Same story as last time — went up for a few spins in the pattern and tried to work on keeping the yoke straight during my flare. This time things went much better! I think the key was — I was wearing a light coat instead of a bulky winter one! That’s right, I think part of my problem was my big puffy winter coat was making it difficult to bring my arm straight back. Wearing the lighter coat seemed to make the problem disappear… who would’ve thought my choice in outerwear would have such an impact on my flight?
Not much to report today. We flew left and right traffic for runway 35, did a simulated engine out, and more landing work. I was sloppier in the pattern today compared to last time out — maybe because I’m not as used to the pattern for 35, or maybe it was the higher winds?
Landings are (slowly) progressively getting better… hoping I might actually solo this weekend!
Click the image below for the CloudAhoy track of today’s flight.
Flight time today: 1.7 hours
Total flight time to date: 34.9 hours
Total takeoffs to date: 118
Total landings to date: 114
With my pre-solo checkride taken care of, I just need a signoff from my CFI and a good weather day and I’ll be flying by myself! I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous, so I wasn’t too upset when my CFI told me today wasn’t the day (it was a bit too windy).
I don’t have an appropriate picture for today, so instead here’s a shot I took of some cool flying machines in the hangar:
We went up for some pattern work and landing practice. My CFI “failed” my airspeed and attitude indicators — surprisingly, I think I flew my best patterns to date without them! I felt ahead of the plane and was really working to make sure I could do this alone without input from my instructor. He threw in a simulated engine out to keep me on my toes — I handled it pretty well (we got on the ground in one piece at least!)
My landings are slowly getting better as well — I feel like my timing on the roundout and flare are improving, but today I developed this annoying habit of twisting the yoke as I pulled aft in the flare. It caused the plane to go off the centerline and my instructor was not happy with this turn of events (no pun intended).
Next time we’ll be doing more of the same and trying to get to the bottom of this new yoke-twist thing I’ve got going on.
Click the image below for the CloudAhoy track of today’s flight.
Flight time today: 1.4 hours
Total flight time to date: 33.2 hours
Total takeoffs to date: 111
Total landings to date: 107
I got a phone call from the FBO yesterday after my scratched flight — turns out the mechanic was able to fix the tach and N1727V was back in action! They asked if I wanted to come by this morning to knock the checkride out — they didn’t have to ask me twice!
I was pretty nervous heading to the airport today — I really didn’t want to blow this! What would happen if I completely bombed? Would I need another 30 hours before I’d finally be ready to solo??
When I got to the airport my check CFI was already preflighting the airplane. We got everything squared away and started her up — success! The tach was taching and we were ready to go!
I taxied over to runway 8 and we were off. Standard climb out, then a turn to the north towards the practice area. As we were climbing we were fast approaching some clouds. I didn’t know if this was part of the test…
“Umm, let me know how high you want me to climb…I don’t want to get too close to those clouds.”
“We’ll have to get over them to get to a safe altitude, just keep going,” was the reply.
Woohoo! My first time going through the clouds! I climbed up through the thin layer and soon we were on top of them. It was a pretty cool sight seeing the sun appear as we broke through a floor of cloud cover.
My instructor had me get into slow flight configuration and we worked on some turns. I banked a little too steeply on these. Next we did some power off stall recoveries. He wasn’t happy with my first one (neither was I, to be honest) and he told me to approach it like a scenario. I was supposed to setup for final approach, start descending, and when I got to the “runway” 500 feet below me, I was going to pull back to stall the plane.
I set us up for another try and slowly flared the plane. It didn’t stall. I had the yoke full aft — still nothing. We sat there for a minute, nose pointed into the sky, and both had a quick laugh about how this plane didn’t want to stall today. I brought the nose down to set up again and flared a bit more aggressively this time. The plane finally decided to cooperate and I got my stall and recovered nicely. We did a few more of these then headed back to the airport to try some pattern work.
Along the way, the instructor asked me how I would know if the engine had quit or if it was just idling. I didn’t know the answer. He pulled the throttle and demonstrated idle. Then he showed me a true engine failure — he pulled the mixture to idle cutoff. There was no difference as the prop was windmilling. He said this was an important lesson — never try and stretch a glide thinking you might have a bit of power left in the engine. You really can’t tell if the thing has completely stopped working or not.
We headed for a long straight in for runway 8 and I performed a crosswind landing. It wasn’t great, but I think I did a pretty good job. We did a touch and go and went around the pattern two more times. My pattern work was pretty good and the instructor seemed happy with the landings. I was pretty happy with them, too — I definitely feel like I’m improving.
After our last landing we headed back to the FBO. He told me I had done well and wished me luck with the rest of my training.
One more item ticked off the checklist — now to fly with my regular CFI again and see what’s left before I can solo!
Flight time today: 1.1 hours
Total flight time to date: 31.8 hours
Total takeoffs to date: 105
Total landings to date: 101
Today was the day I was supposed to take my pre-solo checkride with another instructor from my flight school. I was a bit anxious driving out to the airport — it had been a week since I practiced my maneuvers with my regular CFI and I was really hoping I wouldn’t make a fool out of myself!
I met my instructor for the day and we started off going over my logbook and talking about some of the procedures I’ve been training on. I was able to answer most of his questions correctly, but I did get hit with a couple of things I should’ve known but didn’t (like cloud clearance requirements for VFR flight — I keep mixing up the above clouds and below clouds numbers!)
After being sufficiently grilled, we were off to the plane. I did my preflight and we climbed in. I started my pre-start checklist and the differences between the two CFIs became apparent — this CFI wanted me to call out all of the checklist items as I performed them. He mentioned most examiners would expect this during a certificate checkride. I have to say, I love my instructor, but I do like flying with different people because you really do get some different perspectives on things.
I got through the checklist and cranked the starter. The engine started right up and I checked the tach. Nothing! It was pegged on zero. I mentioned this to my instructor and he thought it over for a second. He tapped on the gauge, I ran the engine up to see if it was stuck or something, but nothing worked. He said he would be fine flying without it, but I probably would have a hard time taking the checkride with no tach. We decided to shut down and call a mechanic.
Inside, we had no luck. The mechanic informed us he had just replaced the tach yesterday and it was probably a broken cable. He would have to order a part; there would be no checkride today.
We headed into a classroom and went over cross country planning for a bit. I showed him the flight plan I had sketched out and he gave me some really good tips on choosing checkpoints and planning out the details of the flight.
I was disappointed I couldn’t knock the checkride out today, but not much I can do about that!
Flight time today: 0.0 hours (!)
Total flight time to date: 30.7 hours
Total takeoffs to date: 102
Total landings to date: 98
My instructor told me I had to have a checkride with another CFI at the school prior to being signed off to solo. Before doing that, I wanted to go up with my regular CFI once more to practice some of the maneuvers I was going to be quizzed on.
We took off and headed to the practice area to work on steep turns. I haven’t done steep turns in a long time and I had forgotten just how much back pressure you have to put on the yoke to keep from losing altitude. We worked on these for a little bit and I did an OK job — nothing great, but it wasn’t complete crap either. I understand the procedures, I just need to work on my sight picture and control feel to keep from losing altitude in the turns. It should look something like this:
Next we moved on to stall recoveries. This was something I definitely needed a refresher on, since I had pretty much forgotten the procedures. We did some power on stalls (simulating a stall on takeoff) and power off stalls (simulating a stall on approach to landing). Once I had practiced them a little bit I felt more comfortable with them and I think I handled these pretty well.
We headed back to the airport and I got into the pattern. We were cleared for the option and my CFI pulled the power on approach. I practiced a simulated engine out approach and then he called for a go-around at the last minute. I hit full power and off we went! One more trip around the pattern and I came in for a landing with a bit of a crosswind. I think this landing was pretty good — it was a more gentle touchdown than some of my other attempts, although my instructor said I came in a bit flat. I still need to work on flaring properly.
All in all, a pretty good lesson. I definitely feel more ready for my pre-solo checkride (which should happen next week!)
Flight time today: 1.4 hours
Total flight time to date: 30.7 hours
Total takeoffs to date: 102
Total landings to date: 98
I finished up with the business conference I was at (my reason for being in Florida in the first place) and headed over to FA83, otherwise known as Orlando North Air Park.
Orlando North Air Park (FA83)
Yesterday’s flight had me cruising around with the downtown Orlando skyline in view… today’s setting couldn’t have been more different. FA83 is located in Zellwood, FL which is a pretty rural area. I put blind faith in my rental car’s GPS and it eventually paid off. I turned into the airport and… had no idea where to go. It was just a long road with hangers on the left and farm fields on the right. I didn’t see any runways or anything, so I just started down the road figuring I’d find something airport-like at the other end.
The road to… nowhere?
I eventually found the hangar for Van Anda Aviation, which is the FBO at FA83 and who I was renting today’s plane from. My CFI texted me that he was running late (hah! now we were even!) so I chatted up the Van Anda guys for a bit. It was my first real “hangar talk” — I guess I’m getting closer to being a real pilot now!
We were flying N12933 today, a C172M. This was a carbureted model, very similar to the one I fly in CT (same model, but this one was a 1973 versus the 1975 back home). While the plane was similar, the airport was not — this was an uncontrolled, private field that felt like it was in the middle of nowhere! It also had a shorter and narrower runway than I was used to — 50 feet wide and 2,600 feet long (with the runway extending as a turf strip an additional 1,400 feet). This was going to be interesting!
OK — so we get her preflighted and we’re off to the races. My instructor handles the radio work today since he knows I’m going to be a bit overloaded with the different environment. We take off and start flying a pattern.
One convenient thing about this area is that there are plenty of straight lines to use to gauge your ground track! Here’s a satellite picture from Google Maps — you can see there are lots of options to keep your pattern lined up (the runway is aligned horizontally and located a little left and below the center of the picture — under the vertical column of white hangars). There wasn’t a lot of wind today, but I still found the ground references helpful.
FA83 overhead view
After yesterday’s work on landings, I thought I was going to kill it today. Turns out that was not the case at all. My first approach I turned on to final and everything was wrong. I was way too high, too fast, and the runway didn’t look right at all. Some of this was not being used to the sight picture of a narrow runway, some of it was because I wasn’t managing the plane properly.
We flew a lot of patterns. My landings pretty much all sucked. I porpoised some, I banged on the nosewheel some, I just couldn’t get the roundout and flare keyed in on this runway. My CFI took the controls to show me the approach and what it should look like and that helped a bit. One thing I liked about this instructor was he let me make mistakes like bouncing the plane. Then I had to fix the mistake — just like I would if he wasn’t in the plane! That took me a couple times to realize — the last time I porpoised I quickly hit the throttle and turned it into a go-around instead of trying to force the plane down when I had way too much energy.
We also visited a nearby grass strip — that was pretty wild! Talk about a different sight picture, now there was no real “runway” to speak of, just a nice flat patch of grass! I did a landing there and my CFI showed me the soft field takeoff technique, where you assume the ground is muddy and you want to prevent getting the nosewheel stuck. You never stop moving, and you keep pressure off the nosewheel by pulling aft on the yoke. You get the plane into ground effect and then pitch the nose down to keep it there and build up speed until you can start a normal climb.
Soon it was time for a full stop landing, so I got us on the ground and we headed back to the tie-down spot. I was disappointed with my performance during this flight, but my instructor told me not to be — after all, I had been given a ton of new variables to work with. I appreciated the positive attitude and I know he’s right, but it’s still a little frustrating to continue to struggle with what I feel are pretty basic tasks.
With that, my time boring holes in the skies of Florida had come to an end. I settled up my bill and headed to Orlando International (MCO) to catch my commercial flight back home.
I did remember to record today’s flight — click below to check out the CloudAhoy debrief.
Flight time today: 1.5 hours
Total flight time to date: 29.3 hours
Total takeoffs to date: 101
Total landings to date: 97
I was scheduled to head down to Florida on business and I decided it would be fun to try and take a flight lesson with an instructor down there. After making a few calls, I scheduled two lessons during my trip with a local CFI who had been recommended to me.
My first lesson was flying out of Orlando Executive (KORL). Executive is a Class Delta airport in close proximity to downtown Orlando and Orlando International (KMCO) — it actually sits right under one of MCO’s Class Bravo shelves.
I was pretty nervous heading to my lesson as I had never flown with anyone besides my instructor back home. The ridiculous Orlando traffic (thanks to I-4 construction) certainly didn’t help my stress level. I would up being 20 minutes late, for which I apologized profusely! Way to make a good first impression.
I had spoken to the instructor on the phone and told him where I was at with my flying and that I wanted to work on landings. We sat and spoke for a bit before heading out to the plane and briefed how the lesson was going to go. We were planning on staying in the pattern and working exclusively on landings and pattern management.
We headed to the plane and did the preflight check. The plane was a 172R model — this model is fuel injected instead of carbureted, so the engine startup was slightly different. No big deal, though, and soon we were taxiing to the runup area.
I was having trouble steering the plane to the left — I would be pushing the rudder pedal all the way in and the plane would barely be turning to the left. I had to use the left brakes more than usual to keep the plane where I needed it. I should’ve mentioned this right away to my CFI but I thought it was more a pilot/technique issue than anything mechanical! More on that later.
We took off from runway 7 and started our pattern work. It was nice having some different scenery to look at! Our downwind leg took us directly towards the Orlando skyline which was pretty cool. I didn’t take this picture, but this is pretty close to our view on downwind (we were lower and more to the left).
I really enjoyed flying with this CFI! He had a good teaching style and he shared the same views on flight instruction that my CFI back home does — namely, all of the information you need to fly the plane is available out the window. He emphasized this by failing almost all of my instruments. I had to climb out to pattern altitude with no altimeter, and when I thought I was there we would check and see how I did. I was coming in consistently low by 500-1,000 feet, but that wasn’t bad considering I was in a new environment for the first time.
We went over energy management techniques to help keep the plane at the right speeds while flying the pattern. We also did a lot of landings! I had one where it felt like everything clicked and I definitely feel like I’m getting closer to “getting it”. I also had some lousy ones, so I’m not there yet!
We also trained on some stuff that was new to me — using slips to lose altitude quickly and simulated engine outs on takeoff (where I had to then manage my energy to land the plane smoothly without nosing it into the runway). I also got a bunch of crosswind work — the winds weren’t as strong as they’ve been back home, but there was a decent crosswind so I worked on holding a proper ground track and keeping the plane lined up on final.
All in all, it was a great experience and I’m really happy I did it. I got to see some cool planes at the airport (the new HondaJet looks very nice!) and got a great view of a Learjet landing while I was in the pattern.
Taxiing back to the ramp I again had some trouble with that left turning, so I mentioned it to my CFI. He took the controls and agreed something felt off and he would mention it to the aircraft owner. I realized then I should’ve mentioned this as soon as I noticed it — what if they thought my wonderful landings had caused the issue?!?
We had a great talk after the lesson — we discussed the flight and flying in general. The instructor had some kind things to say about my flying and level of experience overall. According to him, I’m on track and right where I need to be.
Extra bonus today — the second page of my logbook is now full! On to page 3!
Flight time today: 1.5 hours
Total flight time to date: 27.8 hours
Total takeoffs to date: 89
Total landings to date: 85
I was certain we wouldn’t be going up today. The forecast wasn’t too bad when I left my house (6kts at DXR), but it was supposed to kick up pretty bad as the day wore on. I was going to skip the lesson, but decided to head to the airport because I had some questions for my CFI on my cross country plan and needed to pick up a textbook I had on order.
I got to the airport and was surprised when my CFI said we’d be doing some flying! He wanted to practice some maneuvers since I would soon be flying with another CFI and I would be tested on things like stall recoveries and steep turns.
We preflighted the airplane and climbed in. He told me my first task was to fly him to Dutchess County (POU) and pretend he wasn’t in the plane. I could use whatever resources I wanted to get us there. I felt a surge of excitement — here it was, the first simulation of what it would be like flying solo!
I took off and used the Carmel VOR to point us in the right direction. It was real choppy at 3,000 feet, so we climbed to 4,500 to get some smooth air. We were planning on practicing landings at POU as the winds were pretty calm (only 3kts). Turns out everyone else had the same idea and when we got there we found the pattern was a bit crowded.
We asked for a right base to runway 6 which would have made sense given the direction we were coming from. The controller gave us the approval, then rescinded it a couple minutes later because he had traffic coming from the opposite direction. He told us to join a downwind for runway 6, which meant we had to fly out of our way into a strong headwind. That killed some time.
I got established in the pattern and was on final when the tower told us to go-around. A plane had landed a few minutes before us and had not fully cleared the runway yet. It was good to get some go-around practice, in a real-world scenario to boot! We worked our way back around the patter and the winds were starting to get stronger near the surface. We came in for a pretty crappy landing and my instructor decided we’d head back — conditions were not improving.
We departed and headed back to Danbury. The turbulence was kicking us around so we climbed to 5.500 feet to escape it. To be honest, the winds were really putting me behind the plane — they weren’t even that strong, but I was constantly working to keep the plane flying straight and level as gusts knocked us up, down, and sideways. If I had truly been flying solo I would’ve been really nervous.
We scratched the plan to work on maneuvers since it was getting pretty crappy out and we set ourselves up for a long final into runway 35. As we were getting established and coming down to pattern altitude, the winds were getting a bit crazy. My instructor took the plane and took us in for the landing. I just sat there and watched in awe. He was completely focused, constantly working the throttle and ailerons to battle the winds as we came into the valley before the runway. There are some wicked updrafts and downdrafts caused by the terrain on that approach, so you really have to be on top of your game!
He brought us in for a nice landing, and right before touchdown a gust almost knocked us off the runway path. My CFI expertly fought the plane back and got us on the ground. It was pretty impressive to watch. He apologized for taking the landing away from me, but I had no problem with that…I told him, “I’m really glad you know what the hell you’re doing because I’d probably be dead right now if I’d tried that landing.” Eventually I’ll be able to deal with that kind of stuff, but I know for certain I’m not there yet.
Click the picture below to see the CloudAhoy debrief for this flight.
Flight time today: 1.3 hours
Total flight time to date: 26.3 hours
Total takeoffs to date: 75
Total landings to date: 71
I didn’t think I’d be flying today. When I went to bed, it was windy as hell out and weather reports were showing gusts up to 30kts. I went to bed early anyway, crossing my fingers.
When I woke up, the weather briefing was optimistic. It was currently blowing only 6kts at DXR…the forecast called for much stronger winds as the day progressed, but it looked OK for my 8am lesson so I headed out to the airport.
My instructor agreed it was mild enough to head out and get some practice, although he told me, “you’ll be working today!” I hate it when he says that!
He wasn’t wrong…from the moment we took off, I was working my butt off trying to keep the plane flying the lines I wanted. We started off working the pattern for runway 26, but it wasn’t long before the controller switched the airport to runway 35.
Crosswind landings – they’re no joke!
Here I was hoping to get some practice on my roundout and flare, and now I had to practice a whole other set of procedures! Crosswind landings are certainly a different ball game than calm wind landings. Not only is lining up with the runway centerline harder, but it just feels wrong, as you are coming in with one wing lower than the other to compensate for the wind.
It was a good practice day, but one of those lessons where it feels I couldn’t do anything right. I got blown off centerline after takeoff because I wasn’t crabbing enough into the wind. I wasn’t managing power well enough to compensate with the strong updrafts and downdrafts caused by the surrounding terrain. My pattern legs were sloppy because I was misjudging the wind. I wasn’t keeping the aileron input in after landing — as my instructor loves to say, “the wind doesn’t stop once you land!”
Even with all of the problems, I got a few good landings in and some more experience with the tricky runway 35 approach. At one point we were on final and my instructor was talking about engine failure. “Would we be able to glide to the runway from here?” I asked. “Let’s see!” he replied, as he pulled the throttle to idle. Spoiler alert: we made it.
Next time around, he requested a short approach and pulled the throttle while we were on downwind. I headed right towards the runway at best glide speed and once we got over some tricky hills I dumped the flaps to get down in a steep approach. It wasn’t perfect, but it was some great experience with emergency management.
The winds started blowing faster and we saw some snow clouds closing in on the airport, so we called it a day. It was getting a bit too much for me and my low experience level. When we landed, my instructor told me I would have to fly with a different instructor soon for a checkride, a school policy when a pre-solo student racks up 25 hours. We decided we’d keep tomorrow’s appointment as-is, but next weekend I’d schedule with a different CFI.
I remembered to record the ride on CloudAhoy — click the image below to see the details.
Flight time today: 1.2 hours
Total flight time to date: 25.0 hours
Total takeoffs to date: 72
Total landings to date: 68
