haggaret.com

Had to do another checkout flight with Andrew before going solo in the practice area. We set it up for this morning at 8 am. I arrived early (never know what the traffic is going to be like so I leave early just in case) and got a plane, did the walk around and got a transponder code. I was hoping to get WZN, but there was a note saying to save hours for this weekend (Fly Day) so I got stuck with JZP.

The only reason I don’t like JZP is because the airspeed indicator has the outside units as MPH and the smaller inside units as KTS and it screws me up. Andrew told me a little trick today though, basically if you want a speed of 70 KTS (optimal climb speed) in any of the 150s at the club, then just get the needle to the 3 o’clock position and it should be around 70 KTS. Great tip!

Wow! Talk about a windy day today, and a cross wind too! Turns out it was quite turbulent at lower altitudes today and so Brad thought it best to cancel Amy’s intro flight. I think it was a good idea because we got bounced around quite a bit and I don’t think Amy would have liked it very much.

I used to dread cross winds, but now I look at them as an opportunity to practice and get better…especially when I’ve got an instructor sitting next to me. Today was a good example of that. I think when we took off winds were 15 gusting 20, and by the time we came back in for landing, they were 13 gusting 19. Fun stuff.

Another early morning flight today. I was early and Brad was late, as usual. ;)

Brad decided that we’d do a little instrument training today, so he brought along the ‘hood’ which blocks your forward vision above the instrument panel. We headed out to the practice area and he got me to put it on. I had to fly with reference to the attitude indicator, the heading indicator and the altimeter. I did ok, although I’ll admit I have a hard time holding a heading. Of course I have a hard time holding a heading even when I can see! :)

Brad also took the opportunity to have some fun, so he got me to close my eyes, screwed the plane up, and then got me to recover with only the instruments. Not that big a deal, although I should have looked at the turn and bank indicator rather than the attitude indicator to figure out which way we were banked.

Finally got out of the circuit today, not that I’m complaining…I was having a lot of fun flying around in circles by myself. :) Anyways, we headed out to the practice area to practice some forced approaches, as if the engine died and we had to make an emergency landing.

I completely botched the first one and Brad says, “Oh great, now we’re dead!” Nice touch Brad! The next one was pretty much right on the money and the third one Brad decided that he’d freak out a bit – kept yelling, opening the door of the plane, playing with the controls (control column and rudder) and just generally being a pain in the ass. :D It was lots of fun.

Friday evening was a no go. Winds were gusting up to 17 Kts. I was a little disappointed because I would have finished off my solo time in the circuit, but what can ya do?

I was worried that today was going to be the same story, but luckily I was wrong. Winds were only 10 Kts and for most of the day they were pretty much right down the runway so no worries.

Funny thing happened while I was doing my first few circuits with Brad in the plane. I had just taken off and was listening on the tower frequency when I heard a familiar voice, or at least I thought I did. I don’t know many people who fly so I never expect to hear someone I know on the radio. Anyways, I was sure I knew who it was the next time I heard them speak, especially since he was flying PMR! It was Andy! I was tempted to say a quick hello over the air, but you can’t go doing that shit on the tower frequency. :)

Well I’ve been slacking off lately, and haven’t been posting about my flight training. I’ve gone twice so far this week and will be flying again this afternoon so I figured I’d better put an update on my blog about what’s going on.

Wednesday I showed up at the club as usual around five or so. There had been thunderstorms and heavy rain just prior to me leaving work so I figured I wouldn’t be flying, but since I had ground school later on that night I figured I might as well show up. Even if I didn’t go flying, Brad would likely have a ground briefing planned or something.

Turns out, the bad weather had just passed us by by the time I got there and so I ended up getting more solo time in the circuit. Wind was basically calm. I think I racked up 0.7 hours more solo time.

Today I spent more solo time in the circuit. Once again I got trusty old GXAM. I think I did 3 circuits with Brad before going solo today. Then I think I did 4 or 5 on my own.

There wasn’t much wind to speak of today so my landings were pretty good. I think my last one was probably the worst one today, but still not bad.

Racked up 0.6 hours of solo time so that puts me at 1.2 solo time so far. It would have been a bit longer except that Brad was a bit late getting back from a cross country with another student. I think he said they went to Smith Falls.

Anyways, I don’t fly again until Wednesday, before ground school.

Yep! You read it right…I went solo tonight! Here’s how it went down:

Got to the club at about quarter to five. Met up with Brad (my regular instructor) and Dave (the instructor I was going flying with today). I had to sign a bunch of stuff, to get the paperwork out of the way so I could eventually go solo. Yep, that’s right they didn’t tell me that I was going solo today.

Dave told me to go and get a plane and do my walk around, so I did. I got trusty old C-GXAM who had just recently been put back into service after getting a new battery. After the walk around I went back inside to get a transponder code from the guys in Montreal. The code they gave me was 0467, not that that is important, but I figured I’d write it down just for posterity.

Had an awesome booking yesterday! The last thing I needed to get signed off before going solo was stalls, spins, and spiral dives…so we headed out to the practice area and had a little fun.

Started off with a simple power off stall, followed by power off with 20 degrees of flaps. Then a few power on stalls, 1500 RPM, 1700 RPM and 2000 RPM. Then Brad did a spin for us. Then we did a spiral dive and recovery.

I don’t know if it was to try to make it more realistic or what, but Brad got me to close my eyes and fold my arms across my chest while he went a little crazy in the plane. The idea was to get the plane is a somewhat screwed up position and then get me to open my eyes and take control and fix the situation. Fun stuff! Let me tell you, he did some funky shit with that plane while my eyes were closed, at one point I heard him say, “Cool, I’ve never tried this before.”