Solo X-Country - Almost

This post is for my instructor, Ed, who complained to me that I haven't been keeping up the blog. He's right - posts have been slow in coming. So too have been the flight hours - unfortunately. I flew 1.9 hours today, and before that it was a week and a half ago when I last logged .9 hours. We had a wedding last weekend which took up all my spare time, not to mention the planes have all been booked pretty solid any other time I've wanted to get out.

In any event, I'm slowly plugging away. My hope is to finish before the end of October. To do that I need 2 solo cross country flights (total 5 hours), 2 (?) more night landings, practice, and a passing grade on my FAA written exam. Oh, and I'll have to schedule and pass the checkride.

I set out this morning to do the first of my solo cross countries. Ed and I reviewed the two possible plans I'd made last night, and I took off intending to head for Port Angeles. The weather was fine in both Seattle and in Port Angeles, but apparently not in-between. I was in the air 15 minutes before I knew I had to turn around. The sky was much clearer to the South, so I headed for Vashon thinking I'd be able to head out towards Elma, which was my backup destination. I cancelled my original flight plan and filed and opened another for Elma. Sadly, I got about 2/3 of the way to Elma when low clouds and rain turned me back again.

Not to be deterred, I've scheduled a 2nd attempt for Wednesday afternoon. I'll have to take off from work, but weather permitting I'll fly to Port Angeles and back no problem.

Also, Wednesday evening Ed and I are going to get some night flight in. Should be fun.

I totalled up the hours in my logbook. Including the 24 hours I had at age 17, I'm up to 50.1 hours. Woot!

Flying Update

Last entry I was on my way to NYC for a week of business travel. I've now been back a week and have been flying 3 times - twice on my own and once with Ed.

The two solo flights in the past week were great! One was last Sunday and the other this morning. Each were about an hour long, and generally went really well. It's exciting to be able to go out to the airport by myself and get into a plane and fly away - sans instructor.

Each time my plan was to head down to Tacoma Narrows, but the weather there hasn't been accomodating. This morning for example it is a beautiful day with a high broken ceiling, but at the Narrows it was low clouds and fog. I could see that from the air and ATIS confirmed, so I deviated to Bremerton.

A couple of things to remember: 1) if you turn the volume down on the radio, that's probably why you wont hear anything when you later dial in the AWOS at Bremerton, and why you won't hear anything when you subsequently dial in the pattern frequency. There were no planes in the pattern when I arrived, but I didn't notice that I had the volume down until the 2nd landing on my first solo flight. Remember to check the volume! 2) pay attention to the taxiway you're intending to use after landing. I easily could have made A4 and the controller assumed I would. But since I didn't break early enough he assigned me A2 - which I then spaced out on and cruised past. Oops. Pay attention!

Lesson 13, 1.4 hrs

Ed and I meet at Boeing Field as usual and decide that we're going to fly North to Whidbey island. I want to head that way for a change of scenery (Bremerton is becoming familar) and Ed really wants to practice some basics and some new topics in preparation for our cross-country flight.

Takeoff is straight forward except that the controller mis-interpreted my intention for a straight out departure to the North, instead assigning us a Mercer departure. Since I didn't jump on the radio to correct this assignment, Ed did and we departed North as planned. Lesson here is correct things like this early as possible - my plan had been to make the call once airborn. Sooner is better.

We fly North to Whidbey and Ed has me put on the foggles. We practice unusual attitudes a couple times and I do well. It's hard not to look up from under the foggles some times!

We spot the tiny airstrip on Whidbey that we identified on the chart during preflight. It's got a narrow surfaced runway, and has trees all around. We do a simulated engine out above the airport and I guide us in for a full-stop landing - pretty darn nice. Back taxi for takeoff.

Ed prescribes a short-field takeoff and I confuse this in my head with soft field. Short field is 1) run the engine up while holding the breaks, 2) release breaks 3) rotate at 60 and 4) climb out at 60. I do this and boy-oh-boy, are those trees at the end of the field ever close - and tall! I'm not sure in my mind that we'll clear them and I look over to Ed, who tells me to maintain 60 - best rate of climb. We clear the trees, but in retrospect I wouldn't care to take off from this field again in this under-powered 150. I'm glad we didn't have full fuel.

On the way back we practice a diversion to another airport. The trick here is identify where you are currently, estimate using the chart the direction to the new destination, turn to that heading. Then using landmarks, adjust the heading as necessary to be as accurate as possible. Then determine distance and en-route time.

I need to schedule a cross country flight for us; plan is to head to Orcas.

no flying this week

I'm rather disappointed. My plan was to get up this morning and go fly (by myself) to Tacoma, then to Bremerton, then back to Boeing field. I woke up at 7:30 and looked out the window, only to see a low ceiling and drizzle. ATIS confirmed - 2300' ceiling with some lower clouds, and 6 miles visibility. It got worse for a while, then around noon started to lift. But I was already in the midst of another project, and had I gone flying then I could only have stayed in the pattern. As it was, it started raining again about an hour later.

Now I have to wait until next Saturday to fly - I'm off to NYC on business this week. Ugh!

SOLO!

Tonight was the big night! I completed the pre-solo written that Ed gave me (Thanks Fareed for talking through some of those questions with me!) and brought it back for us to review together before tonight's lesson. Of the 40 questions I only had one thing wrong, and that was about what elevator in what position for cross-wind taxi. A couple minor points on a few other questions, but nothing incorrect. I feel pretty good about this.

We plan to head to Bremerton, where if we both feel good, Ed will get out of the plane.

I learn somthing important though while we're waiting to be cleared for takeoff. After our run up we're waiting for the vorteces to die down from a heavy that's just taken off. As we're waiting, another large jet (DC-8, maybe?) is pulling in to park a few hundred feet from the run up area where we're at. Ed sees it just in time and has me turn our C150 towards the jet - and good thing too. The jet-wash from his engines buffeted us pretty good - enough that we could have been blown over had we not turned. Lesson is to keep an eye open for these type of things and learn to anticipate and correct for them!

In any event, this post is about my SOLO! We have an uneventful trip out to Bremerton and get into the traffic pattern and do two landings. The second one is a full stop, and true to his word Ed get's out. In all honesty, I'm not all that nervous. I was nervous thinking about it earlier in the day, but not now. I head for the runway, listening to the UNICOM, where I learn another plane in the pattern has just entered downwind. Since I dont have to do a runup, and I'm all set to go, I figure no-time-like-the-present and announce my intention to take runway 19 and depart. Which I do, quite gracefully.

Wow, this plane actually can climb. You just need to limit it to one person!

In no time at all I'm turning crosswind, then downwind, base, and final. Pretty good landing! Carb heat in, flaps up, power, and I'm off again. This time there's more traffic in the pattern, and I'm keeping an eye on all of it, listening to their radio calls and making my own.

For the third time around I'm relatively close behjind a Diamond DA-20 or 40, another student who's with her instructor. I slow my speed so I can lengthen the gap between us. She flys a looong downwind, which forces mine to be long since I dont want to turn base until I cross her on final. It all works out, and I'm turning final just as she's landing.

On this final I note that I'm fast, so I throw in some more flaps and control my speed. As I approach everything is looking good until the very end when I'm slower than I want and a bit short. So I add a little power and fly down the runway a bit before touchdown. Then it's taxi in and find Ed.

Lessons 8, 9, 10 - 1.4, 1.4, 1.8 hrs

Just a quick post to document these lessons. These were all pretty straight forward, not learning too many new skills. The excpetion was Lesson 10 in which we did spin training. The other lessons were about honing all the things I've learned so far: landings, radio skills, slow flight, stalls, traffic patterns, visiting various airports, etc.

Spin training was cool. The 150 is rated for spins, and Ed feels it is a good idea to get training for spin recovery even though the FAA doesn't require it.

To get into the spin we first climb to a safe altitude, about 4000 feet. Do some clearing turns and make sure there isn't any traffic around or below us that will get in the way. Then, power-on stall the plane with hard right bank and full opposite rudder. It happens pretty fast - the right wing drops nose dives and suddenly the ground fills the view, and it's spinning.

Recovery is pretty simple, but non intuitive: Power to idle. Ailerons to neutral. Rudder opposite the spin. Elevator forward (the non-intuitive part - you're diving and might want to "pull up"). The acronym is P.A.R.E.

All this practice and I'm feeling pretty good. Ed's been talking about me soloing for a couple of weeks now, and after lesson 10 he says it's iminent. He gives me a take-home exam titled "pre solo written".

Trissa informs me she doesn't want to hear about solo flying until after it's happened.

3rd Class Medical

Check one more item off the list! Last week I made an appointment for my 3rd Class Medical exam, which I passed yesterday. I was a little worried going in but it all went smoothly.

The first thing I was worried about was a minor surgery I had earlier in the year to remove a cyst from my neck. Ed told me he had another student who was denied a medical for a minor surgery, and this was a surprise to me. When I made the appointment I asked whether I needed to bring any documentation about my operation. The doctor advised that while it sounded minor, the best course of action was to bring a statement from my surgeon about the surgery. I only had a few days until the appointment so I called my surgeon's office to find out he was on vacation or something. But they tracked him down and within hours they had faxed me a statement and surgical notes, which turned out to be exactly what I needed. I was duly impressed!

I showed up early to the appointment, which was in a small office atop a Shell gas station here in West Seattle. I never would have known it was there but for the address and the not so obvious sign over the door "Senior FAA Medical Examiner." The waiting room was covered with photos of the doctor and his hobbies: flying, scuba diving, and climbing. And also with signs warning customers that he only works two weeks out of the month, and that he wont be working the first several months of next year. He must be semi-retired.

Anyhow, the first part of the exam was the vision test. I'd spent 30 frantic minutes in the morning looking for the glasses I never wear, because my vision isn't that bad. I think it's 20/30. The Class 3 certificate requires 20/40 or better, corrected or uncorrected. On the off chance that my eyes were worse than 20/40 uncorrected I wanted to have my glasses. But it turns out I didn't need them.

The rest of the physical was pretty routine: listen to this, listen to that, peak in my ears, etc. Oh, and pee in a cup. It turned out that the doctor had lived in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where I lived for a few years so we gabbed about that most of the time.

One interesting part was that because I'd had a medical 17 years ago, this was in fact a renewal. The doctor was able to find my old medical record by using my social security number - which was nice because I didn't then have to estimate the date of my old medical on the form of my new medical. I didn't realize the FAA was so organized with their record keeping.

In any event, I now have a little yellow card with my vitals printed on it. On the back is my student pilot certificate. Now I have to figure out how to carry this thing - folded in my wallet? laminated in my flight bag? Taped inside my log book? We'll see what Ed says...

Headset update

It's still not here. After I ordered it I got an email saying it would ship 7/29. I started calling on 7/29 and got an email yesterday saying that it would ship to me on 8/7. We'll see...

Lesson 6 & 7, 1.1 and 1.7 hrs

I had two more good lessons this past week. The first was short since I had plans immedately following, and the second went long. We didn't really learn any new techniques, but we did work to hone some of the ones I've been working on. Primarily: slow flight, stalls, landings, and emergency procedures (engine out procedures). I dare say I'm getting better.

One landing I had last night was pretty bad, and I didn't see it coming. What happened was my approach angle looked really good (to me anyway), but I had lost way too much speed. About 10 feet above the runway we stalled. Ed grabbed the controls (I think I added power, but maybe he did) and we recovered without slamming into the deck too hard. Lesson here is to watch that airspeed! Control altitude with power, and speed with pitch.

Also: During downwind at the end of the runway at pattern altitude, plan to lose 200 feet before turning base. I've been forgetting that.

I'm feeling pretty good about my radio calls. Not expert sounding all of the time, but at least I'm getting them made and I'm understanding wierd procedures the tower prescribes. Like last night they had me taxi back onto the runway I'd landed on and taxi to a different taxi-way.

Ed says I'll probably solo in the next few hours. I've got my medical exam scheduled for next week, so at least that will be done!

Lesson 5, 1.6hrs

Ed and I departed Boeing Field to the North on runway 31R and enter the pattern for a southeast departure. The plan is to head South and practice some of what I've already learned and add short and soft field takeoffs and landings into the mix.

I need to get a chart of the area so I can study at home. I'm already forgetting some of the names of landmarks we saw along the way. One is Lake Youngs, which is really a funny shaped resevoir with no houses around it.

Just south of Lake Youngs is Crest airpark, which has a roughly 3000' runway that is pretty narrow. It is surrounded by trees. We landed here 4 times during the lesson and each time it was a bit freaky to me to see how close the trees were on both takeoff and landing. It reminded me about this months "I Learned About Flying From That" column in Flying magazine, where the author narrowly clips some trees in the dead of night taking off in his fully loaded Piper. Not something you want to do!

At Crest we practiced short field and soft field takeoffs. Short field you run the power up while toes on the breaks, then release and climb out at 65 knots (mainly to clear the trees). Soft field you keep the yoke in your lap during takeoff roll, releasing enough as you gain speed to balance the nose in the air and not dragging the tail. Once the mains come up its nose down to gain speed to 60 knots, then nose up again to climb. Quite fun, actually.

We also practiced turns around a point for a bit and I need to figure out how not to be spiraling in towards my point. In some ways I'm anxious to solo so I can go out and practice these maneuvers on my own. But there's quite a bit more I need to learn first...

Back at Boeing field we do a soft field landing (done with power on). I did pretty well on this one!

Next lesson is Sunday.

Alternate Air

One thing about training at one of the more inexpensive clubs is that their equipment isn't all bright and shiny and new. Alternate Air has 3 C150s that rent for $64/hr and and C172 which rents for $89/hr. The C150's are between 30 and 40 years old, and the C172 is almost 30. These are pretty old planes and things do go wrong with them.

Yesterday our reserved plane had the PTT switch go out. This is minor and not in any way related to the age of the plane - the switch is aftermarket. (It seems to me that PTT switches are always on the fritz - I've flown in lots of small planes where the pilots complain about them).

However, one of the other C150s is in the shop right now (due back any day) for a cylinder problem. And the remaining C150 came back from a flight yesterday with the pilot reporting a rough engine. We chatted with the pilot, who had landed at Harvey (where we were only minutes later) and had the rough running engine inspected by a mechanic. The mechanic cleared a fouled plug, ran the engine to test, and declared it good. But on the flight back to BFE, the engine began losing RPM again. Ed theorizes that perhaps a magneto is out of alignment. He says they can twist and this affects the timing of when they fire.

Regardless, that C150 is probably out of commission for a few days or more.

I told Ed that Alternate Air may not have the newest most expensive equipment, but they have the best instructors. He laughed pretty hard at that.

Lesson 4, 1.3hrs

This was a pretty good lesson:

I arrive early to the airport and the weather is good. While I wait for Ed I read the FAR/AIM manual about student pilot requirements, for both solo and cross country solo. Ed shows up just as the refueling truck does and we watch the guy top off our tanks. Preflight and call for departure clearance - oops, we're not transmitting. The pilot side PTT switch is busted which is strange since it worked an hour ago on Ed's last flight. We decide that Ed will make the radio calls today.

We take off on 13 Right, which is odd, but Ed says the controllers are being lazy and are using only one runway. My takeoff is good and we climb out at 75 knots. Turn left just shy of 500 feet altitude and head for where the I90 meets Mercer Island. From there we head out past Bellvue and past lake Sammamish and head a bit North to practice turns around a point, and turns across a road. I do pretty well but there is some definite room for improvement. It's a lot to juggle: maintain altitude (800'), speed 90knots), and a constant distance from the point. Also, dont hang out in one area too long - we dont want to upset anyone on the ground.

Since we're flying North we're almost at Monroe, we decide to fly a bit further to Harvey field, which has a runway that is only 25 feet wide. There are planes in the pattern and we set up to join them for landing, full stop. I use only 10 degrees of flap and end up touching down midway down the runway. Better to use more flap and have a steeper approach. But the landing is good, and we taxi around and take off again.

We set the VOR for Seatac and follow the needle - just about due South from our position. We decide to arrive over lake Union and contact BFE for a straight in landing. Flying past downtown is fun; just stay midway between the radio towers on the left and the skyscrapers on the right. Following I5 is about right.

My landing at BFE is good. Not a greaser, but pretty good!

The reason we add carburator heat before we turn base and final is to ensure that ice won't form with the decreased airflow experience with lower RPM's.

Next flight is Wednesday. I need to memorize the the things to check and do once best glide speed is established and a landing spot identified:

1) Check the gas. Did anyone kick the fuel selector valve? Are the tanks registering empty?
2) Check the carburator heat and mixture. Also check to see that the priming pump is locked.
3) Check the mags. Left, right, both. Cycle them.

Then, the other stuff: squawk 7700 (emergency), and call mayday on 121.5. Everything on the list is optional - fly the plane first.

There's more to this, I think. Ed and I will practice again and again, I'm sure.

Lesson 3, 1.3hrs

It has been rainy and dreary all day and I've been afraid we'll miss tonight's lesson to the weather again. Around 5pm the sky is looking brighter and I can even see some blue, but by 6 it is entirely overcast and rainy. Still, I meet Ed at the airport and we decide to wait it out for a bit down at the airline terminal at BFE. Since all the seating in the lobby is taken (there isn't much seating...) we stand in a corner and chat for a while, me asking quesions and Ed answering. One thing we discuss is the potential for us to fly some Technically Advanced Aircraft (TAA) during my training. Ed has a line on a C182 with a Garmin G1000 cockpit, so later in my training we'll get to fly it. That will be exciting. I want to get the basics down first though, so I can focus on the TAA part and not the basics of flying part when I get to pilot the 182.

After a while we head over to Clay Lacey Aviation for a bit and look at the weather data on one of their pilot-center computers. Once I get my medical / student certificate I can get this information at home. So I need to do that - soon.

Finally we decide to do some touch and go's. I can tell the minute we get in the C150 that I'm going to be rusty. It's been a week. This time we're flying a different C150 than my first two lessons so there are a couple things to learn: different radios, different lights and swtiches, etc. All in all this is a nicer plane.

I'm doing all the stuff but not very confidently. I'm tense. This becomes very evident during our first three touch and go's. I'm dancing on the rudder pedals. My legs are tense and I'm not even realizing that I'm doing this, but the plane is bouncing all over the place. Ed keeps telling me to stop with the rudder movement, which to be honest it doesn't feel to me like I'm even making. Finally he figures out that I'm too tense and tells me to relax. Breath. Deep breaths. On the 4th takeoff things start to come together. As I relax everything becomes more serene. I can focus on what's happening and correct any problems, in good time. Ed's pointers make sense now that I'm not battling my tense legs on the rudder pedals.

On the 6th takeoff Ed says he's not going to say anything the whole way around. Wow - suddenly the cockpit is quiet. I try hard to relax and simultaneously remember everything I need to do: climb at 75 knots, heading for the tip of the hill line we're following. dont get blown left into the hill, and don't veer right into 31R airspace. at 500 feet turn left crosswind 90 degrees. roll out of the turn. almost immediately roll into the downwind turn, to follow the greenbelt. continue climbing to 1000 feet. dont drift left, or worse, turn left inadvertently when adjusting power or trim. keep an eye on the runway to the left, and the altimeter. level out at 1000 feet. confirm with the tower that we are cleared for touch and go. at the end of the runway, pull the carb heat and decrease engine power to 1700 rpm. add 10 degrees of flaps. when the runway is 45 degrees behind us, turn base. keep those turns crisp. add flaps and decrease power as necessary. trim! watch for the moment to turn final, then do it. aim for the short runway, not 31R which is the more obvious one. watch the VASI (Visual Approach Slope Indicator) - are we too high or low? red over white is what we want. maintain 75 knots. power controls altitude, pitch controls speed (counterintuitive, right?) pick my point on the runway and bring it on in. engine at idle? we can aways add power. nose up as we come in, hold it and nose up as we touch down. keep the nose pointed down the runway while pushing in the carb heat and adding medium power. flaps up. full power. pull back on the elevator. trim to take off the pressures. repeat.

The first 3 of these were no fun and in poor form. The last 5 were fun and passable. More practice!

Again, I have a less than stellar performance ending my taxi as we pull into park. What's the trick here?

On the ground, Ed refers to a chart as a "map" and I chide him for it. Mr. McArdle, my high school Aerospace teacher would be proud of me for this.

We're planning to fly tomorrow at 4. Weather is supposed to be bad again, so we'll play it by ear. Hopefully at the very least we can do a few more of these touch and go's.

Headset ordered!

The other day I ordered a brand new David Clark H10-13X headset! Unfortunately it is back ordered and I won't see it until early August. Of course, I didn't find out that it was back ordered until after I placed the order itself...

I found a place online called Spinner's Discount Pilot Shop. I sure hope they're on the level. I found a few references to them from other pilots who had good experiences so I decided to try it out. The DC was $75 less than anywhere else, and they had a Google Checkout special for free shipping. Assuming I get the headset in good working order, I'll be pretty darn pleased!

Weather Delayed Lesson!

Ed and I were planning on flying at 6 tonight but it was not to be. Weather in Seattle was overcast all day with visibility deteriorating from 10 miles in the AM to less than 3 miles mid afternoon. So we called it off. Unfortunately the weather did improve a bit - enough that I think we would have been okay: 10 mile visibility, "few clouds at 1600, broken ceiling at 10,000, broken ceiling at 12,000". It's the "few clouds at 1600" I'm not certain about and I'm sure Ed will set me straight. My understanding of VFR flight minimums is a) they vary for each class of airspace and b) once out of controlled airspace they are: 3 miles visibility, 500 feet below clouds, 1000 above clouds, and 2000 from clouds at your altitude. So as long as we stayed clear of the "few clouds at 1600", I reason we'd be okay.

Plus I just saw a C150 fly overhead and I bet it was flying VFR...

Shopping for a headset

I need to get myself a headset. Ed has loaned me his second set for our first couple of lessons, but I need to get my own to use once I solo and beyond.

Before my first lesson I showed Trissa an ad for the crem-da-la-crem of headsets, the Bose Aviation X headset - which sells for no less than $995. A bit pricey, considering there are plenty of models available anywhere from $50 to $1000. Anyhow, Trissa said I could get the Bose model IF I went to my lesson and Ed happened to have a pair. He didn't so now I'm looking for another instructor. JUST KIDDING.

I don't need to pay $995 for a headset.

The next pair that interests me is David Clark H10-13X model. Active-noise-cancellation, traditional green ear cups, gell-filled pads, etc. etc. These are a newer version of the same model that Ed has. I actually owned a pair of David Clarks (H10-20's, if memory serves) 17 years ago when I was taking lessons for the first time and thought they were great, except for long cross country flights. I sold them to Fareed and I think he still has them. He'd probably sell them back to me, but I really want an active-noise-cancellation set.

I just lost out bidding on a set of these on ebay - they went for $549. New is $629, so not a great deal for the winner, IMO. There are a couple more on ebay now, but perhaps I'll just order a new pair from Sporty's...

Any thoughts from readers?

Lesson 2, 1.3hrs

As I'm driving to the airport for my 2nd lesson I'm thinking about all the stuff I want to remember and focus on, like taxiing down the center line, looking up and out more than at the instruments, maintaining 75 knots while climbing and landing. I'm thinking so hard I miss the exit for the freeway and have to drive up Columbian way and turn around. Hopefully this isn't indicative of how I'll perform in the lesson.

I operate the airport gate even though I don't yet have an airport badge. I drive through and it doesn't want to close behind me, but finally does after a few minutes. At the plane Ed tells me I likely didn't pull forward far enough.

Ed's been here only a couple of minutes, but he checked the fuel, which was low, and so called for the truck to come fuel us up. I guess the last person didn't call, or they are slow today.

I preflight the plane while Ed watches. I miss checking the landing gear and breaks, and the prop for chinks. I'll get these next time. We're still waiting for fuel so Ed quiz's me about a few things on the plane, and how the plane behaves when stalling.

The elevator has a piece that extends forward at the end called the "elevator horn". It is weighted and shaped aerodynamically to enhance control feel and counter aerodynamic pressures during flight.

A stall while turning: the wing on the outside of the turn will stall later than the wing on the inside of the turn because the cord of the inside wing at the ailerons more closely resembles the angle of attack.

The wings each have a bit of an upward twist at the trailing edge towards the tip. Ed called this "washout", and it exists so that the tips of the wing will stall later than the rest of the wing, if at all. This means that even in a stall the ailerons will still have some ability to affect roll.

The fuel truck is still nowhere to be seen and after a couple of phone calls we end up taxiing to Clay Lacy to get fuel faster. This time my taxiing is near perfect! Correct speed, and I stick the center line the whole way there. I get the radio calls right too.

After we get our fuel we call for clearance to depart via the "Mercer departure". This will have us taking off to the North and flying around Beacon hill, out past the tip of Mercer island. This is my first takeoff on 31R, the "short runway". It goes pretty well, but I want to focus next time on being more controlled about staying on the center line as we accelerate down the runway.

I have virtually no trouble maintaining 75 knots this time for our climb. And I'm looking outside more.

We head out to the practice area around Lake Sammamish. We practice slow flight with turns, power off stalls, power on stall, and stalls while turning. Like last time, I notice that it's not always clear when the 150 stalls. For whatever reason it's just not always obvious, or even easy to get the thing to stall. In one case we were turning a 10 degree bank with the power pulled back and the nose up - but it wouldn't stall.

Ed has me head towards Renton airport so we can practice some touch and gos. There is some traffic already in the pattern, and some departing that we have to look out for. It concerns me that it takes me a while to spot traffic, but I do spot it. We enter the pattern and do our first touch and go. The "go" part is fun as we climb out towards the southern tip of Mercer Island. Again I'm able to maintain the 75 knot climb. For the next touch and go, Ed has me simulate engine loss, and I turn base and final with the engine at idle. For the third we practice a slip, which feels pretty unnatural. I think I do the slip pretty well, but Ed decides to skip the touchdown part since we've eaten too much runway.

On this third touch and go we've stated we will be departing the pattern. As we climb out, Renton Tower informs us to contact Boeing Tower for our arrival there - it's just over the hill. Very quickly we're cleared to land, and I'm turning base and final. This landing is probably my worst one of the day.

Again, while pulling into the parking area I lose too much momentum and stop short.

One way to turn the plane on the ground after shutdown is to push the tail down and turn it. This is easier than using the tow bar in some cases.

Ed's going to reserve the plane for us on Wednesday.

Lesson 1, 1.6hrs

I meet Ed in the parking lot of Classic Helicopters at Boeing Field and we begin our lesson immediatly with a description of the security procedures at the field. Next time we'll meet inside the gate at our plane. I need to get an airport badge, but to do that I need to join the club. The club is Alternate Air and most of my dealings with it will be via email to a guy named Brad, or via the dropbox located at the tiedown spot. I need to remember to stock up on checks, since that's how I'll be paying for all this.

Our plane is a 1967 C150. There's another C150 owned by the club parked next to us and it has better radios, but is reserved by someone else. There's also a C172. C150s are the same as C152s only older; Cessna changed the name to 152 around 1978. These are small 2 person craft, but Ed says that in one way, at least, they're easier to get into than the larger 172 because of the amount of legroom by the door is greater.

Ed walks me through the preflight, which is documented in a nice little set of laminated and ring-bound papers he's made up for me. I remember the basics of the preflight from my lessons years ago; essentially we are making an orderly inspection of the visible parts of the plane. We also check the fuel for water contamination. 100LL fuel is colored blue, and water will be clear and settle to the bottom of the test tube. Ed demonstrates by pouring in some water so I can see first hand what I'm on the lookout for. It's pretty apparent but I'm glad for the demonstration.

We decide that I'm going to do the radio calls, or at least the planned ones. I'm concerned about there being too much going on, but figure it's better to start off immediately not depending on Ed for anything that I can most likely handle. He'll take over if I mess up. One of the reasons I wanted to train out of Boeing Field is so that I can become confidently proficient at controlled aiports. I dont want to have any lingering fears about operating out of what will likely be my home base when I'm certified.

Of course I have trouble with the first radio call - I have to write down the sequence in order to remember it, but pretty much get it right. I need to remember there's no "A", just "Alpha". I'll make this mistake more than once this flight. I think the thing I'm most worried about with radio calls is recognizing when the Tower is calling me with instructions. During the flight that happens once or twice and Ed responds for me.

My taxi-ing sucks. I'm all over the place but mainly not on the yellow centerline. I need to focus on this more next time.

Takeoff too - a lot is going on and I'm doing all the work zig-zagging down the runway while Ed's knuckles turn white. I'm sure the guys in the tower are chuckling. Once in the air Ed keeps telling me to maintain 75 knots for climb, but I'm floating all around that number. He keeps telling me "more right rudder". This is to counteract the torque affect of the prop during a climb. Every time I apply rudder it seems to turn me too much. So perhaps more even rudder and a bit of opposite aileron to counter the turn...?

I'm watching the instruments too much. Ed wants me to look out the windscreen more and develop a feel for what climbout "looks like" or straight and level "looks like" or a 20 degree turn "looks like".

We head out to Bremerton which is one of the practice areas for students like me. We try some turns which at first I do timidly but then seem to get pretty well. 30 degrees is just fine. 5 to 10 degrees is pretty darn shallow.

Now we try some stalls. We have a hard time stalling which I dont really understand since given the heat it should be easy. I get the concept of what to do: apply power, nose down just enough to let the plane recover and begin climbing again. But putting it together is hard and I'm not doing it well yet.

We decide to fly some touch and gos. Ooops, we almost enter the pattern in the wrong direction. But once we get going it's fun, practicing turns, takeoffs, and landings. I have a lot of practice to do. My first two landings are pretty good, but the third has me veering off the runway and Ed has to kick the rudder to straighten us out.

Headed back to BFE Ed describes the landmarks to shoot for and the procedures for entering the pattern: Call the tower near Blake and let them know we're approaching. Head for the West Seattle resivoir, staying North or South depending on the runway / direction that's in use. Notify the Tower when we reach the resivoir. Then, for North landing on 31L, it's a quick sequence to turn downwind then base and final. I overbank my base turn and Ed takes over to get us on track.

31L is a big runway. Even so, it's good form not to zig zag all over it.

Taxiing in to park I lose too much momentum. I need to practice slowing down and bringing the plane in to the tiedown area nice and smoothly.

To kill the engine, 1000RPM then lean the fuel out all the way.

Ed advises that I should call my wife and let her know we've landed.

Our debrief takes a while but Ed keeps on providing valuable information that I hope is sticking with me. I feel overloaded but excited that I'm back in the game. My mind is already starting to think about the things I want to focus on for next time.

We plan our next lesson to be Saturday at 11.

Back in the air

17 years ago when I was 17, I took flying lessons but never completed them to get my private pilot's license. This week I had my first flying lesson in 17 years. I've decided to keep this blog to chronicle my experience this time around.

My high school offered an aviation program. I remember choosing classes for 9th grade and being excited to see "aerospace 1" in the course list. Then I discovered that it was only available to Sophomores or better. A friend of mine was disappointed too, but as it turns out the teacher was a friend of his parents, and with some discussion we were both admitted into the class. Aerospace 1 led to Aerospace 2, and the creation of Aerospace 3. Essentially these were ground school classes - I passed my private pilot written, and I believe my commercial written exams.

I started taking lessons at the local FBO in 1990 with $3000 I had saved from my paper route. The money got spent quickly as I amassed a total of 24 hours. Then, when I was about to run out of cash I realized I had to figure out how to pay for college. Flying went on the back burner.

I didn't think about flying for a long time. Then a few years ago when I was working at Microsoft I was trying to find a new group to work in. I applied and interviewed with the Flight Simulator team. While I did well in the interview loop, I didn't get the position. The group was re-orging at the time and it seemed like the position dried up. In the end I left Microsoft to join a casual game start up. But I was now thinking about flying again.

My buddy from high school and I have a pact that we made back then. (My buddy, Fareed, BTW is now a professional pilot.) We've always said we would like to build a kit plane together if we lived in the same city. We don't, but a year ago I started reading all of the kit-plane magazines and blogs. This lead to reading the pilot magazines and thinking about flying again. My wife gave me a DVD pilot course for Christmas, and I made a new years resolution to get my license in 2007.

It's now July and I bit the bullet last week. I emailed a number of local flight instructors with the plan to pick out a couple to fly with. The first person I flew with, Ed Bryce, is inexpensive and seems to have a wealth of experience. His teaching style suits me too, I think. We have our second lesson scheduled for this morning.

I decided to keep this blog after reading another pilot's blog chronicling his experience learning to fly. Check out Tom Unger's blog here.