C172M – Page 2 – Armstrong Aviation

April 23, 2017May 9, 2017

I am a crappy pilot

Ugh.

Today was one of those days that leave me shaking my head and wondering if I will be able to do this after all.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not giving up, but sometimes I leave the airport feeling like I just took a few steps backwards.

First of all, I haven’t flown in two weeks — first I had to wait for N1727V to get back from the shop (turns out it was getting a fancy new ADS-B receiver installed), then we had the Easter holiday weekend and I was out of town. I’ve been champing at the bit to get my solo out of the way and it’s been making me a bit nervous. The time off certainly wasn’t helping calm my nerves.

Yesterday’s flight got scrubbed due to weather, but I woke up today to a beautiful clear sky and relatively low winds. Today might be the day! I put on my “solo shirt” (a pilot shirt my sister got me that I thought would make a great shirt to be cut and used as a trophy!) and headed out to the airport.

My mind was reeling on the drive over. Was I ready? What if something happened when I was in the pattern? What if I completely mucked up my landings? I tried to get my head in the game and assure myself I was ready to do this.

I preflighted the airplane and my instructor demonstrated our fancy new touchscreen Garmin NAV/COM radio with GPS, traffic, weather, and a bunch of other fancy features. Pretty cool stuff! I got the ATIS and found out we’d be using runway 8. Great, the runway I have the least experience with — I think I’ve only used it twice, and once was before I was doing pattern work. This didn’t help settle my nerves.

I’m not sure if it was my rustiness after a two week layover, the lack of experience with the runway/pattern, or my nerves, but I felt behind the airplane the entire flight. We took off and did a few touch and go’s — my pattern work was sloppy — I wasn’t making square turns, I wasn’t holding my altitude properly, and my power management was off. More importantly, my landings were terrible. I was flaring too high, not flaring, coming in too fast, coming in too slow… I just couldn’t get a good landing out of this plane. After a few laps around, my instructor told me to taxi back to the FBO. I figured we were done for the day.

Bad landings — At least my landings weren’t *this* bad!

I pulled the plane up to the line and he told me he was getting out for a minute to grab something. We shut down and he got out and went into the office. Now I had no idea what was going on… was this a ruse and he was going to solo me? I was thinking there was no way he was going to sign off after the landings I just performed, but why else would we come back to the FBO and then continue the flight? WHAT THE HELL WAS HAPPENING???

It was not a trick… he had run inside to grab an instrument cover, and we proceeded back into the pattern with my airspeed indicator “failed”. We did a few more laps and I was doing a little better, but it was a little hard to control the plane. It wasn’t crazy windy, but there was some turbulence and a lot of updrafts which were throwing me for a loop. I started to get fatigued and made my worst mistake of the day — I told tower we were turning base when we were actually turning downwind. UGH! My first real mistake on the radio — this more than anything else made me feel like an idiot who shouldn’t be behind the yoke of an airplane.

We were finally done for the day and brought the plane back to the FBO. Normally my CFI helps me push it back into the parking spot — this time he told me he’d see me inside and left me to take care of it! This was my first time pushing back by myself, and of course I botch it up and wind up with the plane well off the parking lines. Great way to end a wonderful flight! Luckily, an older pilot saw my struggle was real and offered a hand. He gave me some pointers on parking the plane and asked about my training. When I told him of my flaring issues, he told me not to worry and one day it would click. “It’s like parallel parking,” he told me. “You stress about it so much when you learn to drive, then one day you look back and realize you can do it with no problems!” I thanked him for the help and kind words, patted 27V on the cowling and apologized to her for the rough landings, and went inside for my debrief.

My CFI was also sympathetic — I think he saw my the look on my face that I wasn’t having a great morning. He told me a two week layover is like an eternity to a student pilot and it was natural that I was rusty — it also didn’t help that I was on a runway and pattern that was unfamiliar. I asked about the landings and he told me my problem was going right into the flare and not rounding out properly and letting the plane settle. “The plane is trying to tell you something,” he said. “You just aren’t listening to it.” I chewed this over on the drive home.

So, today was a bit of a disappointment, but if nothing else it has steeled my resolve to master this damn plane and get this solo done.

I forgot to turn CloudAhoy on until my CFI parked the plane and ran inside for the instrument cover, so this track is not the full flight. Click the image below to view it.

Flight time today: 1.4 hours
Total simulated instrument flight time to date: 0.6 hours
Total flight time to date: 38.4 hours
Total takeoffs to date: 131
Total landings to date: 127

April 2, 2017April 23, 2017

Today wasn’t the day

I cancelled yesterday’s lesson because the weather was terrible — heavy rain and low overcast ceilings. Plus, it was April Fool’s Day!

Most of the clouds were blown out overnight and it was a bright, clear day out. High ceilings and good visibility. However, it was windy — not crazy windy, but enough that I knew I wouldn’t be soloing today.

I got to the airport and my CFI decided we’d head up and do a bit more practice. As I was preflighting I caught this pic of a cool helicopter being moved out of the hangar. I’d love to fly one of these some day!

Today’s lesson was good — I had a few hiccups in the pattern but nothing too bad. My flares are getting better and better, I had a couple today that felt great. Then I had one where I flared way too high, as if I was doing a full stall landing, which is a no-no on a windy day. We had another simulated engine out and I got the plane down safely.

I paid much more attention to wind direction today — I was putting the proper wind correction in during taxi and takeoff, and I was mindful to crab into the wind around the pattern. Still not perfect, as my crab angles weren’t quite right, but at least the concept is starting to stick. However, I’m still not putting in the proper wind correction after landing — they say you have to keep flying the plane after touching down, and I’m so focused on getting on the ground that I relax and forget that I’m not done yet!

We got a bunch of crosswind landing practice in and it felt easier than last time… it wasn’t much of a crosswind, but I still feel like the experience was helpful and I’m getting more comfortable flying in windy conditions instead of crossing my fingers for a dead calm day every lesson.

My CFI wrote all of my solo endorsements in my logbook — they aren’t signed yet, that will happen in the plane once we get an appropriate weather day. So, literally the only thing standing in my way now is Mother Nature! It’s too early in the week to get an idea of what next weekend will look like, but with a little luck I’ll have a big milestone under my belt.

Oh, and I (once again) forgot to turn on CloudAhoy today, so no track for this flight.

Flight time today: 1.3 hours
Total flight time to date: 36.2 hours
Total takeoffs to date: 124
Total landings to date: 120

March 30, 2017April 3, 2017

Getting the twist out

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

March 25, 2017April 3, 2017

Getting ready to solo

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

March 19, 2017March 25, 2017

Pre-solo checkride in the books!

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

March 18, 2017March 25, 2017

No tach, no flight!

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

March 12, 2017March 25, 2017

Practicing for the pre-solo checkride

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

March 8, 2017March 17, 2017

Flying in Florida: Part 2

One day after I got to fly in Florida for the first time, I was scheduled to go up again with the same instructor — this time for a very different experience!

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.

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? — 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.

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

March 5, 2017March 6, 2017

A wacky, windy day

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

March 4, 2017March 6, 2017

More crosswind landing practice

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.

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