searched the internet high and low for something to protect his ears yet found nothing. Stumbling through the AOPA website, I found an article about just this. Someone else had written about the same problem we were having and they also had not found anything available for a baby. They did, however, assemble their own headset with some common items found either around the house, or at most retail stores. Seeing this, we were off to find the items we needed. We followed the instructions given and modified a few things ourselves and ended up with a Conor-sized headset that actually cuts out quite a bit of noise.

After the headset construction was out of the way, we were ready to go flying. We decided that a shorter flight might be best for Conor’s first time, just incase he didn't enjoy it as much as myself, so I planned out a flight for about 1 hour that which would take us over the Darlington racetrack and back (since my wife wanted to see the track also). One of these days, I need to go somewhere else, I notice now that all my flights that I've written about included flying over the racetrack...

It turned out to be a nice day for a flight, though a little windy at the surface. We got Conor’s car seat loaded into the backseat of the 172, and it fit in there great, almost better than in the car. After doing the preflight and taking a few pictures of an old airplane at the airport, we were ready to go.



We took off from runway 05 with a pretty strong crosswind from the right, just about 11kts, and enough to grab my attention as we left the ground. A little bit of a crab and we were set with the runway behind us on our way.

After we leveled off for the trip, I noticed that flight visibility wasn't too great, there were a lot of fires around the area and the smoke ahead was pretty thick, I estimated about 5 miles vis. Still well above VFR minimums, and I'd seen worse, but it still didn't look as nice as it had from the ground.



As we're nearing our destination, I see a thick plume of smoke just to the left of our course; looks like someone burning some brush out in their back yard. As I'm looking over towards the fire, I see a shadow on the ground mysteriously in the shape of an airplane that I don't see in the air. After scanning the area for a minute or so, I finally spot the ghost airplane. It looks like they're flying through the area of smoke to check it out a bit, and they're about 1000 feet below our altitude. I keep a close eye on them, only to find that they're climbing now, and turning towards our position. It makes me wonder if they see me, so I give the wings a gentle rock, hoping that the late afternoon sun will give them a flash to the eyes and get their attention. Looks like it worked, because after doing this, I see the other Cessna rock their wings and turn back away from our area.

About 5 minutes later, I could now see the track up ahead in the haze. I look to the backseat to check on Conor and it looks like he's doing fine up to this point, hopefully he's having a little fun anyway. We make a few circles around the track before and then head back towards Sumter.



The ride back went a little quicker than the trip up, as we were now taking advantage of a light tailwind, but on the way, I decided to take a detour through the smoke plume that the other aircraft had earlier on the flight. The smoke over the area wasn't thick at all, flight vis fluctuated very little going through, but we had a moment to get a quick whiff of the hickory-smoke smell and we were then back on track towards Sumter.

About 10 miles out, I dial in the AWOS at Sumter to check on the winds, wondering if there was still a crosswind to 05.

In the usual, droning mechanical voice, "Sumter municipal airport automated weather observation, two-zero-two-seven zulu...winds calm." Nice, this would allow a more straight forward pattern entry into runway 05 once again.



As I was about to turn onto right-base, I hear a King Air announcing a cross midfield for entry into the pattern. Somewhat concerned that he might overtake my position in the pattern as he's flying at least twice my speed, I announce again that I'm on base for 05. The King Air asks me for my intentions, I fill him in, and he mentions that he has us in sight and will extend his downwind to follow us in.

As we roll onto final, it looks like we're a bit high, so I drop the plane into a slip to lose a bit of altitude, putting us right back on track for landing. As I begin the flare, I see there's another Cessna headed up towards runway 05; a busy day at the Sumter airport I guess. Now that I have everyone watching, I figure it's time for the usual bumpy landing. I got lucky this time though and had another smooth landing and we taxied back to the ramp, adding another 0.8 to the books.

As we get out of the plane and begin to tie it down for the night, I ask my wife how little Conor did, and she tells me that he slept about half of the flight. Not too bad I guess; I figured he'd sleep the whole flight. She tells me that he got scared a couple of times when we hit the usual bumps, but then he'd go right back to sleep. As long as he had fun, I'm sure he'll have many more flights in the future.