I was sitting in class and decided to pull up the BVFS online scheduling database - only to find another open slot, from 11:30-1:00! Second time this week I caught someone canceling at just the right time. I called the airport as I left class at 10:50, ran home to grab my flight bag, and was at the flight line ready to go. Today was a recap of everything, plus a lesson on the different classes of airspace, including operating from an uncontrolled airfield. We flew out west to Caldwell Municipal (RWV) and entered the downwind leg of the traffic pattern. I came in high and fast on final approach, and the Caldwell runway is half the length (and width as well) of the one at Easterwood. The wind gusts were ridiculous today - steady wind at 9 kts, gusting to 22. That large of a wind variation makes slow flight at low altitudes a nightmare, especially when one gust comes from the left, and the next from the right. I was working very hard trying to stay on top of the controls - as soon as I got the side slip evened out, the winds would push me back the other way and I would jam the rudder in the full opposite direction. In addition, every time the wind increases you get a boost in lift and the plane would float high. As soon as I decreased the throttle to come back down the winds would die and we would drop! This up and down, back and forth struggle turned into a violent battle as I got closer and closer to the runway - it was mentally and physically draining. You start realizing that the plane doesn't want to go where you want it to be, and the ground is coming at you. If I was on my own I would have went full-throttle and gone around for another pass, but with an instructor to my right I wasn't going to quit unless it made him uncomfortable. Eventually I touched down, way off to the left of the centerline and very crooked. The wheels made a very uncomfortable screech and I felt a lot of strain in the nose gear through the rudder pedals. I used up too much runway for a touch-and-go, so I put the brakes on and turned around to taxi back to the start of the runway. We took off and made another attempt, this approach was better and we had enough room to lift off, but I was not very satisfied. As we came back to Easterwood, Dave said he wanted me to land using the right half of the runway only... my guess was to get more practice using smaller runways. Again, the gusts made for a messy landing and I floated quite a bit down the runway. Either way, at the end Dave said I was doing just fine and he's impressed for what I can do in these situations with little experience. He went on to say the next flight will be three trips through the pattern, and if I'm having a good day and the weather's right - he'll hop out of the plane and turn me loose.
Flight #10: 1.1 hrs
Total Log Time: 9.7 hrs
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Flight Log 02-24
Today I knocked out two lessons in one flight: #8 (steep turns, forward slip to landing) and #9 (emergency procedures, flying w/o instruments). Steep turns were easy enough, next up was probably the single most helpful period of instruction to date: emergencies. First, the airspeed indicator was covered by a piece of adhesive paper and I was instructed to get the plane in landing configuration. I have to guestimate 65 kts. Power back, pitch up, flaps 20 degrees. Establish a good glide angle. When I thought I had it, he removed the cover - 70 kts, only off by 5. Next, the altimeter was covered; make turns while maintaining altitude. Only off by 50 feet - certainly not bad at all. Now the tricky part: engine failure. I was entering the pattern at Hearne Municipal when my instructor pulled the throttle all the way back to idle. I had 'lost' the engine... now what? Run through the ABC's of engine failure: Airspeed, Best field, Cockpit checks. Glide speed is 65 kts, we're right by KLHB, and there's no time to attempt a restart. Today's winds were blowing from the northwest at 12 kts, gusting violently to 18; this made for a tough (but extremely valuable) landing. I made a tight final turn right over the numbers for runway 36, kept adjusting the pitch to maintain that 65, and came down fast. Flare, and we touched down. A little hard, but it felt good to bring a plane in with the engine out - that's a real confidence booster. We left Hearne and followed the Brazos back to Easterwood, made one touch-and-go then landed.
Flight #8/9: 1.2 hrs
Total Log Time: 8.6 hrs
Flight #8/9: 1.2 hrs
Total Log Time: 8.6 hrs
Monday, February 22, 2010
Flight Log 02-22
I just happened to check the schedules when I woke up this morning and was delighted to see somebody had canceled for the day, right between my two classes! Off to the airport I went, again crossing my fingers that the weather would be just enough to go. The first six flights, which culmintated with Saturday's progress check, all deal with learning your aircraft and how it handles. The next section is titled "Polishing Your Landings and Emergency Procedures". Lesson #7: Crosswind takeoffs and landings. Nothing new really, I've had stiffer crosswinds to deal with on previous flights. Today's wind was 13 kts, gusting to 18, but literally right down the centerline of Runway 34. The gusts provided maybe 5 kts of crosswind.
There must have been a mouse or something scampering around the approach end of the runway, becuase every time I came around we had to dodge a red-tail hawk that was circling in our flight path. I don't know what it is about Easterwood, but the birds love to hang out around here. On the second approach Dave throws me a curve and calls out "go around, go around" - aborting the landing was part of our briefing, but he wanted to make it a surprise to keep me on my toes. We requested to land Runway 4 so I could get some tough crosswind practice, but about this time a bunch of Navy guys from Corpus started calling in saying they were making straight-in approaches, so our request was denied. After the fourth TC-12 called in (and our second denial) Dave decided to call it a day.
The next few lessons are all pretty short and simple, so they'll probably be rolled into one... which means the solo is even closer!
Flight #7: 0.7 hrs
Total Log Time: 7.4 hrs
There must have been a mouse or something scampering around the approach end of the runway, becuase every time I came around we had to dodge a red-tail hawk that was circling in our flight path. I don't know what it is about Easterwood, but the birds love to hang out around here. On the second approach Dave throws me a curve and calls out "go around, go around" - aborting the landing was part of our briefing, but he wanted to make it a surprise to keep me on my toes. We requested to land Runway 4 so I could get some tough crosswind practice, but about this time a bunch of Navy guys from Corpus started calling in saying they were making straight-in approaches, so our request was denied. After the fourth TC-12 called in (and our second denial) Dave decided to call it a day.
The next few lessons are all pretty short and simple, so they'll probably be rolled into one... which means the solo is even closer!
Flight #7: 0.7 hrs
Total Log Time: 7.4 hrs
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Flight Log 02-20
I was afraid today was going to be a repeat from the other week - get all ready to go, then have the weather shut it down. Lesson #6 - instrument reference and my first progress check. In addition I would be flying with BVFS owner Bill Brady, so today would be a good day to impress. For instrument reference training, you fly 'under the hood' - a plastic visor you wear that only lets you see the instrument panel, and not out the windscreen. Bill expressed some concern over the course load for today's flight, saying we probably won't get through all of it... we'll see.
Once established at cruise level, he had me put the visor on. First up was practicing standard rate turns - the turn coordinator has dash marks labeled "2 min turn". This means if you hold your turn on those marks, you will complete a 360 degree turn in two minutes. This is helpful if your compass is down - hold a turn for 30 seconds and you turn 90 degrees. This task was easy enough, so next was climbs and descents. Power back to 2100 rpm, let the plane sink, watch the altimeter and VSI. The Vertical Speed Indicator lets you know how fast you are climbing or descending and a standard rate is about 500 ft/min. Next we combined the two: if descent rate is 500 ft/min, and a 180 degree turn takes one minute, then we can go from 2500' to 2000' while turning north to south. Finally I made a full 360 while descending 1000' and hit my altitude and heading at the exact same time. Perfect. Bill was satisfied so he decided to throw a challenge at me: a blind power-on stall. I have to recover the plane and keep it straight with zero visual reference. This was not in the curriculum by the way... Airspeed 75 kts, pitch up, add power. I watch the turn coordinator real close to know which way needs rudder input. The stall comes on and the plane starts to spin heavy to the left - I jam the right rudder to the stops and break the stall. The airplane was recovered and I got to take the hood off.
Well apparently I progressed trough this evolution quickly just like everything else, so as it turns out we do indeed have enough time to complete the progress check - combining everything I've learned so far. I made some circles and S-turns, and my basic flying skills were crisp enough blind so there wasn't any reason to re-check. Turn back to Easterwood, make two touch-and-goes then the necessary full-stop. Park and shutdown. Bill's remarks: "You might need to solo sooner..." According to the curriculum, the first solo isn't until Lesson #11.
Flight #6: 1.1 hrs
Total Log Time: 6.7 hrs
Once established at cruise level, he had me put the visor on. First up was practicing standard rate turns - the turn coordinator has dash marks labeled "2 min turn". This means if you hold your turn on those marks, you will complete a 360 degree turn in two minutes. This is helpful if your compass is down - hold a turn for 30 seconds and you turn 90 degrees. This task was easy enough, so next was climbs and descents. Power back to 2100 rpm, let the plane sink, watch the altimeter and VSI. The Vertical Speed Indicator lets you know how fast you are climbing or descending and a standard rate is about 500 ft/min. Next we combined the two: if descent rate is 500 ft/min, and a 180 degree turn takes one minute, then we can go from 2500' to 2000' while turning north to south. Finally I made a full 360 while descending 1000' and hit my altitude and heading at the exact same time. Perfect. Bill was satisfied so he decided to throw a challenge at me: a blind power-on stall. I have to recover the plane and keep it straight with zero visual reference. This was not in the curriculum by the way... Airspeed 75 kts, pitch up, add power. I watch the turn coordinator real close to know which way needs rudder input. The stall comes on and the plane starts to spin heavy to the left - I jam the right rudder to the stops and break the stall. The airplane was recovered and I got to take the hood off.
Well apparently I progressed trough this evolution quickly just like everything else, so as it turns out we do indeed have enough time to complete the progress check - combining everything I've learned so far. I made some circles and S-turns, and my basic flying skills were crisp enough blind so there wasn't any reason to re-check. Turn back to Easterwood, make two touch-and-goes then the necessary full-stop. Park and shutdown. Bill's remarks: "You might need to solo sooner..." According to the curriculum, the first solo isn't until Lesson #11.
Flight #6: 1.1 hrs
Total Log Time: 6.7 hrs
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Flight Log 02-18
More good weather! Lesson #5 today, and half way until the coveted solo flight. We already went over flying a good pattern while correcting for winds, so we jumped straight into the next topic: turns about a point. Very dull topic, but a lot more difficult in practice even with light winds, especially with the thermal turbulence bouncing us around. We found a good farmer's field to the south and picked out a four-way intersection. Because we were in a rural area, we went all the way down to maybe 600-700 feet above the ground. I'm sure that guy out in his John Deere must have been a little concerned why we were being so nosy. Round and round we went, making multiple passes. I did a real good job maintaining altitude and constantly adjusting the bank to keep the target point lined up with the center of the wing. Turns about a point is something I had never practiced in FS, so this was a new skill that took me 'a bit longer' to pick up. After running the Daytona 500, we left the farmer alone and found a long straight road to practice making S-turns. For S-turns, you try to cross the road on a perpindicular path each time and keep your arcs the same radius. Sort of like a sine wave for you math people. After going in circles for 10 minutes straight, the task of making good arcs was becoming second nature. With time still left on the clock, I request that I get to make some touch-and-goes before we make a full-stop landing. Its been a while since I last got the chance to bring a plane in. Not much traffic to contend with, I make two passes: the wheels touch down, flaps up, full throttle, and up again. Finally I let the tower know that this one "will be a full-stop"; he acknowledges, and we land. As we taxi off the runway and turn to the ramp, an Army AH-64 pops out of nowhere (he blended well with the treeline) and thud-thud-thuds his way over us, heading towards some auxillary field near Waco. After consulting some statistics, apparently 25% of College Station's air traffic is military.
Flight #5: 1.2 hrs (WOW A RECORD!)
Total Log Time: 5.6 hrs
Flight #5: 1.2 hrs (WOW A RECORD!)
Total Log Time: 5.6 hrs
Flight Log 02-16
The weather has not been cooperating at all, I think 80% of all flights that I have scheduled have been grounded so far. Its been a week since I got close to attempting a flight, but just the other night the clouds and rain were pushed out of the area. Today its sunny and clear as could be, a stiff wind from the west though. A quick recap of today's lesson: power on and off stalls, and flying a rectangular pattern. The wind will provide good training for this exercise.
Lots of cool traffic today: as I'm waiting for takeoff at the engine run-up area, a Navy TC-12 jumps in line to head back to NAS Corpus Christi. A NASA T-38 from Ellington is soaring down the runway, and an American Eagle ERJ-145 is approaching after a short hop from DFW. I feel very vulnerable in my rickety (but trusty) 1974 Cessna 172M.
Took off runway 34; with the wind out of the west I needed to hold full ailerons into the wind so we won't get flipped over. As the airspeed increases you slowly ease off that aileron. We headed out west to run through our stalls. Today's altitude was 2500', plenty of room to recover and do some repetitions. The first stall was by the books: flaps down, engine 1500 rpm, pitch up. Wait for the speed to decrease, power back and pull back hard on the yoke. As the aircraft begins to stall, you steer with rudder and not the wings, otherwise you can send the plane into a spin... which is even worse. Relieve back-pressure on the elevators, full throttle, and recover. Next, Dave wanted me to do a 'falling leaf' stall, as he called it, where you don't recover the plane. Instead, you let the plane dive and pick up speed naturally, then let it pitch back up and stall out again and again. That way I would get a good feel for stall warning signs. This manuever was like an out of control roller coaster. Roller coasters are fun because they're smooth and you can see where the track is going to go; in a plane that stalls over and over again, its a big surprise and does something different every time. It took more and more concentration to keep the plane flying straight after each successive stall, which got very tiring.
Dave was satisfied with my performance so he picked out a rectangular field to practice patterns over. Pattern work isn't in the curriculum until flight #5, but I've been finishing up my lessons so fast and proficiently that he's been throwing previews for the next flight in so we can get more air time. This task proved to be just as easy as it is in my computer world, so we headed back to Easterwood. As I'm turning onto final approach, another plane calls in not too far behind us, saying he's on a straight in approach. Due to the heavy traffic today, he offers to abort his approach and go around, but the tower knows I'm just a student... with a fully qualified instructor. So the tower tells us to 'speed it up' and get in fast. Dave takes over and goes full throttle, up to 120 kts (twice our landing speed) comes in real low and then (essentially) hits the brakes. Not his best landing ever I'm sure - he bounced - even I haven't done that yet, but I'm sure for how fast he had to bring the plane in and slow down, it was an adequate job.
Flight #4b: 1.0 hrs
Total Log Time: 4.4 hrs
Lots of cool traffic today: as I'm waiting for takeoff at the engine run-up area, a Navy TC-12 jumps in line to head back to NAS Corpus Christi. A NASA T-38 from Ellington is soaring down the runway, and an American Eagle ERJ-145 is approaching after a short hop from DFW. I feel very vulnerable in my rickety (but trusty) 1974 Cessna 172M.
Took off runway 34; with the wind out of the west I needed to hold full ailerons into the wind so we won't get flipped over. As the airspeed increases you slowly ease off that aileron. We headed out west to run through our stalls. Today's altitude was 2500', plenty of room to recover and do some repetitions. The first stall was by the books: flaps down, engine 1500 rpm, pitch up. Wait for the speed to decrease, power back and pull back hard on the yoke. As the aircraft begins to stall, you steer with rudder and not the wings, otherwise you can send the plane into a spin... which is even worse. Relieve back-pressure on the elevators, full throttle, and recover. Next, Dave wanted me to do a 'falling leaf' stall, as he called it, where you don't recover the plane. Instead, you let the plane dive and pick up speed naturally, then let it pitch back up and stall out again and again. That way I would get a good feel for stall warning signs. This manuever was like an out of control roller coaster. Roller coasters are fun because they're smooth and you can see where the track is going to go; in a plane that stalls over and over again, its a big surprise and does something different every time. It took more and more concentration to keep the plane flying straight after each successive stall, which got very tiring.
Dave was satisfied with my performance so he picked out a rectangular field to practice patterns over. Pattern work isn't in the curriculum until flight #5, but I've been finishing up my lessons so fast and proficiently that he's been throwing previews for the next flight in so we can get more air time. This task proved to be just as easy as it is in my computer world, so we headed back to Easterwood. As I'm turning onto final approach, another plane calls in not too far behind us, saying he's on a straight in approach. Due to the heavy traffic today, he offers to abort his approach and go around, but the tower knows I'm just a student... with a fully qualified instructor. So the tower tells us to 'speed it up' and get in fast. Dave takes over and goes full throttle, up to 120 kts (twice our landing speed) comes in real low and then (essentially) hits the brakes. Not his best landing ever I'm sure - he bounced - even I haven't done that yet, but I'm sure for how fast he had to bring the plane in and slow down, it was an adequate job.
Flight #4b: 1.0 hrs
Total Log Time: 4.4 hrs
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Everyday Life Update + some good news
Wow, a lot has happened since I (Amanda) last wrote in this. Back in January, I was babysitting one night when I received a message on Facebook from a parent that I knew from BVM (the school I used to teach at). Well, she was looking for a nanny and was curious if I was interested. I got the job!! YAY!!! My job search of two months was finally over. I've worked the job for 3 or 4 weeks now and love it. There's a 2 year old little girl and she is so sweet and talkative and so good, and there's the sweetest and most adorable 7 month old boy. I couldn't ask for better kids or a better family to be a nanny to. It's a great job and great hours. I'm really enjoying it so far.
In our small group (through church), we are studying the minor prophets, and it's awesome. We're really enjoying it. It's not stuff I've ever really read, but it's very interesting to learn about and relates pretty well to our modern day life. If you haven't read through these (ie: Hosea through the end of the Old Testament), then I highly recommend it. I will update you more as we cover more. We are currently in the middle of studying Amos.
In other news.....
WE'RE PREGNANT!!!! We are sooo excited and thrilled!! God has incredibly blessed us, and we can't wait for this baby to come into our lives. Being parents will be a new and challenging task but with the help of our Sovereign Lord, we will love and enjoy every minute of it. I am about 6 1/2 weeks, and from what I gather my estimated due date is October 9th. I have not been to the doctor yet, but that is scheduled for March 16th. We will have an ultrasound at that appointment, so I will update this with pictures. If anything else changes, I will update as well.
Well, that's all I got for now.
In our small group (through church), we are studying the minor prophets, and it's awesome. We're really enjoying it. It's not stuff I've ever really read, but it's very interesting to learn about and relates pretty well to our modern day life. If you haven't read through these (ie: Hosea through the end of the Old Testament), then I highly recommend it. I will update you more as we cover more. We are currently in the middle of studying Amos.
In other news.....
WE'RE PREGNANT!!!! We are sooo excited and thrilled!! God has incredibly blessed us, and we can't wait for this baby to come into our lives. Being parents will be a new and challenging task but with the help of our Sovereign Lord, we will love and enjoy every minute of it. I am about 6 1/2 weeks, and from what I gather my estimated due date is October 9th. I have not been to the doctor yet, but that is scheduled for March 16th. We will have an ultrasound at that appointment, so I will update this with pictures. If anything else changes, I will update as well.
Well, that's all I got for now.
Flight Log 02-09
Low clouds and high winds as I got to the airport, a big question mark for today's flight. I got the handbook and keys for today's aircraft and headed out to the flight line. Checked everything over, kicked the tires, the usual. Went back inside for today's briefing- lesson #4. This flight would cover slow flight, power off/on stalls, and time permitting, maintaining a rectangular pattern against crosswinds. Today was a good day to get a feel for those too. We were just about to wrap things up and head back out to the flight line when a crew that left not 15 minutes ago came back in and reported that it was miserable, turbulent, and there would be no flying today.
Flight #4a: 0.0 hrs
Total Log Time: 3.4 hrs, still
Flight #4a: 0.0 hrs
Total Log Time: 3.4 hrs, still
Flight Log 02-07
Flights on back-to-back days, what a treat! A post-church, pre-work hop today, lesson three will cover maintaining constant speed during climbs and descents, and combining turns as well. Back with Dave again; I checked out my plane, computed the weight and balance, and filled out the dispatch sheet. Ran through the start-up procedures and we were ready to go.
Another aspect of today's briefing was collision avoidance - what to do if you're flying at another plane. It was supposed to be just a ground lesson, but as we were flying along I made a concerned announcement: "Uh, Dave we got traffic at 12 o-clock..." Dave is suddenly very alert. Just about a mile ahead and maybe 300 feet above us was a massive flock of birds cutting to the left across our plane's path. A bird is not a pilot's friend, and a flock of birds is a nightmare. "Go right, get on their tail end..." I bank to the right. "More traffic, 1 o-clock high!" Another flock was now in front, heading to the right of us. After we cleared the first group, I banked back to the left. I looked over a Dave and grinned, "looks like we had some practical application of collision avoidance today, huh?"
After practicing the manuevers for a while, Dave told me to descend to 1500' so we could head back to the airport. As we're descending through 2000' he decides that he wants me to make a 90 degree turn to the left. As I'm in the middle of my left turn, the altimeter approaches 1500' so I start to push the throttle in and level off while maintaining a solid turn. I roll out right on heading and altitiude. Dave was upset - he was hoping I would make the student mistake of concentrating on my new instructions and shoot down right through my assigned altitude. Didn't fool me today, Dave.
We finished up early, so Dave took the controls and demonstrated some manuevers for the next flight: power-off stalls. What to do when you're flying so slow that the plane, well, literally falls out of the sky. A power off stall is done to simulate conditions that are experienced during the landing phase. Flaps down, engine at 1500 rpm, pitch up. After Dave's demonstration it was my turn. I watched the airspeed drop through 55 knots, which is a proper landing speed, and pretty slow. The controls got real mushy. Then the stall warning horn started buzzing at about 40 kts, the plane started to buffet, the voom! You could literally feel all the lift that was holding the plane up in the air just go away, like somebody flipped a switch. Throttle all the way in, ease off the elevator, and we recovered. Pretty simple, yet horribly uncomfortable to intentionally make the plane fly like that.
Flight #3: 0.9 hrs
Total Log Time: 3.4 hrs
Another aspect of today's briefing was collision avoidance - what to do if you're flying at another plane. It was supposed to be just a ground lesson, but as we were flying along I made a concerned announcement: "Uh, Dave we got traffic at 12 o-clock..." Dave is suddenly very alert. Just about a mile ahead and maybe 300 feet above us was a massive flock of birds cutting to the left across our plane's path. A bird is not a pilot's friend, and a flock of birds is a nightmare. "Go right, get on their tail end..." I bank to the right. "More traffic, 1 o-clock high!" Another flock was now in front, heading to the right of us. After we cleared the first group, I banked back to the left. I looked over a Dave and grinned, "looks like we had some practical application of collision avoidance today, huh?"
After practicing the manuevers for a while, Dave told me to descend to 1500' so we could head back to the airport. As we're descending through 2000' he decides that he wants me to make a 90 degree turn to the left. As I'm in the middle of my left turn, the altimeter approaches 1500' so I start to push the throttle in and level off while maintaining a solid turn. I roll out right on heading and altitiude. Dave was upset - he was hoping I would make the student mistake of concentrating on my new instructions and shoot down right through my assigned altitude. Didn't fool me today, Dave.
We finished up early, so Dave took the controls and demonstrated some manuevers for the next flight: power-off stalls. What to do when you're flying so slow that the plane, well, literally falls out of the sky. A power off stall is done to simulate conditions that are experienced during the landing phase. Flaps down, engine at 1500 rpm, pitch up. After Dave's demonstration it was my turn. I watched the airspeed drop through 55 knots, which is a proper landing speed, and pretty slow. The controls got real mushy. Then the stall warning horn started buzzing at about 40 kts, the plane started to buffet, the voom! You could literally feel all the lift that was holding the plane up in the air just go away, like somebody flipped a switch. Throttle all the way in, ease off the elevator, and we recovered. Pretty simple, yet horribly uncomfortable to intentionally make the plane fly like that.
Flight #3: 0.9 hrs
Total Log Time: 3.4 hrs
Flight Log 02-06
After Monday's failed attempt at completing lesson #2, I got another chance on a gorgeous Saturday. Today's flight was with my instrcutor from flight #1, Chris Barnes. Today we headed southwest towards Lake Somerville and practiced good turn coordination, proper climbs, descents, and finally establishing a good glide angle incase of engine failure. Fairly uneventful flight, but rewarding nontheless. We got done early and the pattern was empty, so we made a few laps around the airport and I notched a handful of touch-and-goes and the final full-stop landing. Instructor's comments: more relaxed this time but still tense. (apparently I concentrate too hard on perfection) Maintain good climb attitude- keep the cowling (nose) on the horizon.
Flight #2b: 1.0 hrs
Total Log Time: 2.5 hrs
Flight #2b: 1.0 hrs
Total Log Time: 2.5 hrs
Flight Log 02-01
After almost two weeks and five weather cancelations, I got to go again. The weather didn't look promising at all, but it was close engough - 'Marginal Flight Rules' is the term. In the words of my instructor, we were only going today "because it's a good learning experience." They want to put me in the soup so I know how miserable it can be. Todays lesson was to cover climbs, turns, descents, and combinations of those fundamentals. The wind was out of the south, and the METAR report said visibility was 5 nm and the clouds were at 2400' - low, but close enough.
No traffic on this foggy day; we took off runway 16 and headed northwest. My instructions were to climb up and level off at 2000', but as we crossed through 1800 everything started to go white. We floated along in the clouds for a minute or so, hoping it was just one cloud and we'd fly out the other side. Dave remarked that I was doing an exceptional job holding right at 2000 and on heading. After a while I was ordered to get below the clouds and turn back home. No lesson today, just up and down, out and back. Dave called in to the tower to let them know they need to update the weather report then got our landing clearance. With little traffic we came right into the base leg (90 degree angle from the approach end of the runway) and I steered it around and put the plane down on the runway. "Good job watching those instruments today" was Dave's comments. I went through the shutdown checklist, tied down the plane, and headed back inside.
Not much to debrief for this flight. I pulled out my logbook for a grand entry of 0.6 hours... over half of which was just checklist work and taxiing. Dave took a pause and thumbed through my logbook, then looked up at me, slightly astonished. "This was only your second flight?" "Yes sir..." He looked back down: "and you made two landings on your first?" "Yes sir..." (Should I not have?) He made his entry and told Bill, the owner, that he needs to go fly with me sometime - I had been flying IFR like it was nothing. My ego was inflated like never before.
Flight #2a: 0.6 hrs
Total Log Time: 1.5 hrs
No traffic on this foggy day; we took off runway 16 and headed northwest. My instructions were to climb up and level off at 2000', but as we crossed through 1800 everything started to go white. We floated along in the clouds for a minute or so, hoping it was just one cloud and we'd fly out the other side. Dave remarked that I was doing an exceptional job holding right at 2000 and on heading. After a while I was ordered to get below the clouds and turn back home. No lesson today, just up and down, out and back. Dave called in to the tower to let them know they need to update the weather report then got our landing clearance. With little traffic we came right into the base leg (90 degree angle from the approach end of the runway) and I steered it around and put the plane down on the runway. "Good job watching those instruments today" was Dave's comments. I went through the shutdown checklist, tied down the plane, and headed back inside.
Not much to debrief for this flight. I pulled out my logbook for a grand entry of 0.6 hours... over half of which was just checklist work and taxiing. Dave took a pause and thumbed through my logbook, then looked up at me, slightly astonished. "This was only your second flight?" "Yes sir..." He looked back down: "and you made two landings on your first?" "Yes sir..." (Should I not have?) He made his entry and told Bill, the owner, that he needs to go fly with me sometime - I had been flying IFR like it was nothing. My ego was inflated like never before.
Flight #2a: 0.6 hrs
Total Log Time: 1.5 hrs
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