Valentines Day Aloft

Last night was a pretty special evening. One of those nights that could only come as the result of a year of hard work, dedication and support. I was able to take Christina flying to see the city and airport lights from the skies for our Valentines evening.

After a nice dinner, we dressed warm and headed out to the airport. I had already visited two hours earlier to take a look at the plane's fuel levels and test the position, beacon, strobe and landing lights while there was still sunlight.

The ceiling was low and broken with what appeared to be a dark stratocumulus layer. From the ground it looked completely overcast over Alpine, and obscurred mountains to the north around Ramona. Not wanting to get stuck away from the airport after dark, we elected to just do a few touch and go's. (The airport lights are the prettiest thing to see out there anyways.)

It turned out to be a nice brief flight with smooth air and little traffic. I logged my first pilot-in-command night flight and we went home to some dessert. One of the nicest things about having a passenger in the right seat is someone's finally taking pictures of these adventures.

Christina seems to be enjoying the flying more than I expected. I warned her of a potentially uncomfortable side slip to lose some altitude, and she actually called it fun!

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I'm a Pilot!

N2458Q, The plane I took my checkride in.

On February 8th, 2012, I passed my checkride and became a private pilot! After 71.7 hours of flight training (with 14.5 being solo), I spent 4 hours with the DPE and earned what I had been working on for the past 11 months. One week later, it's still sinking in and I cant stop looking at my Temporary Airman Certificate. It's such a strange feeling to not have any lessons in my immediate future, yet it's amazing how much I continue to learn after only 2 flights as a private pilot.

On my return from a flight to breakfast in Hemet the next day, I landed at Gillespie and exited 27R. ATC instructed me to cross 27L and contact ground. For some reason, I didn't cross 27L and when I advised ground I was off of 27L, they told me to cross it and I had to hold short for a few other planes to taxi by. Not a huge safety issue by any means (I didn't even enter 27L) and we laughed it off. Something to remember though - listening carefully.

If I had written this after the checkride, I could have filled it with a flood of half-interesting details, but what I remember most is it wasn't as difficult as I had imagined. The examiner was doing things a lot quicker than lessons I had taken, but it was a pracitcal test and he mostly wanted to see positive control & a regard for safety. We did not really do a lost procedure, though we discussed it on the ground. Upon landing, we went back into Rison's office and printed my temporary certificate! The examiner left, and I was standing there alone - finally able to relax for the first time that day, and I was a pilot!

I had to pull the plane back out one more time and go fuel it up. I was exhausted, but took my time with it. The excitement prevailed. I taxi'd that plane to the fuel pumps with private pilot skills.

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Checkride Scheduled

Not much of an audience actually showed up.

After 11 months of training, I'm finally starting to see the landing light at the end of the runway. The checkride for my private pilot's license is scheduled for February 8th.

I'm glad there's a couple weeks time to let that sink in, because my initial reaction is nervousness. However, when that day comes, I have to be nothing short of confident in my ability to pass. I've had good instruction and feel ready.

I've been reflecting on all my dual instruction flights, and have realized that there's going to be quite a dynamic shift in taking passengers vs an instructor. There won't be as much aviation banter, which I will kind of miss. The distractions will be real, and I'll have to remain vigilant with my situational awareness.

The first thing I plan to do is take my wife to Hemet for lunch! It will be a nice first flight that I'm familiar with. Nothing too crazy.

There's not much time left. I'm excited and nervous, but as long as the wings stay attached then I think I can do this.

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Counting Hours

Taken just before my first solo, as I counted landings in the past 15 days.

I've broken the 60 hour mark, have more than 10 hours solo with 5 hours cross-country solo experience. I'm within tolerances on my maneuvers and have proven my ability to navigate by radio, pilotage and dead-reckoning to 3 people, soon to be 4. Yet here I am, Student Pilot.

It's getting harder to put my life on hold for this pursuit 11 months after it began. Bitterness doesn't usually become me, but honestly I'm getting tired of proving I can spin in circles while holding altitude. Weeeee!

While I never want to stop learning, I want to stop proving and start enjoying flight again. Last week was my long solo cross-country (KSEE-KTRM-KHMT-KSEE) and it was incredible, but I can't yet muster the strength to blog positively about it. My mind swarms with federal regulations and practical test standards.

Now the pressure is on. I have a stage check coming up, and if I do well then it's not much further from there. However, I know if I screw that up it could mean a few more weeks of winter, and that costs money.

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Going Independent

Garry had a camera to record lessons. This was helpful for reviewing maneuvers!

I recently left the flight school I was attending to find an independent CFI. There were reasons behind this that aren't worth the time to rant about, but suffice to say the independent style is suiting me much better. I actually had no problems with my previous instructor, so there is a little bit of sadness there, but sometimes you have to take the path that leads to clearer skies.

After a couple of lessons with my new instructor, I'm about to finally solo away from the airport traffic pattern and practice maneuvers on my own. Through investigation, it appears that me having done 10 solos and 50 landings for 7.3 hours in the traffic pattern was a low and slow way of building faith in a student's abilities. I'm happy this new style of instruction is actually going to allow me to spread my wings a bit and get some practice without a right-seat driver. This solo will be tomorrow morning, and I'm eager but nervous!

It is looking like, good health and clouds permitting, I will be able to test for my license by the end of the month.

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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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