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…

New Challenges

I last left you with my incomplete on traffic patterns on my check ride.  Early last week I got the email for the 2nd check ride with a different instructor.  This instructor was a really nice guy from Boston who played forward for the San Diego Gulls, a minor league hockey team from my home town.  After the team folded he moved his family back to Boston.  He still lives in there and commutes to Sanford during the week to instruct students at DCA.  With the travel benefits he gets with Delta he can do this relatively easily.  It still amazes me how pilots can live in one place but be based in a completely different state, sometimes country.  We went through the walk around of the plane and found nothing to be out of place.  I went through all my checklists, and we taxied out to the engine run-up area to go through more checklists.  On the way my instructor asked me what exactly happened on my last check ride that wasn't satisfactory.  When I explained, he said "Okay... so we probably only need to go up, do a lap and go back." Sounds good to me.  

ATC cleared us for take off and as usually I left earth flawlessly and proceeded up to 700 ft while also going through my climbing checklist.  When we just about reached 700 ft ATC asked us to continue the runway heading until reaching the river to then turn into the pattern with right hand turns.  As soon as we were cleared, I had us at 1000 ft. and I turned until I reached the downwind leg.  ATC then cleared us for the option on Niner Right.  I announced we would be doing a normal landing on Niner Right to get that checklist out of the way to which my instructor said good job.  As soon as I abeamed the 27 runway I started my "before landing" checklist.  Throttle down to 50% power, under 120 knots 50% flaps, fuel pump on boost, mixture to 100%.  Cool... so far so good. When Niner Right was about 45 degrees behind me from my right wing tip I turned toward the airport, and under 100 knots put in 100% flaps... road the "balloon" and came around to line up the runway.  I watched the lights on the side of the runway to make sure I was on the right path.  If all 4 lights are red, you are too low.  If they are all white, you are too high.  Two red and two white... you are right on the glide slope.  We were just about to touch her down and I heard "GO AROUND" from my instructor.  I was expecting this.  I pushed the throttle full forward, flipped the lever up for 50% flaps and started to climb again.  I finished off the "Go Around" checklist and proceeded to make another lap in the pattern.  We finished the lap and came in for a landing which of course I needed help with.  He told me I did a good job and we taxied back to the DCA ramp and he signed me off.  It was a good feeling to get that little monkey off my back.  

A day later my permanent instructor was back with me in the simulator.  Cross country navigation and learning to use the E6-B flight computer... which... isn't a computer at all. Its more like a slide ruler.  Here comes my new challenge.  I need to fly the plane without autopilot, with a chart (pilot talk for map) on my lap, while using the flight computer to determine my ground speed, and how long it will take to get from a point I saw on the ground, matching it up with the chart, to my destination airport. As I was doing all this at the same time, it reminded me of the Disney cartoons with Goofy doing the "How To" bits.  Everything Goofy would do whether it was set up a home gym, pitching a tent, or the last most recent one I saw on setting up home entertainment system ended up with him tied up in ropes, wires, cords, and in some impossible pretzel shape that no human or dog should ever or could ever end up in.  Fast forward from being in the sim to now doing this in the plane flying to Melbourne at night when I cant even see most of the reference points on my chart.  I ended up using the entire city of Christmas on my chart and some huge antennas, determining that it took me about 4 minutes to get from one to the other, then measuring out the distance with a ruler to figure out my ground speed.  Then measuring out the distance from the antennas to my destination and determining from the previous information how much time it would take me to get to Melbourne airport.  By the time I got my answer, my chart was mangled and strewn across my lap and up my chin, my E6-B was in two pieces, one on the floor by my feet, the other on the small center console in front of the instrument panel, and me staring at my instructor who was obviously enjoying the comedy taking place live at 3000 feet.  Through the audible laughter I heard him say to put the map away, that we would practice on the ground later.  I attempted to fold my chart up properly which anyone can tell you it takes an engineering degree to fold these things, thus starting the 2nd scene of my new off Broadway show "Live at 3000 ft." The chart ended up unfolded in the back seat as if Cosmo Kramer had thrown it back there to turn around and hope no one saw him.

On to timed turns.  Any plane you are in, a standard rate turn means it takes 2 minutes to do a 360 degree turn.  Which translates to 1 minute for a 180 degree turn and 30 seconds for a 90 degree turn.   For a timed turn the instructor will ask you to turn to a certain heading and its up to you to figure out how long it should take.  As I have mentioned in the past my simple math skills are awful.  To add, subtract, multiply, any two numbers... and I do mean ANY two numbers in my head without a calculator is a near impossible feat.  I just couldn't get the right answer without my instructor helping me out.  Once I had the answer I make the turns pretty well.  Its just the damn math that is holding me up for this one.

For anyone of you out there that I talked to prior to becoming a student pilot and said you don't need math...  Expect a knock on your door soon.  And a bit of advice... Even if you don't see me in the peep hole... Don't open the door.

I will be going to the Kennedy Space Center's Space & Airshow in November.  The Blue Angels will be there!  If anyone else is going and would like to meet up, email me at Nomad@TheModernDayNomad.com.  

Check Ride

Monday, I met with my instructor one last time to go over airspace, Cirrus SR20 systems, and various other areas before submitting me for my first stage check.  During the oral exam you are allowed to use any of your books especially those that have the FAA stamp on the cover.  One of my books in particular spells out every regulation called the FAR/AIM is particularly useful.  During my study sessions I placed sticky note tabs from start to finish making it easier to find key areas I knew I would be asked about.  On the viewable portion of the tab while the book is closed was the area or question I could be asked.  On the inside of the tab I wrote out any acronyms pertaining to that section.  I figured if I was asked something, but forgot which acronym to use, I could look for the tab and find the acronym without looking up the answer.  I would then write out my answer and any letters I could not remember what they stood for I would look up.  This proved to be the winning formula for me. 

Tuesday night I got the email that I would have my oral exam on Wednesday at 0700.  I got to the operations building about a half hour prior to my exam time and did some last minute crunching.  I wrote out all the acronyms I could think of and brushed up on each letter.  I did not try to do any rocket ships on my charts because there was no one around to correct me if I was wrong.

The hour came and I met the instructor who would be grilling me for the next 2 hours.  I had two bags with me full of books.  One of the bags was my old Zero G flight bag that I had placed all the patches from different events I had organized.  Esther Dyson’s FlightSchool 07, Northrup Grumman’s Weightless Flights of Discovery, the release of Richard Garriott’s Tabula Rasa video game, the release of Nintendo’s Mario Galaxy with Mario and Buzz Aldrin floating side by side, and the old G Force One patch.  I also had the GF1 patch on my pilot flight bag so I could easily distinguish my bag quickly from my other classmates as sometimes it can be like finding your luggage on the carousel at the airport. Every bag looks identical.  As soon as the instructor came into the interrogation room he noticed all the “spacey patches” and asked me about it.  I explained I used to work for Zero G, and after his initial “that’s awesome” statement he asked “So did you see the Mythbusters show a couple weeks ago?” I couldn’t help but smile and told him I was on that episode.  We talked for about 10 minutes about Zero G, before he pulled out his grading sheet and we got to work.  I found this process really interesting.  I answered his questions one by one, acronym after acronym.  After I answered a question he would then ask me something related but wasn’t required for me to know.  He wanted to see if I could figure it out.  If I couldn’t he would show me where in the FAR/AIM to look or go into detail about why something is.  I have to say I was learning more from him than my instructor.  We got into a discussion about weight and balance of the aircraft.  This is something we must do before any flight to make sure we are within weight requirements for taking off and landing.  There are three things we have to figure out for various areas of the plane.  Weight, Arm, and Moment.  Weight is of course the weight of the plane, but also weight of the pilot and copilot in the forward seats, weight of the passengers in the back seat, weight of the bags taken on board.  The Arm is the distance of that area to a certain location determined by the manufacturer of the aircraft.  If I’m not mistaken the reference point for the Cirrus is the firewall.  When you multiply weight and arm you get the Moment which is a measure of force.  This all has an effect on the center of gravity.  More weight you put in the back of the plane the faster it will go but with less control, which means it will be harder to steer in the event of a stall.  Moving on, he had me read a few weather reports (Metar’s and TAFs) to make sure I could accurately decipher the strange language.   Then airspace came.  He asked me about Echo airspace and all the different kinds.  I didn’t have this quite memorized so I had to look in my book.  I was however able to explain what each of the “other Echo airspace” was exactly.  All of this took about 2 hours.  Once the two hours was up, he said “Well you passed, Good job!”  I sat there a bit dumbfounded.  “What do you mean I passed? Are we done?!  You don’t want me to show you what airspaces a rocket would go through on my charts?!  You don’t want to know that the Cirrus has a fuel injected, normally aspirated, horizontally opposed, air cooled, D rated 200 horsepower,  engine made by Continental?!”  

“No…  I just want to know you can fly without being a danger to someone or yourself. Rockets are good, but not for a your first oral exam.  You’ll probably have your check ride tomorrow.” And he left.

Ummmm…  Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?  I must have gotten off easy.  Ground school was in an hour so I walked over to see if any of my classmates were around.  They asked me how my oral went and I told them I passed and how easy it was.  One other classmate of mine had had the same instructor and said he had the same experience.  Everyone else reiterated what I was expecting prior to the test.  Well!  I won’t complain that’s for sure.

The next day my check ride was at 13:30.  Met my instructor who was from Jamaica, and we walked out to the plane to do our inspections.  He followed me around the plane watching my every move.  I decided to think out loud to make sure he knew what I was doing.  I sumped the four fuel tanks to make sure there was no water or debris in the tanks and the instructor stopped me.  “How many times did you sump the tanks?”

“Four times.”

“What about the 5^th one?”

“What 5^th one?”

That apparently wasn’t a good answer as he looked at me like I had two heads and extra eyes on my foreheads.  He showed me a 5^th sump under the nose between the exhaust pipes.  Holy crap!  I never knew this one was there.  I apologized and explained I didn’t know it was there.  Interestingly enough I don’t know if a lot of students know its there as the silver mechanism didn’t look like it had ever been used.  We continued the inspection and all was fine.  He pointed out a few things that were new to me and I found fascinating.  There is a hard rubber piece just under the tail that has a hole through it used to tie down the plane when it is not in use.  He asked me to feel it and tell him what it felt like.  It was round and smooth.  He asked me what if it was flat and rough? My brain started to go through scenarios as to why it would be flat and rough.  If it were flat and rough I would imagine that meant someone had landed the plane and had a tail strike to the ground, that this would rub away the rubber.  The ground was rough like a sand paper so that would mean it had not been checked out by maintenance.  During an inspection by maintenance they would smooth out the flat area to let the next pilot know they checked it out and it was ready for flight again.  My instructor was very pleased with this answer.  We sat in the plane and I went through all my check lists.  He made a few comments and asked a few more questions.  Besides the 5^th fuel sump I was doing pretty well.  We taxied over to the engine run up area to make sure everything was working properly.  As it was very hot and humid we taxied with the doors open to get a breeze from the spinning prop.  We arrived at the airport’s “spot 5” for the run up test and I went to reach for my checklist.  “Ummm…  Where did my checklist go??”  I asked him if he saw it somewhere, and we searched, under my seat, by the rudder pedals, the backseat.  Damnit!  This is not good!  I knew he had seen me using it before so that wasn’t worried about him thinking I wasn’t prepared.  It MUST have blown out the door as we taxied.  He didn’t seem that upset and handed me his checklist for me to use.  We got our clearance to depart and away we went.  I didn’t like the looks of some clouds and we were getting some rain.  It was very light though.  We started out with turns around a point, rectangle course, and S turns.  He was satisfied and asked me to climb to 3000 ft.  Upon reaching the elevation he asked me to maintain heading and to slow down as much as possible.  I pulled back power to 20% and started the slow flight maneuver.  He asked me to turn left and to turn right, which I did like a champ!  Then he asked me to do a power on stall.  I hesitated.  I had all the different types of stalls written down on a pad of paper, because I cannot for the life of me remember which is which.  I asked him if I could use my notes to which he responded no.  He then asked me step by step what I remember how to do.  Ok… power back to 25%, at 75 knots pull back on the yoke to maintain altitude and power to 65% “Stall horn on”

“Normal continue”

The plane began to buffet and I applied full power while dipping the nose down to get straight and level.  WOOHOO!!  I did it!!

He then asked me to program the autopilot in a strange configuration.  high feet per minute ascent, then asked me to pull some power out.  “Whats going to happen?” was the next thing he asked.

“Well… Its going to stall.”

Sarcastically he responded with his Jamaican accent “Its not going to stall… the autopilot is on… its smart enough to know not to stall doesn’t it?”

Interestingly enough in our radio com class prior to this we had just watched a video by Nat Geo about 4 plane incidents that occurred because the flight crew didn’t understand all the limitations of their autopilot. “Uh…  No it doesn’t know any better. The autopilot will do as its asked.  It’s the pilots job to know its limitations."

“GOOD!  Now disengage the autopilot.”

We started flying back to the airport and he said he wanted to do some pattern work.  Pattern work is flying around the airport while landing the plane but immediately taking off again (touch and go), going around making only right hand turns to line up and touch and go again.  I told him I had never done pattern or closed traffic work before.  He seemed rather astonished.  This is not something I had done with my instructor yet.  We made the call for closed traffic for runway Niner Right.  We were cleared for the option (we had the choice of go around, touch and go, or full stop) and we began the maneuvers.  I guess he didn’t like the two laps we did and he called it a day.  While on the ground in the operations building he graded me.  He said everything was fine but he was putting an incomplete on my pattern work.  I must say I wasn’t surprised, but disappointed I would have to do the check ride again.  At least I wouldn’t have to do everything else, just the pattern work.  As I was walking out I saw my instructor who was dying to know how it went.  I told him what happened, and he seemed very surprised that I didn’t pass because of the one thing.  We had a chat with the head instructor which is a requirement if you do not pass a check ride.  He asked me what I think went wrong.  Uhh well… Ive never done pattern work.   He explained to me what I needed to know and that my instructor and I would do an hour of pattern work and then I would be resubmitted for the check.   So… as the Soundgarden song Outshined goes “I’m looking California, but feeling Minnesota.”  Perfect explanation of how I feeling.  People that looked at me wouldn’t have known I was feeling bummed.  It wasn’t my fault and I was ok with it… but again… bummed I didn’t pass on that one thing.

Next day came and my instructor and I went up for about an hour and a half.  11 touch and goes later I was doing just fine in the pattern… but my landings are horrible.  My take offs are great… but landing is a problem right now.  I’ll keep on it and hopefully I’ll be “greasing the wheels” soon.

A few weeks ago I was asked by @DaveFlys on twitter.com to join him and @PilotWill to be their guests on their pod cast Flight Pod Log.  Which can also be found on iTunes.  It has not been posted yet as of the publish date of this piece, but I had a great time with them talking about Zero G, DCA, and what I’m going through as a student pilot.  Thanks guys… I had a lot fun and would do it again anytime!! 

Pre Stage

The time has come where I am up for my first stage check.  This comes in two parts.  The first is an oral exam, comprising of everything from the engine of the Cirrus, to its electrical system.  Other areas that will be put under a microscope will be what I can and cannot do as a student pilot and what I can or cannot do once I obtain my private.  The last item under scrutiny will be identifying airspace.  This is the one that has been giving me the most trouble.  I can identify the various airspaces on my charts, that’s not the challenge.  The way these questions will be asked are to imagine you are a rocket at a specified airport.  If you are to launch and go straight up… which airspaces will you encounter and at which altitudes will you encounter them.  For those of you who have never seen an aviation chart…  Its best described in my opinion as organized chaos.  Here’s an example. (Click on the charts button at the top and choose any of the boxes depicting an area of the U.S.) Depending on the airport, an answer to these questions can be a series of different layers at different altitudes.  Some airports will have 4 or 5 different airspaces above them all the way up to 60,000 ft.  These can be anything from Airspace Delta, Golf, Bravo, Charlie, and a dash of Alpha.  To make things even more confusing, some airspaces don’t go just straight up.  That would be too easy.  You have to think more 3 dimensionally.  Some look like an upside down wedding cake with two or three tiers.  Here’s an example.  I’ve often said to myself when I start flying cross country solos that I would fly around all the different airspaces to avoid having to talk to different ATCs during the flight.  Of course this would not be the most effective way, as most of the time it would be like a mouse searching for cheese at the end of a maze.  And it’s not guaranteed there is a way to get to that cheese in this manner.

I’ve been listening to various classmates talk about their stage checks when it comes to the flying check.  Some instructors will require you to talk with ATC, and others may be more relaxed about it.  I’ve come to a point where I can make my request and its hit or miss if I can A. understand them or B. I understand the instruction but I’ve already forgotten WHAT they have told me.  The one I am consistently getting good at is after we have landed when we are holding clear of the runway and wanting to go back to DCA ramp.  The response 95% of the time is to taxi via right side Charlie to Lima.  Runways are always numbers and the taxi ways which are like roads to the various runways or areas of an airport and are always letters.  These letters are titled using the NATO phonetic alphabet I have mentioned in a previous post.

Once I get in the air for the second phase of my stage check, the only thing I worry about is my power on stall.  This simulates a take off with too much angle of attack until the wings no longer produce lift.  Eventually the wings will stall and the plane starts to buffet then drop.  Once your instruments indicate a drop in elevation, full power is added with some right rudder to keep straight and hope you have maintained your heading.   The last flight practicing these I was very frustrated with my performance.  I just could not maintain my heading.  The last power on stall I nailed it… perfect 10 from start to finish.  I’m hoping I have some muscle memory to reproduce this.  I also hope they allow me to use my notes for all the different stalls.  I could be lost without them.

I negotiated with my instructor to not submit me for stage until he and I have had one more ground work.  After our session on Monday he will submit my name with my log book for testing.  I’m sure the next posting of TMDN will be the results of my first stage check.