Tragedy

For those of you who have not heard, last night a DCA instructor and a student friend of mine lost their lives in plane crash.  I appreciate all the calls and emails from my friends and family making sure I am ok.

Rumors are of course flying around and we wont know for sure what exactly happened until the report comes out. Here is a link to the Orlado Sentinel which is being updated as new information comes in.  

My thoughts go out to the families of my friend Derek Fox (student) and Adi Atkinson (instructor)

School was canceled for today (Wednesday) until further notice.

Books Up To Bat, Oral Exam On Deck, Check Ride In The Hole

PASSED!  I finally passed the lesson from hell!  Flew to KIZER... entered the hold on a direct entry made my turns... called up Orlando Approach to let them know I was established in the hold, which surprised my instructor, who up until now, has been making the call.  We flew back to Sanford International where I made two ILS approaches and one GPS to a full stop. Even though I've completed this lesson finally, the real test comes next.

Before I can go on to the next lesson I must complete an oral exam followed by a checkride. Both of these are conducted by our top instructors.  Instructors that don the 4 stripes on their shoulders, who are certified by the FAA to give exams and checkrides.  With the long break I had from being sick and the studying I tried to do to keep up, I'm finding out through groundwork with my instructor that it wasn't enough.  So I'm hitting the books as much as I can.  I'll need to talk to our head instructor to see how much time I can have before being submitted for the oral.  I also think once I'm through this stage I will ask for a new instructor.  I've stuck with him since the beginning which is more than I can say for quite a few of the other students who started with me.  Because of this last lesson and having the opportunity to experience other instructors and feeling light bulbs going off with their different perspectives and instructing styles, I don't feel my instructor is right for me.  So come Monday I will find out my options and decide from there.

Until then...  I'm studying up on illusions, types of hypoxia, weather, instruments, certs and docs, among other topics.

I think I finally Got This!

After almost three weeks on the ground due to illness I'm finally on the schedule to fly.  The schedule had me with a different instructor.  But not any instructor.  The students at DCA are divided into groups with different group leaders and managers.  I'm flying with the group manager.  A four bar pilot which means he also gives the FAA oral exams and check rides.  So I'm actually excited to go up with this guy.  The people they give the four bars to are the best of the best.  I'm hoping he gives me a different perspective on the lesson I'm stuck on as well as how to go about the oral and check ride I have coming up. Most of the lesson I'm on is complete except for of course the dreaded ILS, GPS approach along with the holding pattern.  

Getting back in the plane felt really good.  I couldn't wait to go racing down the runway and get into the air.  As I was driving to DCA the weather was ugly.  Rain, wind, and DAMN cold.  I had my fingers crossed that the weather minimums would allow Instrument Flight Rules.  There was a group of students and instructors hovered around the weather station computers checking out the radar, METARs and TAFs.  Visual Flight Rules was out, preventing more than half the students from going up.  IFR was just above minimums.  SWEET! Plus instead of logging simulated instrument hours (under the hood) I'll get some actual time.

 

After the preflight inspection and engine run up we were taxiing to runway 27 via right side of kilo charlie romeo.  

"Sanford Ground, Connection 403, holding short 27 Center at romeo ready for departure." 

"Connection 403 fly runway heading clear for departure"

I repeated "fly runway heading clear for departure Connection 403"

Ok...  lights (turn on the landing light) Camera (make sure we are squaking the right code in the transponder) Action (mixture to full rich).  Line up the plane on the center line, 50% power...  Check the engine gauges...  "All Green All Go" 100% power...  Attain 71 kts for rotation speed and apply back pressure to the yoke and lift off the ground.  Above 85 kts, flaps up...  Checklist complete. This feels GREAT!!!

I programmed the GPS to take us to Leesburg Airport for the GPS approach. There were a few breaks in the clouds so I was told to put on the foggles.  2 minutes later that request was withdrawn.  We were at about 3 thousand feet and the rain and clouds were thick.  Sweet! I'm getting some actual IFR hours.  Because it had been quite some time since my last flight I wasn't to turn on the autopilot just yet.  My altitude would fluctuate a couple hundred feet high and low around 3 thousand.  I attributed the weather for about one of those hundred feet and my lack of flying for the other hundred.  As we approached Leesburg I turned the autopilot on for the approach. With the descent checklist out of the way and the first of the two before landing checklists out of the way I waited to be a half mile out to perform my last before landing checklist then coupled the autopilot to the descent rate.  I made my altitude call outs before reaching my decision altitude.  Reaching DA I called out 30 seconds to going missed.  When the time was up I called out Going Missed and reported to Leesburg Tower.  My missed approach directions were to hold at MAMBO (a fix or a point on the map identified with the name MAMBO) as published on my approach plates.  

This is where having a new instructor perspective came in really handy.  At this point I cant even remember how I was doing a hold with my last instructor, but this new way I was being shown is great!  I had more information for when to make my turns and start my timer etc.  Essentially there was less guess work.  I just had to remember to write down all the steps as a cheat sheet to replicate it.

On the way back into Sanford I input the ILS approach for runway 27 right.  Just before landing my instructor asked for the controls to land the plane.  There was a strong crosswind so he directed the plane into the wind almost sideways to the runway and at the last second kicked in full rudder to line back up with the runway to land.

On the ground my instructor said I did a good job for having been gone for so long.  He didn't want me to go on to the next lesson until I had more practice with the new method for the hold and to get more practice controlling the plane.  I agreed.

The instructor and I had ground work scheduled so I took the opportunity to write out the steps for setting up a hold.  Id be ready for the next flight.

Thursday night I get the email for my flight for Friday morning at 7am with yet another instructor.  I arrived at 6am and filed my IFR plan.  It was DAMN cold outside.  The Governor of Florida declared a state of emergency the night before for the Orange groves.  At 7am the instructor and I went out to the plane to find frost on the wings.  Instead of scraping we decided to wait for the sun to come out.  Around 8am we headed out again.  As I went through the cockpit checklists my instructor wiped the remaining frost off the wings.  I did the walk around and got back in the cockpit.  Turning on batteries one and two the main display came on then started flickering.  We turned off the batteries then turned on just BAT master switch 2 which the main display works off of.  Nothing.  BAT master 1 switch will run all the systems if there's something wrong with BAT 2.  We called into operations to send out a mechanic whose diagnosis was to write it up and get a new plane.

With a new plane and more frost to scrape I started in on my checklists.  So far so good. That's when I found a dent in the under side of a wing.  Another call was made to the mechanics who came out and said it was fine.  OK... away we go.

I had filed my flight plan to do the hold at KIZER first then to come back to Sanford for the ILS approach.  I decided to save a bit of time before getting in the air so I programmed GPS one for KIZER then GPS two for the Orlando VOR to essentially triangulate my whereabouts while doing the hold. As soon as we got in the air ATC asked us to do the hold at MAMBO instead of how I had filed.  OK... no problem.  I loaded MAMBO up in GPS one and forgot that when you load something into GPS one it cross loads into two.  As I got to MAMBO something just didn't look right...  But in the passed my problem has been second guessing myself so I thought Id keep going to see if my entry would correct what I saw on my display.  It didn't.  My instructor then asked me what I was doing.  I started to talk him through it then realized the Orlando VOR was not loaded into GPS two anymore.  THERE'S your problem!!  I loaded up the VOR and poof... all was well again.  UGH! but that means I have to do this lesson again!  That sucks... but at least I know for sure I will get it next time.  I'm beyond ready to move on.  Doing the same thing every time I go fly is getting tiresome.  But DCA wants perfection.  Which in the long run of course is a good thing.