When I'm Licensed

This picture was taken by my wife during a San Diego bay tour.

I've been experiencing a little bit of burnout in regards to the training aspect of my flying. I absolutely love learning, and will continue to educate myself even after becoming licensed, but I think after 9 months I'm growing eager to be able to share the joy of flight with a passenger or two. Here are some of the things I'd like to do shortly after receiving my private pilot's license:

San Diego Bay Tour

Early in my training, I was allowed to bring my wife along since it was a dual-instruction flight in the local area, and my CFI was the pilot in command. What we did was a tour of the San Diego bay, where you fly 500 ft MSL once reaching the water. Below is a video from that day. I can't wait to do this with just my wife and I in the plane!

The $100 Hamburger

I'd like to take a few close family members out for lunch at somewhere 50-80 miles away. I think all pilots celebrate this way, and it's just cool to be able to do it.

Visit My Dad

Right now, it's a 3+ hour drive to visit my Dad in Oxnard, CA. I can't stand freeway traffic, so I'll elect to take the Pacific Coast Highway for the view, but that takes even longer. In a Piper Warrior, I can be up there in 45 minutes depending on wind. The price of the plane rental could be offset by not needing a hotel before driving home.

Maneuvers

This is one I know my wife would prefer I take a more thrill-seeking spirit on. I don't want to do anything dangerous or stupid, but I think there are a few things a private pilot can do that are fun and safe when executed properly. I'd like to show someone how a short approach feels, and how awesome dutch rolls are. Steep turn figure 8s are also cool as a passenger.(I'll keep stalls and engine failure practice to solo flights.)

More Night Training

Nothing says you can't hire a CFI after you get your license. There are a couple things I think became repetitive in my training, but on the complete opposite side I feel the FAA's night training requirements are too low, and downright scary. It's a whole new world trying to navigate by city lights, where mountains appear flat, and I fully intend to go back up with an instructor to build more confidence before flying anywhere at night.

Well that was a bit long winded, but it's good for me to maintain focus on my goals. My PPL training is finally winding down, and some of these things are actually going to happen soon!

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Lost Radio Communication

If the plane has a fancy GPS, be sure to understand it!

A few weeks ago, on November 10th, I experienced my first radio failure during my 3rd solo. I was at 36 hours of dual-instruction in the plane, and only 1 hour of solo experience.

It was a beautiful morning. Twenty something miles of visibility with an overcast layer way up at 20,000 ft. It allowed one of those rare no-sunglasses flights at 11am.

My instructor stepped out at the terminal, and wished me well on my final supervised solo. Before shutting the door, he reminded me how to use the fancy GPS to tune COM1 frequencies as I didn't often fly this particular plane. Sparing too many details, I had to start the plane twice because of a concern with the nose gear strut. After the second start, the GPS was on some weird screen and I couldn't get it back to the radio screen. I elected to use COM2 only, rather than go through another cycle of shutting the plane down to call the instructor over. It was just going to be a few touch and goes on the tower frequency.

I got my taxi clearance and headed down to runway 27R, where I was practically alone. I was more at ease that the tower frequencies wouldn't split and the radio would really be a complete non-issue.

I was given my takeoff clearance and told to follow a Cessna taking off of 27L for left traffic. (My flight school requires a student's inital takeoff on the longer 27R, even for 27L patterns.) I screamed down the runway and was shortly in the air. It was pretty quiet and I was just keeping an eye on the other plane, waiting for it to turn crosswind when my headset erupted in complete static at about 200ft AGL.

It was extremely loud, and I could hear faint hauntings of pilots and controllers talking - but couldn't make out the words. I went into action mode.

- Volume? no Squelch? No
- Keep the cessna in sight
- Retry headset. No improvement
- Cessna.. check.
- 7600, transmit just in case.
- Turn downwind and level off. I should stay slow.
- Steady green light from the tower. Cool!

Then I just flew the rest of the pattern and landed. I considered a short approach, but decided not to do that without radios - and there was someone holding short.

I didn't get to do my touch-and-goes but it was a pretty cool experience. I finally got to see those light gun signals and use that ground school knowledge. It was the first time as PIC that I really had to make a few important decisions quickly. I feel a little bad for stressing the controller, but everyone is safe.

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