Timed Turns and a Break

These timed turns that I mentioned in my last post have really been getting to me.  Even with mental exercises I’m not getting the math right.  On top of this studying the Gleim for my instrument course final coming up isn’t going so well either.  I had to take action.  I decided to go talk to my group manager, who also happens to be head instructor I have had talks with in the past.  I stepped in his office, and told him how overwhelmed I was feeling.  Not just with studying the Gleim, but with time turns and my lack of math skills.  To my surprise he stated this is what he was hung up on as well when he came through the program.  After counseling me with another instructor on how to do it, I still felt like it wasn’t working.  Then a piece of paper emerged with all the degrees of a compass on it.  360 degrees all the way around and the amount of time it should take for each major degree.  WOW!  This will help.  I asked if I could use this during any of the tests and check rides.  I was assured I could because he STILL uses it.

I couldn’t wait to apply my new legal cheat sheet to my next lesson in the air.  Off we went in the direction of Melbourne.  Sure…  On my knee board I pulled out my cheat sheet and said “gimme your best shot” He had me slow the plane down to 65% power and gave me a heading to turn to.  I looked down at my sheet and added up the degrees.  I announced the amount of time it would take and started to turn.  My instructor started the stop watch and when I landed on the heading…  I was WAY off!  I was very confused.  He looked at my sheet and said that it was based on power at 100% not at 65.  Because we are going slower the turn would take longer.  AHHHH!  After trying to get it right for the next half hour I was getting a bit down, and my CFI saw this frustration.  He suggested we sit down and create a different cheat sheet for me to use.  That sounded like a plan.

The other day I went to 903 Mills to share a beer with a former Zero G friend of mine who lives in the Winter Park area of Orlando, and he asked me about school.  My friend has a background with NASA and other very technical things, such as computers, and also a bit about planes, but doesn’t want to be the pilot. He’s more about the engines; however he could very easily teach ground school if he wanted to.  I told him my woes and he told me I should create a graph.  Speeds on one side and degrees on another, with the information they line up with being the time.  That’s a DAMN good idea.  Excel here I come.  I’ve printed this chart out to a size that will fit on my knee board and will be easily attainable.  I can’t wait to try this one out.

Saturday night I attended a wedding at a hotel near SeaWorld Orlando.  Another Zero G friend and his girlfriend who had been dating for quite some time finally got hitched.  Jokes were going around about how long it took them to finally reach this point.  Both work at NASA.  It was really interesting to meet their friends.  Most all of them were engineers with various aeronautical companies such as, Lockheed, Northrop Grumman, Aurora Flight Sciences, and Boeing just to name a few.  Here are people that are designing aircraft and developing technology that I could one day be using in the cockpit.  I was fascinated, and a bit frightened at the same time.  You could very easily distinguish who in the room was a PC and who was a MAC, and yet they all spoke the same language and got along very well.  I was also very entertained when the dancing started.  I personally am chorophobic, but to see MACs and PCs dance together was a sight.  It was a beautiful wedding with a conga line, and open bar.  Upon hearing that it was open bar I decided to get a room at a nearby hotel with my gold mine of Marriott points from my Zero G days.   If you need to get away for a few days or are planning a vacation to the Orlando area then definitely put the Grand Lakes JW Marriott on the list of potential hotels.  The people there were absolutely fantastic.  Friendly and warm, and the few times I had to tip either the valet or bellman, they thank you with an air of surprise.  My room had a view of the pools, lakes, and Disney World.  I’m sure if I had gotten back in time I would have seen the Disney fireworks.  The room was fresh and clean aside from a windex soaked cloth housekeeping forgot to take with them in the bathroom.  New HD plasma screens, which I have noticed is becoming more and more the norm in all hotels.  I wish I could have stayed another night to really experience more of the hotel, but it was certainly a break away from flying and school that I needed. 

Back to flying tomorrow…