The weather kept us grounded, so I had ground school with Alex. Nothing exciting. Primary and secondary instruments for various maneuvers, traditional vacuum and electric systems (the DA40 is all electric, of course), and how to identify which instruments have failed when they disagree. Alex then walked me through the instrument training syllabus and pointed out each section of the Jepp book corresponding to each part of the instrument training.
The weather will probably ground me tomorrow, so I’ll curl up with the Rod Machado and Jepp instrument books and start reading in earnest. I’m interested in the King DVDs, as everyone recommends them (the readers of this blog included!), so they may be in my future.
And just to set expectations, I don’t plan to rush myself through the instrument training—my bank account can’t sustain it!
Saturday, December 30, 2006
Friday, December 29, 2006
Brush-Up Lesson
The holidays have been good to me. I received the G1000 book and the training CD I was expecting, so I have some good aviation reading material to curl up with this winter.
I finally got up in the air again. The glass panel is down for maintenance and its annual, so I went up in 9DS with Alex to shoot landings on runway 12 at Gary (GYY). I went up with an instructor because I had done so little flying recently that I wanted a safety pilot on hand. However, despite my almost complete lack of flight time since August, the procedures, communications, and landings hadn’t deteriorated significantly and the entire flight was excellent. I missed pushing the prop forward on one landing (dag nabit!), but otherwise everything went astonishingly well. I was able to execute soft field and short field take-offs and landings to PTS.
On my last landing at Gary, Alex surreptitiously pulled the circuit breaker for the flaps while I was on downwind glancing out the left side. Then, abeam the numbers, Alex pulled the throttle to idle and said—with that wry grin all flight instructors have at this moment—“simulated engine failure”. I started my turn toward the runway and saw that I was excellent shape. The tower had already cleared me to land, so I keyed the mic: “Niner delta sierra, simulated engine failure,” just to keep the tower informed. I got a bored “Roger” in response. I had the field made made made (I was high, actually), so I checked my airspeed and flipped my flaps. In the back of my mind, I registered that there wasn’t a light on the flap indicator and a sound was missing while the flaps should have been extending. I looked out to the left wing and saw that the flaps were, indeed, not extended. I laughed—Bill had taught me well—and started a forward slip. I got about 1000 feet down the 7000 foot runway in the slip and descended to 5 feet above the runway. I pulled out of the slip and floated … and floated … and floated … and floated. This was going to be the smoothest landing I’ve ever made—if there was still runway left when the wheels touched down. Finally they touched with about two-thirds of the runway to my rudder and plenty left in front of me. I taxied to parking and talked things over with Alex while the plane was refueled.
I’m going back tomorrow to start instrument training. Yup, you read that correctly. Heh.
I finally got up in the air again. The glass panel is down for maintenance and its annual, so I went up in 9DS with Alex to shoot landings on runway 12 at Gary (GYY). I went up with an instructor because I had done so little flying recently that I wanted a safety pilot on hand. However, despite my almost complete lack of flight time since August, the procedures, communications, and landings hadn’t deteriorated significantly and the entire flight was excellent. I missed pushing the prop forward on one landing (dag nabit!), but otherwise everything went astonishingly well. I was able to execute soft field and short field take-offs and landings to PTS.
On my last landing at Gary, Alex surreptitiously pulled the circuit breaker for the flaps while I was on downwind glancing out the left side. Then, abeam the numbers, Alex pulled the throttle to idle and said—with that wry grin all flight instructors have at this moment—“simulated engine failure”. I started my turn toward the runway and saw that I was excellent shape. The tower had already cleared me to land, so I keyed the mic: “Niner delta sierra, simulated engine failure,” just to keep the tower informed. I got a bored “Roger” in response. I had the field made made made (I was high, actually), so I checked my airspeed and flipped my flaps. In the back of my mind, I registered that there wasn’t a light on the flap indicator and a sound was missing while the flaps should have been extending. I looked out to the left wing and saw that the flaps were, indeed, not extended. I laughed—Bill had taught me well—and started a forward slip. I got about 1000 feet down the 7000 foot runway in the slip and descended to 5 feet above the runway. I pulled out of the slip and floated … and floated … and floated … and floated. This was going to be the smoothest landing I’ve ever made—if there was still runway left when the wheels touched down. Finally they touched with about two-thirds of the runway to my rudder and plenty left in front of me. I taxied to parking and talked things over with Alex while the plane was refueled.
I’m going back tomorrow to start instrument training. Yup, you read that correctly. Heh.
Friday, December 08, 2006
Long Time, No Flight
Chicago is very cold right now. But the weather has been great for flying… I’m guessing. The sky has usually been clear blue when I’ve had occasion to look up. But mostly I’ve been working and preparing for the holidays. I haven’t flown at all since the Sporty’s trip.
Another factor I hadn’t counted on is the difficulty of planning for flying somewhere. I don’t mean the maps and the lines and the W&B calculations. I mean trying to make plans to go somewhere with my wife to visit people or see a sight—maybe stay overnight—when the weather might ground me as often as it doesn’t. And getting there is only half the equation. My wife’s bigger concern is getting home. Flying to a “distant” destination like Duluth is out of the question if there is a small chance weather might ground us there or on the return trip. This still leaves $100 hamburgers to be had nearby—Valpo, Champaign, and other locations from which renting a car and driving home “in time for work on Monday” is easy.
But, mostly, I just haven’t made flying the priority it needs to be if I want to remain a pilot. A safe pilot.
So I’ve scheduled four lessons with Alex around New Year’s—ostensibly to get my G1000 transition training, but also to just get back into flying again. I’m expecting some G1000 training material for Christmas (specifically, the G1000 book and the training CD from the same company) to get a jump start on the G1000 before my lessons.
Speaking of Garmin, they have opened a store in Chicago on the Magnificent Mile. I’d like to make it over there sometime to see if they’ve included aviation equipment in their displays. Maybe this weekend…
Another factor I hadn’t counted on is the difficulty of planning for flying somewhere. I don’t mean the maps and the lines and the W&B calculations. I mean trying to make plans to go somewhere with my wife to visit people or see a sight—maybe stay overnight—when the weather might ground me as often as it doesn’t. And getting there is only half the equation. My wife’s bigger concern is getting home. Flying to a “distant” destination like Duluth is out of the question if there is a small chance weather might ground us there or on the return trip. This still leaves $100 hamburgers to be had nearby—Valpo, Champaign, and other locations from which renting a car and driving home “in time for work on Monday” is easy.
But, mostly, I just haven’t made flying the priority it needs to be if I want to remain a pilot. A safe pilot.
So I’ve scheduled four lessons with Alex around New Year’s—ostensibly to get my G1000 transition training, but also to just get back into flying again. I’m expecting some G1000 training material for Christmas (specifically, the G1000 book and the training CD from the same company) to get a jump start on the G1000 before my lessons.
Speaking of Garmin, they have opened a store in Chicago on the Magnificent Mile. I’d like to make it over there sometime to see if they’ve included aviation equipment in their displays. Maybe this weekend…
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