I received my official pilot’s license from the FAA on Wednesday. I like the design and the card seems very sturdy. Now I'm contemplating getting a nice plaque to display the license.
My wife and I will be heading to a bed and breakfast in southern Wisconsin this Friday evening. I’ve planned the trip from MDW to RYV via DPA 68IS. I’ve already called the FBO to make sure there will be tie downs available (Oshkosh is a two hour’s drive north from the airport) and reserved a car from Enterprise. Everyone I spoke to on the phone was very pleasant and accommodating. The plan is to be wheels-up by 6pm, wheels down by 7pm, and at the B&B by 7:45pm.
This will be my first trip real trip planned with Aeroplanner. Once everything was set, Aeroplanner generated a nice 46 page PDF (2.8MB)—which they term a Trip Tick—containing the charts I need, a ton of information about the airports on my the route (including kneeboard charts and aerial photos, FBO services and contact info, NOTAMS, METARs, TAFs), airspace of interest, weather, TFRs, and so on.
I’ll let you know how the whole flight goes when I return.
Friday, July 28, 2006
Sunday, July 23, 2006
First Flight as a Private Pilot
I took my wife flying with me on Sunday, July 16th. Overall, it was a successful trip and my wife enjoyed it.
It was a very hot day in Chicago: 97 degrees Fahrenheit. When I picked up the keys, Alex joked “no short field landings today, right?” I told my wife that the plane would be hot for a while, until I could climb above 4,000ft, where it would start to get noticeably cooler.
The first leg was from MDW to BEH via GYY and MGC.
This was my first time operating the airplane out of MDW without a right seat pilot. It went smoothly, with one notable event. I was planning departure from 22R. Ground sent me along Kilo and had me hold short of 31C. Then ground asked if I could depart 31C at Kilo. I accepted and ground told me to switch to tower. I switched and ran through my pre-take-off checklist as fast as possible. It was less than a minute, but tower asked if I was ready to roll into position. I hadn’t notified tower that I was on the frequency, so I was a little surprised. I confirmed that I was ready to go, and tower told me to position and hold. As I moved into position, a Southwest 737 was told to position behind me at the start of 31C. As soon as I was in position, tower cleared me for takeoff. I did my from-memory cockpit check and started accelerating down the runway. I turned right on course to 090. Shortly thereafter, the 737 was cleared for take-off and turned left onto its course. I was really squeezed into the flow, but appreciated tower’s efforts to get me off the ground quickly rather than have me sit around for 10-15 minutes for another opening.
We flew over to the lake shore, then down to Gary. Gary cleared us through their airspace at 2,500ft. Once clear of Gary to the east, I climbed to 5,500 ft and it was much more pleasant in the plane. We flew over Michigan City and landed at Benton Harbor. There were no other planes at Benton Harbor so it was a lonely pattern. When I landed and turned onto a taxi-way, I saw a half dozen police cars arranged in a block-the-road fashion and another police car was heading toward me at high speed. My heart leapt into my throat. Did I miss a radio call? Did I land on a closed runway? Was there a TFR that popped up right after I took off? Do I have the appropriate documents onboard? Then the police car did a little squiggle and performed a 180 turn. I then realized that the police cars were practicing some training maneuvers around cones on a road that started off the end of the taxi-way. Whew!
I taxied to parking, shutdown the airplane, and we stretched our legs for a half hour. I thought I had done an adequate job of prepping my wife for the flight, but she provided me with good feedback about some topics that I should have covered:
The next leg of our flight was over to Valparaiso (VPZ). As we got near the community, I veered out to the west and setup to overfly the field at 2,000ft AGL. That was done for the benefit of my wife, who attended Valparaiso University for her undergraduate degree. We flew over the campus and she picked out residence halls in which she stayed, buildings in which she took classes, and the university’s chapel. That really made her day. We landed at the airport, taxied to parking, and debated how we might get a meal. We had assumed that the FBO was closed, but it turned out to be open and the gentleman behind the counter was very helpful. The FBO is a very nice, modern building inside and not an eye soar from the outside, either. I topped off the airplane to avoid a stop in Gary on the way home. The FBO lent us a courtesy car and recommended three restaurants—all of which my wife was familiar. Since we would be returning after the FBO closed, the man instructed us on the manner for leaving the car and getting back to our plane. We picked a restaurant, had a wonderful meal, and returned to the airport. There was plenty of daylight left, which disappointed me a bit because I’m not night current for carrying passengers and would have liked to shoot a couple of night landings somewhere other than Midway to get current.
When I called FSS for the brief from VPZ to MDW, the briefer informed me that a direct path would take me near U.S. Cellular Field, home of the White Sox, and that she was uncertain if a game was in progress. I informed the briefer that I would plan to head straight west of VPZ and approach MDW from the south.
The winds were calm, so I took off on 27 and Amy got to see Valpo’s campus from a much lower altitude as I climbed to our cruise altitude. The flight back to Midway was largely uneventful. When I contacted MDW tower, I was issued a squawk code, wrote it down, and read it back from short term memory. When MDW tower is busy, they don’t usually confirm that a read-back is correct, and I didn’t get a confirmation here. I reached over to the transponder, entered the number I’d just read back, and looked down at what I had written to confirm it matched. Except that it didn’t match. What I’d written down was one off from what I’d read back and entered into the transponder. I asked my wife which number she’d heard, but she hadn’t been paying attention. I then resigned myself to the fact that I needed pipe up and confirm my squawk code. Amateur. I called tower to confirm the number in my transponder and received an affirmative—so I had just written it down incorrectly, but used the correct number everywhere else.
When on short final for 22L, I realized that I did not recall a clearance to land, so I had to call tower again. This didn’t make me feel bad—both Bill and Alex had turned to me on base or final and asked if we’d gotten clearance, as they had not heard it. But on top of the squawk code incident, I was feeling a bit sheepish. I called “Midway tower, nine-delta-sierra on short final for two-two left. Confirm clear to land” and received an affirmative response. I got down, rolled a ways as my parking was at the other end of the airport, and tower informed me to turn left on Foxtrot and over to ground. I read back, cleared the runway, stopped, and switched the radio to ground. I was just starting my after-landing-checklist when ground called me and told me to cross Yankee without delay, then over to parking. I acknowledged, skipped the checklist and performed the Flying Takes Common Sense mnemonics [UPDATE—for those who asked: Flaps, Transponder, Cowl flaps, Switches], and crossed Yankee over to parking. As I was turning into the tower apron, my wife asked if ground had told me where to go before I had told them I was on their frequency. “Yes”, I shrugged. “Sometimes they get busy and need to hustle us through.” I’m glad that I got my wings in this environment, because if radio calls or the workflow in very busy towered airports were new to me, things would not have gone well at all.
My big take-away from the flight was that Bill may have trained me better for handling Midway’s peak traffic than Alex did. Bill emphasized the memorization of cockpit workflows because there will not be time to work through a formal checklists sometimes when leaving or returning to Midway. On this flight, he was right and I was very, very glad that I had my takeoff and after landing cockpit workflows memorized to fall back on when the controllers ushered me through the system faster than I planned. Of course, I could have always said the magic word: “unable”—and I would use it in a heartbeat if I felt that my safety would be compromised by the expedited handling from controllers—but I don’t want to be that guy. Additionally, I know that the Midway controllers expect a certain level of proficiency from pilots operating under their watch and I need to be at that level if this airport is going to be my aviation home.
It was a very hot day in Chicago: 97 degrees Fahrenheit. When I picked up the keys, Alex joked “no short field landings today, right?” I told my wife that the plane would be hot for a while, until I could climb above 4,000ft, where it would start to get noticeably cooler.
The first leg was from MDW to BEH via GYY and MGC.
This was my first time operating the airplane out of MDW without a right seat pilot. It went smoothly, with one notable event. I was planning departure from 22R. Ground sent me along Kilo and had me hold short of 31C. Then ground asked if I could depart 31C at Kilo. I accepted and ground told me to switch to tower. I switched and ran through my pre-take-off checklist as fast as possible. It was less than a minute, but tower asked if I was ready to roll into position. I hadn’t notified tower that I was on the frequency, so I was a little surprised. I confirmed that I was ready to go, and tower told me to position and hold. As I moved into position, a Southwest 737 was told to position behind me at the start of 31C. As soon as I was in position, tower cleared me for takeoff. I did my from-memory cockpit check and started accelerating down the runway. I turned right on course to 090. Shortly thereafter, the 737 was cleared for take-off and turned left onto its course. I was really squeezed into the flow, but appreciated tower’s efforts to get me off the ground quickly rather than have me sit around for 10-15 minutes for another opening.
We flew over to the lake shore, then down to Gary. Gary cleared us through their airspace at 2,500ft. Once clear of Gary to the east, I climbed to 5,500 ft and it was much more pleasant in the plane. We flew over Michigan City and landed at Benton Harbor. There were no other planes at Benton Harbor so it was a lonely pattern. When I landed and turned onto a taxi-way, I saw a half dozen police cars arranged in a block-the-road fashion and another police car was heading toward me at high speed. My heart leapt into my throat. Did I miss a radio call? Did I land on a closed runway? Was there a TFR that popped up right after I took off? Do I have the appropriate documents onboard? Then the police car did a little squiggle and performed a 180 turn. I then realized that the police cars were practicing some training maneuvers around cones on a road that started off the end of the taxi-way. Whew!
I taxied to parking, shutdown the airplane, and we stretched our legs for a half hour. I thought I had done an adequate job of prepping my wife for the flight, but she provided me with good feedback about some topics that I should have covered:
- Can ATC hear her when I’m talking on the radio?
- Announce when it’s safe for her to start talking after departure and when she should stop talking arriving at our destination.
- Mention that the rudder peddles move, that the passenger’s feet should be clear of them, and that they should not be concerned.
- Inform the passenger of where they are going, what route will be taken to get there, and how long the flight will take. (I believe I had done this, but a repeat just before closing the canopy isn’t a bad idea.)
The next leg of our flight was over to Valparaiso (VPZ). As we got near the community, I veered out to the west and setup to overfly the field at 2,000ft AGL. That was done for the benefit of my wife, who attended Valparaiso University for her undergraduate degree. We flew over the campus and she picked out residence halls in which she stayed, buildings in which she took classes, and the university’s chapel. That really made her day. We landed at the airport, taxied to parking, and debated how we might get a meal. We had assumed that the FBO was closed, but it turned out to be open and the gentleman behind the counter was very helpful. The FBO is a very nice, modern building inside and not an eye soar from the outside, either. I topped off the airplane to avoid a stop in Gary on the way home. The FBO lent us a courtesy car and recommended three restaurants—all of which my wife was familiar. Since we would be returning after the FBO closed, the man instructed us on the manner for leaving the car and getting back to our plane. We picked a restaurant, had a wonderful meal, and returned to the airport. There was plenty of daylight left, which disappointed me a bit because I’m not night current for carrying passengers and would have liked to shoot a couple of night landings somewhere other than Midway to get current.
When I called FSS for the brief from VPZ to MDW, the briefer informed me that a direct path would take me near U.S. Cellular Field, home of the White Sox, and that she was uncertain if a game was in progress. I informed the briefer that I would plan to head straight west of VPZ and approach MDW from the south.
The winds were calm, so I took off on 27 and Amy got to see Valpo’s campus from a much lower altitude as I climbed to our cruise altitude. The flight back to Midway was largely uneventful. When I contacted MDW tower, I was issued a squawk code, wrote it down, and read it back from short term memory. When MDW tower is busy, they don’t usually confirm that a read-back is correct, and I didn’t get a confirmation here. I reached over to the transponder, entered the number I’d just read back, and looked down at what I had written to confirm it matched. Except that it didn’t match. What I’d written down was one off from what I’d read back and entered into the transponder. I asked my wife which number she’d heard, but she hadn’t been paying attention. I then resigned myself to the fact that I needed pipe up and confirm my squawk code. Amateur. I called tower to confirm the number in my transponder and received an affirmative—so I had just written it down incorrectly, but used the correct number everywhere else.
When on short final for 22L, I realized that I did not recall a clearance to land, so I had to call tower again. This didn’t make me feel bad—both Bill and Alex had turned to me on base or final and asked if we’d gotten clearance, as they had not heard it. But on top of the squawk code incident, I was feeling a bit sheepish. I called “Midway tower, nine-delta-sierra on short final for two-two left. Confirm clear to land” and received an affirmative response. I got down, rolled a ways as my parking was at the other end of the airport, and tower informed me to turn left on Foxtrot and over to ground. I read back, cleared the runway, stopped, and switched the radio to ground. I was just starting my after-landing-checklist when ground called me and told me to cross Yankee without delay, then over to parking. I acknowledged, skipped the checklist and performed the Flying Takes Common Sense mnemonics [UPDATE—for those who asked: Flaps, Transponder, Cowl flaps, Switches], and crossed Yankee over to parking. As I was turning into the tower apron, my wife asked if ground had told me where to go before I had told them I was on their frequency. “Yes”, I shrugged. “Sometimes they get busy and need to hustle us through.” I’m glad that I got my wings in this environment, because if radio calls or the workflow in very busy towered airports were new to me, things would not have gone well at all.
My big take-away from the flight was that Bill may have trained me better for handling Midway’s peak traffic than Alex did. Bill emphasized the memorization of cockpit workflows because there will not be time to work through a formal checklists sometimes when leaving or returning to Midway. On this flight, he was right and I was very, very glad that I had my takeoff and after landing cockpit workflows memorized to fall back on when the controllers ushered me through the system faster than I planned. Of course, I could have always said the magic word: “unable”—and I would use it in a heartbeat if I felt that my safety would be compromised by the expedited handling from controllers—but I don’t want to be that guy. Additionally, I know that the Midway controllers expect a certain level of proficiency from pilots operating under their watch and I need to be at that level if this airport is going to be my aviation home.
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
No Cirrus Visit
Just a quick update about the possible visit to the Cirrus headquarters in Duluth: I wasn’t able to make time for it. We left the fishing cabin about an hour after I intended, so I skipped Cirrus to spend more time with my grandmother, which was another stop on the way to Rhinelander.
Thursday, July 13, 2006
Why I Didn't Fly to the Annual Fishing Trip
I’m in Ely, MN this week (closest airport: ELO) for the annual fishing trip. It was a grueling 5.5 hours drive from Chicago to Rhinelander, WI (RHI) to pick up my father and his new boat. Then it was another 7.5 hour drive to Ely. Not my idea of a fun day.
Why didn’t I fly to Ely? After all, flying up for the annual fishing trip was one of my primary motivators for getting a pilot’s license. Three reasons.
So, I drove. I don’t know that I’ll drive again next year, though. It’s just too much time to be cooped up.
Why didn’t I fly to Ely? After all, flying up for the annual fishing trip was one of my primary motivators for getting a pilot’s license. Three reasons.
- My mother and brother were in Rhinelander and needed the car I drove up to get back to Chicago. Of course, for the amount of time it took me to drive to Rhinelander, I could have flown up there, picked them up, flown back to Chicago, dropped them off, and be most of the way back to Rhinelander again. Assuming my mother would be willing to fly in a small aircraft, which she’s not. Fear of heights.
- Midway Aviators might have let me take the plane for most of a week and only put 7 hours on it—if nobody else was already on the schedule. However, the weekend I needed to leave had people scheduled in the airplane for both Saturday and Sunday.
- I’d have felt bad leaving my father to drive the trip from Rhinelander to Ely, and from Ely to Rhinelander, to Chicago by himself.
So, I drove. I don’t know that I’ll drive again next year, though. It’s just too much time to be cooped up.
Driving Through Duluth
I’ll be driving through Duluth tomorrow. I am very tempted to swing through Cirrus to take a look at their operations, but they only provide Company Tours on Fridays by request. I’m not comfortable requesting a special company tour just for me. More so because I’d never buy a Cirrus—even if I could afford one—because of their poor stall characteristics, inability to recover from spins (the chute is a hack), and their use of Avidyne’s glass cockpit, about which I have reservations. (Read Philip Greenspun’s review.)
Still, maybe I’ll give them a call… They have the best interiors of any aircraft I could hope to fly.
Still, maybe I’ll give them a call… They have the best interiors of any aircraft I could hope to fly.
Thursday, July 06, 2006
A Couple of Notes
I totalled up my flying time. I had 98.8 hours before my checkride, the checkride was 1.7, so I had 100.5 hours when I was handed my Private Pilot License. Not what I was hoping, but I have no complaints.
In other news, my parents gave me a David-Clark H13-10S headset to celebrate the occassion. I haven’t worn it in the plane yet, but just trying it on at home I can tell you that it is wonderful. The gel ear cushions and the extra padding where the headset rests on my head make the whole unit very comfortable. It feels like it can be worn for long cross-country trips without any discomfort. The noise reduction in the David-Clark H13-10S seems a little better than the noise reduction in the Sigtronics S-40 that I used for most of my student pilot career (and which I liked a lot—excellent value!). Both headsets are passive and rated for 24dB noise reduction.
In other news, my parents gave me a David-Clark H13-10S headset to celebrate the occassion. I haven’t worn it in the plane yet, but just trying it on at home I can tell you that it is wonderful. The gel ear cushions and the extra padding where the headset rests on my head make the whole unit very comfortable. It feels like it can be worn for long cross-country trips without any discomfort. The noise reduction in the David-Clark H13-10S seems a little better than the noise reduction in the Sigtronics S-40 that I used for most of my student pilot career (and which I liked a lot—excellent value!). Both headsets are passive and rated for 24dB noise reduction.
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
Not Another Student Pilot!
The last two weeks have been grueling. Lots and lots of flying, in preparation for my FAA examination. The whole time has blurred together in my mind, so I don’t have specifics about any of the lessons. Lots of landings. Lots of short field landings, which needed a lot of work. And, for fun on one flight back to Midway, Alex (my instructor) zero-G’d the airplane and had my 3”x5” notebook floating in the cockpit for a couple of seconds.
Anyway, it all came together this morning for my exam. I did a load of last-minute research brushing up on ground school and made a bunch of Excel spreadsheets for my cross country (MDW to CID) and weight and balance, because I was tweaking both right up to the last minute. I had a nice printout of all my performance calculations: the inputs, the outputs, the assumptions (e.g., which runway MDW would be using). All of my preparedness must have impressed the examiner because the oral exam was only 45 minutes. I tripped up on some questions and had to be led to the answers desired. But I did pretty well—it wasn’t the nightmare I was anticipating.
The practical exam went well enough. Again, not perfect (cough forgot GUMPS on my first landing cough), but I didn’t need any “do-overs”. (I’m not actually sure the examiner noticed my GUMPS omission.)
So, the outcome is that I GOT MY PRIVATE PILOT LICENSE.
It hasn’t quite sunk in yet. I’m already being pestered about who will be my first passenger (my wife), where I’ll fly to first (MWA, to visit my in-laws before they move), when I’ll be taking that flight (maybe July 15th), and how often I expect to be flying (twice a month, to nearer locations).
Will I continue this blog? Yes. The Private Pilot License is a license to learn. I will continue to study flying and at this point in my piloting career every flight is a new adventure, if not a new lesson.
I’ll let you know how my first flight goes. For now, I’m going to bask in the glow of accomplishment.
Anyway, it all came together this morning for my exam. I did a load of last-minute research brushing up on ground school and made a bunch of Excel spreadsheets for my cross country (MDW to CID) and weight and balance, because I was tweaking both right up to the last minute. I had a nice printout of all my performance calculations: the inputs, the outputs, the assumptions (e.g., which runway MDW would be using). All of my preparedness must have impressed the examiner because the oral exam was only 45 minutes. I tripped up on some questions and had to be led to the answers desired. But I did pretty well—it wasn’t the nightmare I was anticipating.
The practical exam went well enough. Again, not perfect (cough forgot GUMPS on my first landing cough), but I didn’t need any “do-overs”. (I’m not actually sure the examiner noticed my GUMPS omission.)
So, the outcome is that I GOT MY PRIVATE PILOT LICENSE.
It hasn’t quite sunk in yet. I’m already being pestered about who will be my first passenger (my wife), where I’ll fly to first (MWA, to visit my in-laws before they move), when I’ll be taking that flight (maybe July 15th), and how often I expect to be flying (twice a month, to nearer locations).
Will I continue this blog? Yes. The Private Pilot License is a license to learn. I will continue to study flying and at this point in my piloting career every flight is a new adventure, if not a new lesson.
I’ll let you know how my first flight goes. For now, I’m going to bask in the glow of accomplishment.
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