Flight Training

Commercial Practice

Chip — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 20:49:45 +0000

I’m going to try and do this after every flight. We’ll see how it goes…

I took Crimson 11 up for 1.2 hrs of commercial maneuvers practice. My primary goals were to get lazy eights and steep spirals down today. I flew SE out of OUN towards HMY at 3,500 MSL, did my clearing turns and radio calls, then did chandelles up to 5,500 (above the turbulent boundary layer). After getting away from I-35 a ways I did the first (right) turn of the lazy eight about 4 times until I was exiting at exactly the same altitude, airspeed, and reciprocal heading that I started on. After that I did about 5 full lazy eights until I had 2 really good ones in a row.

Satisfied with those for the moment, I headed a little further east, found a good point next to an open field and did a steep spiral from 5,500 MSL all the way down to 2,500. I never drifted more than 1/8 of a mile off my point so I called that good and headed back in to OUN.

After a couple touch-and-go’s with a stiff, gusty crosswind (RWY 17, winds 15015G24kts), I decided to call it a day and called for a full stop.

Lesson 17: 2/3 done, 5 more lessons until my commercial checkride.

One step at a time…

Another Stage Check

Chip — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 08:41:13 +0000

Well, I did my last instruction flight today in my “Commercial Pilot Certification Course Stage VIII” aka, instrument approaches. I made a 92% on my end of stage quiz and will hopefully be passing my stage check tomorrow morning at 0930. Wish me luck!

In other news, I got a Google Voice phone number today. I grabbed a Denver, CO number in the hopes that I will be able to use it to help get a job in the area once I’m done here in Norman. More later, but it seems pretty slick so far.

Instrument Approaches

Chip — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 07:34:09 +0000

Instrument Approaches are nothing if not a lesson in workload management. I’m still painfully shiny at this whole instrument pilot thing and while my stick and rudder skills aren’t lacking, my time management is at times. I let myself get “behind the airplane” and inevitably end up trying to do 2 checklists, fly the approach and deal with approach at the busiest part of the procedure.

After picking up our clearance at OUN

(“Crimson 5, you are cleared to the Westheimer Airport as filed. On departure fly 170 climb and maintain 3,000, expect 4,000 1-0 minutes after departure. Oak City Departure on 124.2, squawk 5101.”)

We contacted OKC and got vectors to the VOR 17L at OKC. We actually managed to get some actual instrument time cruising along at 4,000. 0.5 hours total in that column for the day. 17L was closed so we did a low approach at 1,800 MSL (about 600 AGL) then went missed and back to departure.

We got extended vectors to the ILS 17 at OUN, intercepted the localizer at about 4,500, got a no-delay descent to 3,000 for traffic and skimmed along the tops of the towers keeping the needle centered. Intercepted glideslope about .5NM from RIBPO and flew it down to minimums.

ILS minimums mean that you’re 200 ft off the ground and about 1/4 mile from the approach end of the runway. That’s an interesting experience in doing a “chop and drop” with very gusty winds. We had a little excitement about 100-50 ft off the ground then things smoothed out and we greased a landing and pulled off at C1.

Interestingly enough, the Cessna behind us didn’t get so lucky. They somehow ended up on the grass. No obvious damage to the plane, no injuries. Just some amused pilots, and a very tired looking Chief Pilot.

Tomorrow begins another (small) block of sim time for me before my last 3 lessons on approaches. Then I take my stage check, make a few IFR cross country flights, take my checkride, and HOPEFULLY walk out of here with an Instrument rating in about 3 weeks.

“Life” in Norman continues…

Glass cockpit introduction

Chip — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 10:36:09 +0000

So my first 200 hours or so have been in traditional round gauge instrument planes. Yesterday I had my first taste of a modern glass cockpit and let me tell you, there is a huge difference. The sheer amount of information displayed in a small yet understandable format is amazing. The biggest problem I ran into under the hood was simply losing track of where I was because I was so busy trying to fly the plane!
Even with the new format I managed to do the holds correctly after a minimal amount of adjusting times and headings. It was an interesting experience but I’m looking forward to going back to my gauges on Monday.

Done with the sim! (for now…)

Chip — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 10:35:20 +0000

Finally finished my 8 hours in the sim. Now on to the real thing.

Almost done with the sim

Chip — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 01:44:50 +0000

I did my 6th consecutive hour of simulator time yesterday. Today I will do the 7th. That’s a whole lot of holding patterns.

Holding

Chip — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 14:22:21 +0000

“…cleared to KRICK, hold east of the 143 radial of the IRW VOR at 19 DME. Expect further clearance at 1327.”

Every pilot’s favorite clearance. Currently I’m learning why everyone hates holds. They’re not very difficult so long as you understand exactly where you are and what they want you to do. The hardest part is just figuring out your wind correction. I’ve put in half my sim time (4 hours so far) in the holds stage of my instrument course and am rapidly going through the rest. Hopefully I’ll take my stage check for holds next week.

An instrument rating begins

Chip — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 01:18:28 +0000

I have officially started working on my instrument rating! I feel like I’ve come a long way from the student pilot who started flying in 1995. Updates as I progress.

Advanced Flying begins!

Chip — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 16:59:13 +0000

I’m finally back in the air! Since getting my license on the last day of July (2008), I haven’t gotten a chance to fly, until yesterday! The good news is that it all came back very easily. I even pulled off a simulated emergency landing first try. The “low” point of the morning was when we pancaked it in down at DJ Perry (Goldsby, OK) when we let it get a little too slow on the short-field landing. As with every 3-point landing, there was an audience. A couple of laughs over the radio was all we got though. The 2nd landing we shot up at Westheimer (OUN) was much cleaner.

I’m excited about this course. Not only do I get to fly the Cessna 152 Aerobat, I also get my complex aircraft signoff in the Arrow (hello retractable gear!). I get to do a solo, night, cross country flight, as well as many more hours of solo. It will be good for me. Now I just need to get it done so I can go on with Secondary and Instrument.

More later!

I haven't forgotten!

Chip — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 13:38:08 +0000

I raelly haven’t forgotten about this blog. I fully intend to keep posting here as I get the time. I just haven’t had much going on in my life that falls into my main categories for this.
On the other hand, my plastic pilot’s license came in the mail about a week ago. That made me really happy.
More later when I have time and something worth writing about.