This week my TIME was flooded

This was another tough week that started out on a very high note. I received my first lesson in a simulator, and the next day was up in the plane with my instructor. Lesson one and two were mostly about keeping altitude, descending, climbing, and turning. After learning to do the checklists, and pre-engine startup we taxied to the run up area, where more checklists were performed. Once settled in we asked Sanford Ground for instructions on taxiing to the runway for takeoff.


My instructor did the radios mostly and for the life of me I could NOT hear anything that ATC (air traffic control) was saying. I could hear my instructor loud and clear but ATC was a faint voice in the distance. We received instructions and off we went to a holding position short of the runway. More checklists ensued, and when complete we contacted ATC again for instructions on when it was permissible to enter the runway and takeoff. We lined the plane up on “Niner” Center. Mixture was set to full, fuel pump on boost, the power lever was then pushed to 100% and off we went down the runway. At 65 knots I pulled back on the yoke and off we went and began moving up and… to the left?? This was explained to us in class but with the excitement of my first takeoff I of course did not remember to press on the right rudder pedal.
When operating a single propeller aircraft the air pushed through by the prop actually spins around the plane and hits the tail pushing it to the right, making your aircraft want to go to the left. I also pulled back too much on the yoke and my instructor pushed it forward as well as pressed right rudder to correct us. Up we went to 1500 feet. What a sight! A few clouds here and there but scattered enough for VFR (visual flight rules). My instructor had me do mostly what we did on the sim (Simulator). We climbed, we descended, and made turns. I was able to keep the plane mostly straight and level which I know with practice will become more proficient.

As we flew toward TIX (Titusville) we saw quite a bit of the flooding caused by Trop Storm Fay. My instructor said that all this water shouldn’t be here. We actually saw a grouping of houses completely flooded that almost appeared to be in the middle of a lake. As we approached TIX we made the call to their ATC and we came in for a touch and go. This gives you practice for landing but without coming to a full stop and then taking off right after touching down. We took off again and headed to SFB. Part way back we went through an area known as Bithlo and he said I could do whatever I wanted - to get a feel for the plane. I wouldn’t say I went nuts … but I certainly had some fun. I wondered if I could try doing some parabolas like G Force One, Zero G’s plane, but thought… uhhh… maybe next time.


Later a friend reminded me that you can stall an aircraft’s engine trying to do parabolas since air could get into the fuel lines. There was only one modification done to GF1 to be able to sustain a microgravity environment, and this was to pressurize the hydraulics to keep air bubbles out of the system. For you physics people out there, please note I did say microgravity and NOT zero gravity. Please don’t send me any emails or write comments about this… I’ve heard them ALL while working with ZG and know the difference. We even explained it to Adam and Jaime - the Mythbusters - so they would be correct and not get all the hate mail from you physics sticklers.
We returned to SFB and into the Operations building to go over a few things about the flight. I did mostly well and since it was my first flight I will of course become more skilled in doing the checklists for climbing, cruising, and descending when they are needed.


Lesson two came along with a sim. Stalls. Not so bad on a sim. Doing them for the first time in a plane I nearly messed my pants. I’ve never experienced a plane not wanting to fly anymore. We actually started out with slow flight. This is a technique used to slow your aircraft down but still maintain altitude and heading, if ATC asks you to slow down when in a pattern at an airport to come in for a landing. I was actually pretty good at this. But the stalls… oh boy! I just couldn’t get it right. I was actually very okay with getting an incomplete on that part of the lesson. VERY ok! On the way back I complained that I still could not hear ATC but could hear my instructor quite well. I would hesitantly make the calls to the various control stations but could NOT say back what I heard because I just couldn’t pick up what was being instructed. It was really getting annoying and I just couldn’t see how this could be fixed.


The next day my flight was to practice the stalls again that I couldn’t get right. As we flew to our practice area I felt my mobile phone vibrate in my pocket. I had forgotten to turn it off and reached to grab it and switched it off quickly. It was actually a small miracle that this happened! Ever since then I could hear ATC VERY clearly. I realized that because I put my phone on silence for class, I never turned it off fully, and had forgotten that it was on while flying. Ever since then I have had NO trouble hearing, but my short term memory still freezes up for acknowledging ATC directions.


With the week off from Trop Storm Fay, our class load has increased. Radio Communications class is at 11:00 to 12:30. This class is designed to help us get over the fears of talking on the radio and practice reading back instructions we are given. After this we have a 2 hour break before our Ground School at 14:00 to 17:00. Then depending on when our events (flights, sims or ground work) are later in the day we stay around or sometimes try to get something to eat. It has become a bit much for me. They seem to like scheduling me with back to back events - meaning, I don’t get home until around midnight. I then try to get some studying in, and some homework but I have to get up at 05:00 for a 06:00 flight. This is really wearing me down. I am not able to study for both my flight lessons, and ground school on this type of schedule and retain my beauty sleep.


On Friday we received the news of a practice test over all the chapters in the Gleim book. UGH! I hate surprises like these. It took just over an hour for everyone in the class to finish up, and one by one our instructor graded them. He stated “something is wrong.” The class average was 61%. He requested we write a paragraph as to why we think we did poorly and how we think it could be corrected. As I stated above, I just don’t have enough hours in the day. It’s not DCA’s fault that Trop Storm Fay disrupted our schedule, but I don’t think adding more classes was the answer to catching us up to schedule. I also think that because we are one of the largest classes DCA has had many of my class mates may be shy about asking questions to clarify class lectures for not wanting to ask “dumb” questions. However, once we all realized we were in the same boat plane, while the new lesson was being taught, there was an increase in the average of questions being asked - which more or less proves my theory.


After class I approached our instructor to ask if he did any private tutoring, to which he said absolutely. I told him I would call him on Saturday if he was okay with that since it was his weekend. He said he had no problem doing that. I walked out of class and reached for my phone to see if any messages were there. My blackberry showed ten messages, 5 being texts, and 5 being emails. 3 of those emails were for 3 events for Saturday. 2 flights, and 1 sim. DAMNIT!!! I really wanted to take Saturday as a studying day and not worry about flying or sims… I really need to get myself on track here! I went back to my instructor who is one of the senior CFI’s at DCA. I asked him who to talk to and he pointed me in the right direction. I spoke to management who agreed to cancel my Saturday events. I also feel this plants the seeds for our instructor’s future talk to fight for us about the schedule. As you recall we were asked at the beginning of the school year to divide our day into three 8 hour sessions - 8 hours for school, 8 hours for ourselves, and 8 hours for sleep. It has been more like 19 hours for class and 5 hours for sleep and ourselves!


I actually think this coming week will get better. Our schedules will be changing. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday will be ground school. Tuesday, and Thursdays will be Radio com class. This will free up the days significantly to let us study. That is… if hurricane Ike doesn’t come and spoil things for us. It is looking more and more like he is bypassing us and going into the gulf.


I read a list recently of “You might live in Florida if jokes.” One of them was “If you can wish that other people get hit by a hurricane and not feel the least bit guilty about it. … You might live in Florida - which is a really bad thing…. But OH SO TRUE!!


I actually came up with a few of these in the short amount of time I’ve lived here:


“If there is a tropical storm outside and you crack a window to let in the cool breeze… You might live in Florida.”


“If you get out of your air-conditioned car and your sunglasses immediately fog up… you might live in Florida.”


Other favorites I have found are on the web are:
“If you are thinking of repainting your house to match the plywood covering your windows…you might live in Florida.”


“If you have more than 300 'C' and 'D' batteries in your kitchen drawer….”


“If three months ago you couldn't hang a shower curtain but today you can assemble a portable generator by candlelight….”


“If you can recite from memory whole portions of your homeowner's insurance policy….”


This one is for parents in San Diego who have found themselves watching quite a bit of The Weather Channel lately…
“If you can rattle off the names of four or more meteorologists who work at the Weather Channel….”


And my personal favorite…
“Having a tree in your living room does not necessarily mean it's Christmas….”


For anyone curious on the status of my car… I still don’t have her back. Every time they think she’ll be ready another sensor fails. They actually test drove her yesterday. However the mechanic heard a strange noise coming from under the passenger side seat. They found more water sitting in some nook or cranny. *sigh* She’ll be back soon I hope.


UPDATE!
I received a call early Saturday morning from my flight instructor that I was being summoned by upper management to discuss the cancellation of my three events. To make a very long story short - Flags were thrown up in the air with my actions as well as several of my other classmates who had done the same thing. After a lengthy verbal exchange it turned out Management had forgotten that my class was getting 6 hours of ground school to make up for Fay’s interruption of classes and they agreed with my decision to cancel my Saturday events.


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