Anyways, I soloed last month and I’m still loving it.  I’ve soloed a couple of times and been working on tower communications.  I was supposed to actually have a lesson tonight and go on over to Adam’s Field to practice touch and goes and tower communication there but the weather just isn’t cooperating, so looks like we’ve rescheduled for Sunday.  Hopefully that will work out. 

 

We’ve now gone back over all the stuff I learned with the first instructor.  Last night it was engine failure proceedures.  Let’s see if I’ve got this down. 

“ALARMS”

A- Airspeed, trim for best glide.  In the plane I use that would be 80mph.

L- Begin looking for a spot to land. 

AR- Attempt to restart. Check fuel selector valve, make sure that for some reason it’s not on off or that you didn’t take off with it selected to one tank and that tank hasn’t just gone dry.  Then check to make sure mixture is full rich. Play with the throttle a bit.  Set carb heat to check for carburetor icing.  Check both mags; check to see that you’re using both and if so that the plane isn’t operational on one vs. the other or both. Check to make sure primer is in and locked.  If nothing works you are now committed to an emergency landing.

M- MAYDAY.  Squawk 7700 and if there is time either let ATC know you have an emergency and your approx. location or use 121.5.

S- Secure the plane. (Crap… this is the one I mess up.) Turn fuel selector off.  Turn mags off and after putting flaps down turn master switch off, and open the doors. 

I’m having so much fun up there.  Although last night was a new experience for me.  I always fly in the evenings after it’s cooled off and the air is smooth.  Yesterday however it was really really hot so it took quite a while longer for it to cool off.  It was so bumpy.  It actually freaked me out quite a bit at first.  I think I’m going to try and get in some more day hrs on a Saturday afternoon or something so I can get a little more comfortable in those conditions.  I realize that I’m safe and it’s normal but because I just don’t really have experience flying in it, it was very very distracting last night.  I totally was NOT on top of my game. 

Oh and Karen, Ryan’s wife, came last night and we sat and talked for about an hour while Ryan went up with his next student.  She’s a lovely lady and I really enjoyed our conversation.  I’m glad she came up there. 

That’s about it.  Hopefully my next blog will be all about my first solo!!!! 

 One of the cool people I’ve met since being a member of JetCareers has just got stationed at Little Rock Air Force Base and is actually going to be living only a couple of miles from me.  I’m very excited to meet him.  He’s supposed to come with me Thursday to my flight lesson and meet Ryan, my instructor, so that he can get started on finishing up his PPL training.  I’m going to be introducing my new friend to someone at the very same time that I’m meeting him for the first time.  Kind of neat, kind of weird.  At any rate though, I’m very excited about it. 

So, I’m very thankful for everyone at JetCareers.  They’ve brought a lot into my life. Lots of cool new friends and valuable knowledge and experience about aviation that has helped me a LOT.  I don’t think it would be as easy or as much fun for me if I didn’t have all these experienced pilots who have gone before me to help dirct and encourage me.

I love practicing go-arounds and ground reference manuevers. I’m getting pretty good at both. I probably need a little more work on my turns about a point though. IMO that’s the hardest of the three ground reference manuevers. My landings are improving but they still need quite a bit of work. Probably a lesson dedicated to some touch and goes would do it for me at this point. Then he just wants to go over power off and power on stalls and stall recoveries with me.

I love lesson days. I grab some extra clothes in the morning and watch the weather closely all day hoping that it doesn’t turn nasty and ruin my day. Then, after I get off work, I drive straight to the FBO and talk to all the other students and instructors while petting the dogs and waiting for Ryan to finish up with the student before me. Then I run out to preflight the plane while they are debreifing. Ryan always does ground instruction with me before we go up to make sure I understand the concepts of what we are going to be doing in the air before we go do it and it helps a great deal. With ground reference manuevers he used the model plane and dry erase board to explain the effects of the wind so that when I was up there I just had to do it.

My favorite part of the flight experience so far though is take off. I love the way it feels when suddenly you realize that you’re no longer on the ground. What a rush. God, I love it!

I noticed from the beginning that my old instructor wasn’t very motivated but I wanted to give her a shot because she seemed like a really cool person to work with.  6hrs later we still had not done any ground training, we still weren’t really connecting any kind of a personal level and I realized by overhearing a conversation she was having with another instructor that she wasn’t teaching me things like go arounds and ground reference maneuvers yet, not because I wasn’t ready for them, but because she didn’t like teaching them.  I’ve been struggling since the beginning with the wind steering me off course and she’s never mentioned crabbing at any point.  My first lesson with the new instructor and I no longer have any issues with this.  Also, she never told me that when power is pulled back past a certain point that carb heat has to be set.  I was extremely worried about what other things she was NOT teaching me and figured with how hard I have to work to come up with the money to pay for these lessons that I want to have the most quality experience possible.  I have no hard feelings towards the old instructor and I really hope she is not upset with me.  She’s a very nice girl but I just feel that this is the best move for my training.

Ryan, my new instructor is a really great instructor.  He is a gold seal instructor who has been flying for 15yrs.  He’s flown corporate and made the big bucks but never felt as fulfilled as when he instructed so he gave up the corporate gigs to come back and teach beginners how to fly.  He loves it and you can tell.  He’s huge on ground instruction, which I think I need a lot of.  He’s very patient and very encouraging but honest also.  I’ve already really clicked with him and very much enjoy our lessons.  I think I’ve learned more from the last 2 hours from him than all 6 previous.  I think that he’ll have me confident and ready to solo in no time. 

I’m still loving it.  Still hanging in there and flying as often as I can afford.  I’m having Ryan check out everything I know, beginning with preflight to make sure I’m doing it all right and I understand everything to the degree that I should.  Lately we’ve been working on ground reference maneuvers, go arounds and forward slips.  We also took a little time yesterday to practice my taxiing a little more.  It wasn’t bad but now it’s much better and I’m much more confident.  I’m very happy with my decision to change instructors and very excited to see what lies ahead.

 Oh and I got my Medical and Student Pilot Certificate with no problems yesterday.  I was ecstatic.  I have no clue why I was so nervous about getting it.  I guess I thought it was going to be harder and that I would have to face some horribly devestating obstacle soon.  *Knock on wood* I just like it too much and that seems to be my luck.  I wanted to hug the Doc when he gave it to me.  lol

 Oh, and I take my flight physical tomorrow!!! :0)  

 So, I’m learning in a C-172, flying out of ORK. Today we, of course, spent quite a bit of time going over preflight proceedures. I actually remembered quite a bit of that from the intro lesson. So then we decided to go up and she let me take off and fly around for a bit to get the feel of the plane and then we worked on 30 degree turns, and constant rate climbs and descents, as well as airport familiarization. The 30 degree turns were a little scary for me at first, but after about 3 or 4 180degree turns in each direction I was feeling pretty confident about them.  The flaps stopped working as we were coming in for a landing though so I didn’t get to help much at all with that.  Next time, I’m sure.

 Although I’m not scared of heights, it’s hard to get used to that feel of “there’s not below me!”  It’s such a thrill.

So, my next lesson is Tuesday and I’m ecstatic.  I absolutely cannot wait.  I’m supposed to study preflight proceedures so that before our next flight I can lead her through preflight.  Wow, there was so much information to take in today.  I hope that I’ll retain it and only build more knowledge during my next lesson!