I hope you all enjoyed last week’s travel tips post. I enjoyed hearing from you all about some of the things you haven’t heard about before, such as seatguru.com, and the no beep belt. I’ll be putting them all to the test again this coming weekend as I fly back home to San Diego for a 4 day holiday break. Call me twisted but I really enjoy travel days. And as hectic as the holiday travel season is, I just can't get enough. They remind me of the days I was young traveling with family and friends around the world. When we would go on vacation it was normally during the summer or Christmas break. I really would like to go back over the list of places I have spent New Years. One of the most memorable was in Chile, in a park square singing songs with the Chilean Navy drinking the local beverage until midnight, then taking EVERYONE back to the hotel and "sneaking" in about 2 dozen people into our travel group's practical joker's room who was sleeping. Only to wake him up with Auld Lang Syne sung in 4 different languages. Imagine sleeping soundly in your room and waking up to 2 dozen people singing, and the guys in uniform up front! GOOD TIMES!
Lets shift back into flying gear...
The last two weeks I’ve been shooting precision approaches (ILS) and practicing GPS approaches. One evening we took off from Sanford (SFB) heading to Melbourne (MLB) to practice more instrument procedures and landing approaches. Even though I had my hood on to prevent me from seeing outside for a simulated instrument conditions I could see down the left side of the plane at the communities we were flying over and all the homes with Christmas lights that ignited the ground. Not that long into the flight my instructor startled me with a loud “OH SHIT” statement. I looked up at the panel and saw the low oil pressure light lit up. I immediately pulled out my emergency checklist to see if this situation was on there. As I was looking to see what to do, my instructor was already informing ATC we needed to divert to Titusville. When I found the checklist all it stated was “Land Immediately.” As we approached Titusville my instructor said “THIS IS FUN!” And I had to admit… it WAS! A little excitement was good. We touched down at Titusville and pulled up to the Jet Center ramp. It turned out they were closed. My instructor called DCA to talk to a mechanic. As he spoke I looked across the field and saw my old stomping grounds when I was with Zero G. And there she was. 794AJ otherwise known as G Force 1 sitting happily on the ramp at her home. I smiled remembering the good ole days that plane produced for me. It was a bitter sweet moment. My instructor called for me to get back in the plane. After a bit of troubleshooting the mechanics declared it was just a faulty sensor. We got back in the plane, took off, and went back home to SFB.
The last few days of the week were a special challenge for me. Learning how to take off and land on short runways and soft runways or grass runways. I think I like the soft field take offs and landings the best because in essence you are trying to do a wheelie in the plane as you go down the runway to keep from damaging the grass runway for other planes. Basically you pull back on the yoke from the start and try not to lift off before your take off speed. With short field takeoffs you hold the brakes, and throttle up to full power then let off the brakes to speed up more quickly and have a shorter distance to takeoff speed. Practicing these were quite fun. Of course you all may have heard me say in the past that I have a difficult time with landing the plane. Every time my instructor provides some pressure on the yoke to get me safely on the runway. We kept flying the pattern and coming in for landings. After about 4 or 5 touch and goes I came in for another, we actually landed twice, but when I got her on the ground, my instructor informed me I had done it without any help from him. I was a bit astonished but the feeling I got was incredible. I felt more free and in more control of my flying than ever before. A weight lifted off my shoulders and a feeling of having drunk a Red Bull came over me. I pushed the power lever full forward to take off again… I want to do THAT again!!
I was having trouble with soft field landings. My instructor asked me if he could show me one. I of course agreed. We came in and bounced in for a landing. He laughed and said “That’s NOT how it should have been.” Then as we took back off a few perplexed sounding words came from my instructors microphone and into my headset. When I asked him what was up, he said to look at the power lever gauge. 0%. I looked at the lever itself and it was full forward. At minimum it should have read 100% power. A call was made to Sanford Tower for a full stop. The lesson was done, even though I would have liked to have kept practicing my landings.
So the last two weeks had some interesting quirks. Nothing life threatening, and even if they were, it would not dissuade me from flying. They almost make flying more interesting for me. A challenge that would not normally offer itself to be practiced yet at my stage.
This coming week will be short due to Christmas. I have one more lesson before I go up for a stage check. Yet another oral exam, with a check ride after its completion at a satisfactory level. Ground work with my instructor has been kicked up a notch. Acronyms are being memorized and airplane systems are also put to memory. I doubt I will get this out of the way before leaving for San Diego, which means I may have to study a bit during my holidays. But that’s okay. It’s becoming more and more fun as I achieve these small personal victories.
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