3/12: Introduction to radio navigation. Tracking VOR's - VHF Omni-directional Radio. You tune to a frequency just like in your car, (ex: 113.30 is College Station) set a course you want to fly like the 259 degree radial, and a needle on the VOR display will track your position. The goal is to keep the needle centered; if it drifts to the left, go left, and same for the right. The course is important for navigation: Caldwell Municipal is about 16nm on the CLL 242-degree radial. This means if you hold a course of roughly southwest, away from CLL, you will fly right to Caldwell.
3/14: Short/soft field takeoff and landings: Operations at an airport with a relatively short runway have different procedures. On takeoff you use flaps for a boost in lift, hold the brakes until the engine is at max rpm before starting down the runway, and climb out at a lower speed (59 kts instead of 78) to maximize altitude gain in the shortest distance. On landing, it is imperative to pick a spot at the beginning of the runway and touchdown there. As soon as the main gear is on the ground, raise the flaps to decrease lift, which will maximize the weight the wheels are carrying - this improves braking performance. For a 'soft' field, like grass or dirt, it is important to take as much weight off the nose gear as possible. A flimsy nose gear strut would not hold up well if it went through a mud pit at 50 kts. Another aspect of today's flight was recovery from unusual attitudes- I would put the visor on (the one that blocks my view to the outside) and the instructor would roll the plane around violently while I had my head down and eyes closed. Then he would say 'recover' and I would have to quickly survey the instruments and regain control of the aircraft while in a disoriented state. This wasn't too bad, until the third round of dizzying maneuvers when the donuts from church started churning in my stomach.
3/15: Two flights back to back today. First was a lesson using NDB's: non-directional beacons. Contrary to what the name sounds like, an NDB points in the direction of the radio tower. It's 'non' directional because you can't set a precise course like a VOR, and it does not provide any distance information. I also touched up on my short and soft field skills, and got more instrument time flying with the visor. We landed after over an hour of flying and returned to the parking area. Dave hopped out and a new instructor climbed in. Tom, one of the assistant chief instructors, would be administering my third progress check. We covered everything to date from S-Turns to those nauseating 'unusual attitude' recoveries. This time I made sure to eat better before the flight and felt solid as a rock during the maneuvers. This was a relief as any motion sickness makes me very concerned about my future in combat aviation. We went to Caldwell to test out my short-field proficiency; on approach Tom designated a target he wanted me to hit, +/-100': the third centerline stripe up from the 1000' markers. So that's where I landed. During the post-flight debrief Tom remarked that it was the best short-field landing he has ever seen during a progress check. I commented that it will come in handy for landing on an aircraft carrier! I spent a total of 5 hours at the airport today.
3/18: Another long day: today I made my first cross-country (50nm from departing airport) to La Grange, TX. (3T5) It took about 38 minutes to get there, we made a touch-and-go, then returned to Easterwood. I went home for dinner, then returned to preflight my aircraft as the sun went down. Once it was officially 'nighttime', we headed out for my first night lesson. The plane was all ready to go; the engine running, taxi clearance and all. I flipped the switch for the landing light to signal that we were about to start taxiing, but nothing came on. We sat in the cockpit trying to figure out why it wasn't working, then made an unusual request to the tower: "25Q, cancel taxi clearance..." The guy in the tower sounded just as confused as he did amused. Shutdown, tie down, lock up 25Q. Get the keys for 26V - he wasn't cooperating either. 45Q - lights came on. Okay, we finally have an airplane! I call the tower: "45Q would like to taxi!" We made three touch-and-goes to get familiar with flying at night, then headed out to Hearne for some practice at a different airfield, then returned to Easterwood. By now the tower had closed for the night, so traffic was calling their positions just like at an uncontrolled airport. We were using runway 16, but earlier in the day the winds were in the opposite direction so we had been using 34. (If I haven't explained already, runways designate the magnetic heading to the nearest 10th degree, then truncate the zero. So 340 is the opposite direction of 160) As one plane was taking off from 16, and runway 34 fresh on my mind, I call in and say, "45Q on final, runway 34..." Dave quickly jumped in to remark "16!!! We're landing 16!" The guys in the plane in front of us probably had a heart attack. The final landing of the night was to land without the landing light, simulating a failure. From what I've already observed tonight, this is a highly probable occurrence! The runway's edge lights provide a bit of reference, but your depth perception in that environment is skewed. I start to flare and wait for the inevitable squeal of rubber meeting asphalt, but it didn't come when I expected. About this time I can feel myself slowly pressing back into the seat then upwards against the seatbelt, with a sensation that I'm in an elevator going down... My last thoughts were 'uh-oh', which were confirmed by a solid WHAM! I was scared I had broken the gear struts, but Dave was calm and didn't say anything about it so I was just glad to be down.
My next round of flights will be a night cross-country to Mexia, a solo cross-country to Houston Executive (west-side of Houston) a progress check, and finally the big solo cross-country. The 'big one' involves stops at three airports for a total of 150nm. After that, its all test-prep time!
Total Log Time: 23.3 hrs (1.9 solo, 1.5 night, 2.3 IFR)
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