A couple of short flights

Not much to post about lately...I've been traveling a lot for work, and the onset of fall has turned the weather "northwestish" (yes that's an official term...generally the METAR expression of it looks something like 23003 2SM BR SCT004 OVC010 10/10 2995). Result: not a lot of opportunity to fly. 75898 has only been in the air a half dozen times in the past month. So much unused potential!

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago I flew up to Tacoma Narrows (KTIW) for practice, and because I love the scenery in the pattern there. I took video that I hope to post in the near future.

Tonight I stayed in the (very busy) pattern at the home patch, and put 1.1 hours, 7 takeoffs, 7 landings, and a go-around (planned) in the book. It was about 50 degrees F and at that temperature the 180 hp engine really climbs. I was generally at pattern altitude in the turn to crosswind climbing at Vy. Normally I don't level off until just before the downwind turn. There were two other aircraft--a 172 and a 152--in the pattern. I was between them with the 152 leading the pack. It was fun.

The plastic has arrived...

I received my official certificate from the FAA this week...it arrived and was on my desk chair waiting for me, along with the latest copy of AOPA Pilot, when I returned home from the week's business travel. Even though it was 2 in the morning, I tore into the envelope with giddiness, and stood there in the study, reading every cryptic word on it.

As government-issued cards go, it's a work of art. On the front is a color scene of the first powered flight at Kill Devil Hill, with portraits of the Wrights (Ohio boys like yours truly, I might add) on the back. The writing is super-imposed over the images. Since with all the prop time I'm paying for I can't afford to shop at Macy's anymore, I demoted the Macy's card to the (less accessible) inside pocket of my wallet, and gave the pilot certificate a prominent slot, right below my drivers license.

Hats off to the FAA for beating by two weeks the expected wait time for my certificate.

From the video archives...KFHR

I finally got around to editing my video from my long solo cross-country flight, over a month ago, at the tail end of my private pilot training.

There was a lot of haze from forest fires on the evening I did the flight, so much of the video is uninteresting, to say the least.

But here is the video from my approach and landing at Friday Harbor Airport in the San Juan Islands. This is a place I plan to visit quite a lot now that I have the ticket...

Anyway, I have fond memories of this trip. I shut down at Friday Harbor for a bit, hoping to find Ernie's Cafe still open (alas, it was not). Ernie's is named for Ernest Gann, one of my favorite aviation authors, who wrote about his adventures as an early airline pilot (in the 1930s). Disappointed in the restaurant being closed for the day, but vowing to return, I left Friday Harbor and landed at Snohomish County (better known as Paine Field) near Everett, then back home via the eastside suburbs of Seattle (Bellevue, Kent, Auburn) and a transition through the McChord Air Force Base Class D. The challenge on the final leg was avoiding the Seattle Class Bravo airspace, which required flying at a low altitude to stay under the shelf.

During the taxi-back for departure at Paine, I saw the "Dream Lifter" taking a rest from hauling 787 parts around the world. What an awesome aircraft!

All in all, it was a terrific trip and is likely one I will repeat at some point...just for fun!

Crosswinds, night flight, and admiring the best

I have plans to fly tomorrow night to stay sharp, just some landing practice at the home patch.

If I can get Joel to come along, and the winds cooperate, we may work on crosswind landings, and maybe after that do the night flight refresher that we never got around to at the end of my training.

But anyways, speaking of crosswind landings, this is just really, really impressive.

Look Mom...

I had the honor and pleasure to take my Mom up for a flight today. She's visiting us in Olympia from my original hometown before school starts again, work travel spins up, and Deb takes on some new responsibilities at work.

It's a beautiful day here, just some high cirrus clouds and unlimited visibility. The winds did pick up while we were flying for 90 minutes...6 knots out of the north at takeoff, but 15 knots on landing, and just a bit gusty.

We took off and headed due west towards Hoquiam and the coast. I figured that as long as we were headed to the coast I may as well log a cross-country...so we did a touch-and-go landing at Ocean Shores, then headed south along the beach to Willapa Harbor, then direct back to Olympia from there.

1.6 on the Hobbs and Mom has a better sense of what flying is all about now. The air was generally smooth, until our descent into Olympia...the higher winds and some thermals tossed us around a little. I was generally happy with my flying. The landing at Ocean Shores was a little left-of-center, which on a 50 foot wide runway can be a big deal. But I kept it under control and right back on the centerline for the go.

The scenery was beautiful...flying the coastal beaches is really about the best sightseeing you can do.

I am very appreciative that my Mom was interested in flying with me, and she was a model passenger the whole way!

Flight track for Google Earth is here.

Private pilot

On Wednesday, August 25, it became official: I am a private pilot!

Even now, writing three days later, it still hasn't fully sunk in.

It's been nice to have a break from all the studying and practice I've been doing the past few weeks. I was frankly getting a little burned out...so much so that I haven't even been keeping up with the blog. I'll go back soon and fill in the blanks of my last 2-3 weeks of training.

I had originally scheduled the checkride for Thursday the 26th. I had a little difficulty finding an examiner in the area willing to come to Olympia. I was finally able to schedule it with a gentleman from up near Seattle, who offered to fly down to KOLM if I'd cover his aircraft rental.

As Thursday approached, the forecast for low ceilings and gusty winds held. With less favorable weather on the way as Fall gets closer, and with my work travel set to pick up again in September, I really wanted to get the test out of the way. In addition, I had spent a lot of effort (not to mention cash) practicing and studying, and I felt as ready as I ever could be. I didn't want to try to ramp up again in a few weeks.

So I called the examiner on Tuesday night to see if he could move it up a day, to Wednesday. When he returned my call he said he agreed that sounded like a good idea, so we agreed to meet in Olympia at around 3. I scrambled a bit to take care of work obligations and secured a most generous clearance from my boss to take the afternoon off.

The test was pretty much as I expected. The oral portion began with a review of my flight plan for the (somewhat fictitious) flight he assigned me...KOLM to KAST (Astoria), via Hoquiam. That gave us a chance to review aircraft performance, airspace, sectional charts, and weather. He had also assigned a weight-and-balance problem...so we reviewed that and he asked me to explain the consequences of an aft center of gravity on aircraft speed and performance. He challenged me with a few details, and I didn't know everything, but in general it went well.

After an hour, and a few more topics of discussion, we were ready for the flight test. We walked over to the hangar, and spent some time talking about aircraft systems. Having had an airframe and powerplant (A&P) mechanic as an instructor really paid off here...again, there were a few little details I didn't know, but for the most part I did well.

It was pretty hot on Wednesday--maybe 80 degrees at takeoff--so as we taxied out he held his door open for ventilation (the window on the right side of 898 is not openable)...it did cross my mind that this was a test of my pilot-in-command skills. I decided it was safe, verified that he felt it was safe as well, and off we went. I made extra sure to stay right on the center line as we taxied around all the construction going on at KOLM this summer.

Runups complete, he asked me to make a short-field takeoff from runway 35. Just as I practiced, I held the yoke all the way back, lifted off at about 45 knots, stayed in ground effect, and accelerated to 75. We climbed away via a left downwind departure, on course for Hoquiam as we passed midfield.

After passing Capitol Peak (elev 2300) west of Olympia, he gave me an E6B math problem, which I totally bombed. I was so focused staying on course, maintaining my assigned altitude, and watching for traffic, it was very difficult to concentrate on making the computer do what I wanted. After awhile of trying to figure out what I was doing wrong, the examiner said never mind...the point of the exercise was to make sure I didn't get distracted and kept flying the aircraft. Ah, good, passed that one!

Next up was instrument flight under the hood...some simple turns to headings, then navigating to the Olympia VOR. No problem with any of that. Hood comes off, then we did some power-off and power-on stalls. During the power-on stall I let the right wing drop and it wasn't the best recovery, but he said it would do (after reminding me about rudder use during stall recovery). Next were steep turns, slow flight, a simulated emergency landing (I kept best-glide speed nailed through the whole thing!) and then back to Olympia for landings. One soft-field landing, a no-flap landing, and we were done!

It's been a long haul, with a lot of work and focus, but I am very happy to have reached this milestone. I realize I still have a lot to learn, and doing so will continue to be a priority for my flying.

Stay tuned as the olympiapilot blog changes its theme from training to enjoying, exploring, and continuing to grow in this fascinating, challenging adventure!

IFR

I have had so much work travel lately, it's been hard to find time to fly...much less blog about flying.

I've continued doing solo practice when I can--ground reference maneuvers, performance takeoffs and landings, and such--and also getting back into the book-studying again, in preparation for my test, which I hope to take in August.

One of the requirements for the private pilot certificate is to receive 3 hours of instrument training...basically, just a "taste" of flying solely by reference to instruments. Joel and I talked about this requirement some time ago, and decided it would be more educational--and fun--to actually do it as an instrument flight rules (IFR) flight somewhere.

Last Friday morning, Joel filed IFR from Olympia to Troutdale (KTTD), a small GA airport on the east side of Portland. I had never been there before, so the flight promised to be full of new experiences for me.

A couple of weeks ago, I picked up a copy of the FAA Instrument Flying Handbook, which gives a pretty good overview of the basics. And with the few hundred hours of simulator instrument flying I've done over the years, I was comfortable with many aspects of the flight. But I had no idea what to expect from--and in fact was quite apprehensive about--flying in actual instrument conditions.

I secured time off work on Friday morning, and met Joel at the hangar at 8:30. After preflight, we started the engine and for the first time, I called up the ground controller and requested an IFR clearance. I copied everything down, read it back, went over it with Joel, and we taxied out.

We were assigned runway heading on departure, which was good, since I would only have to deal with punching through the cloud layer--about 2000' thick, starting at 1500' above ground--rather than turning in it too. As we climbed, it was an odd feeling to be approaching the clouds, which I've been trained (and trained myself) to avoid. As they got closer, the visibility closed in a hurry, and soon we were in the soup. I focused mostly on the attitude indicator (aka artificial horizon) but regularly cross-checked against the altimeter and vertical speed indicator (to ensure our rate of climb was steady) as well as the airspeed indicator (to keep it at 75 knots, just a hair faster than best rate of climb). During this time, we switched to the Seattle departure frequency, checked in, and received direct to the Battleground VOR just north of Portland.

We broke out of the layer around 3500, I leveled off at 5000, and I kept heading and altitude within the required bounds for IFR flight. It was actually quite a bit easier than I expected it to be. Joel did quite a bit of teaching about using the Garmin 430 GPS for IFR...it really makes things easy, and I learned things that will be useful for VFR flight as well.

After Battleground, Portland approach had us on vectors (with instructions like, "Cessna 75898, fly heading 220, descend and maintain 4000, vectors final approach course.") I had no real trouble staying ahead of the airplane. We asked for, and received, the GPS-A approach, with vectors to final. Approach took us right over Portland International (KPDX), and I allowed a quick glance out the window to the big runways, terminal, and lots of activity below (the sky over Portland was scattered at about 3500'). Our next vector took us right over downtown Portland towards Troutdale, with a nice steady descent.

When we broke out of the last bit of clouds, Troutdale was right in front of us, and the approach controller gave us the tower frequency for Hillsboro (KHIO)...which we dutifully tuned in. It took a few exchanges before the controller realized we were on the wrong frequency, and told us so. We looked at the approach plate, noted the frequency there, and dialed it up. We were advised of a departing helicopter and instructed to circle north of the field for runway 25. There was a lot going on and I did get a little behind the plane, overshot final, but salvaged a barely acceptable landing. My first IFR flight was in the books!

We taxied to the FBO, and while Joel went inside I called up flight service and filed our flight plan back...actually, Joel got to supervise the whole thing because it took me some time to get everything organized and get ahold of a flight service specialist. No issues filing, we were back in the aircraft for the flight home. We were given the Blue Lake 3 departure out of Troutdale, which has pre-determined vectors to fly, but it was no problem for me (with Joel's help announcing each change a bit before I needed to do it.) After we broke through the clouds, we were immediately advised of a Delta heavy Airbus 1000' above us, 8 miles ahead, moving from our 2:00 to 8:00 (inbound to PDX.) I picked him up first, moving right along, no factor for us, but looking pretty in the morning sunshine.

Our route home took us right by Mt. St. Helens, then we set up for the RNAV approach to runway 35 at KOLM. Again the Garmin made it pretty easy, though I struggled a bit to keep the needle centered, especially in and out of the clouds. The winds were blowing and a little variable at Olympia, so the pattern and landing were bumpy and interesting, but I nailed it and was glad to be home.

It was a very enjoyable way to satisfy this part of my training requirements, and helped convince me that I want to continue on and get the instrument rating. But first things first...the private, which is getting closer by the day.

Flight track (Google Earth) for the flight is here.

The flightaware.com history for 75898, including our flights, is here.