Learning to Fly

Commercial checkride

Took the commercial check ride.  Three check rides in as many years with the same examiner, Peggy.

The oral part of the exam went quite well.  Peggy and I talked about various aspects of commercial flying for about an hour and a half, covering a pretty broad swath of knowledge from airplane systems to FAA regs.  Talking to someone with her experience (I think she said she had 20,000 hours flying with one of the majors), is always a learning experience.  We discussed some regs, and review a flight plan she had asked me to prepare, and I felt that I was able to answer most of her questions quite well.  That was the good half of the day...

Then it was time for the check ride itself. We flew the first leg of the flight plan that I had prepared (which was from KCDW to Albany, KALB).  I had a hunch that as we passed over Greenwood Lake or Randall, that she would pull the throttle and ask me to do an precision emergency landing.  Which she did directly over Greenwood Lake.  So far so good.  I do a steep spiral down to pattern altitude, then setup to do a standard turn into final approach for runway 6. (I had glanced at the wind sock, during the spiral, and thought it was favoring 6.) With the power off, I am gliding in for the landing on 6, and I look down and the ground looks closer than it should be. So, I slow the decent a little.  (I completely forgot that the ground on the approach end of runway 6 actually slopes down towards the runway, so while I might have been closer than I normally would be to the ground at that point in the approach, I would have been at the right altitude for the runway.  Oh well...) By the time I get to the runway threshold, I am a good bit higher than I should be. I also glance at the wind sock, and discover I'm flying with a bit of a tail wind (either the wind shifted, or I misread it to begin with). I briefly contemplate attempting to slip down to the runway, but decide that discretion was the better part of valor.  I turned to Peggy and say: "you know what, I screwed up, I'm going to have to do that one again..." (I think to myself, well there goes the freebie, assuming I get one to begin with.)

So, we go around, and this time I land the plane properly with power off, but bit beyond the "precision" mark.  For some reason, the plane just isn't behaving the way I am used to it flying.  We taxi to the ramp. By this time, I'm dripping with sweat.  Partly from the heat, partly from the effort of flying the plane, and partly from the embarrassment. Time to collect my wits.  I wipe my face with a towel, and take a few deep breaths.

We go up again.  On the down wind, this time for runway 24, I cut the power, and maneuver for the approach keeping the runway in sight.  All of a sudden, I realize that I am quite a bit lower than where I should be.  I turn almost direct to final from the down wind, and do what I can to stretch the approach.  We clear the trees and the fence, and now I'm a bit high. I dump in the flaps, and bring down the plane a bit firmer than perhaps I had planned, but within 50 feet of the numbers (the requirement for a "power-off precision approach").  Peggy turns to me and says, "That wasn't very pretty, but it did meet the standards, so it will do."

We take a few more trips around the pattern, I demonstrate short field landings and take-offs, and then soft field landings and take-offs. The whole time I can't shake the feeling that something just doesn't feel right. I am doing everything to within the requirements of the Practical Test Standards, but as she said, they weren't very pretty. As we are taxiing for departure for the last time, it all of a sudden hits me.  This was the first really hot day in the season. with the temperature at 32 degrees Celsius.  I had been practicing in very mild weather, usually in the low teens.  Not only was the heat (with its intendant sweat and discomfort) affecting my concentration at some level, it was also affecting the performance of the airplane. No wonder the plane wasn't climbing nearly as briskly as it usually does.  And no wonder the plane just felt like it was sinking like a rock the second I cut the power.  And what a time to be learning this lesson for real. Yeah, I knew this in theory, but this was the first time flying the C182 in the heat of the summer. The only aircraft I've flown during the heat of the summer are the C172s, and they feel nothing like the C182.

(They say train like you fly, but I guess I really forgot that rule.)

Knowing why all my maneuvers were "not very pretty" reassures me a little, but not enough to completely settle the butterflies.  Nevertheless, we head out to the practice area, and do a series of maneuvers---slow flight, stalls, chandelles, steep turns---and I manage to do them with a bit more grace.

We head on back to Caldwell.  As I go to lower the gear, nothing happens.  Peggy had somehow managed to pull the circuit breaker to the landing gear without my noticing.  (Goes to show just how flustered I had been.)  Okay, time to do the emergency gear extension procedure, which in a nutshell requires the pilot to "pump" the gear down by using a bicycle pump like contraption built into the floor of the cabin to manually apply hydraulic pressure to the landing gear, while still flying the plane.  Not the most pleasant of procedures in the best of times, but much less so in this heat.

We land, park the aircraft, and escape to the cool of the FBO. Sweating like crazy, and a bit deflated, I was completely prepared to come back out to do the check ride again.  We have a debrief, Peggy points out some of the less obvious errors I had made---like not talking to my passengers (her) through any of the emergency procedures. The more obvious errors were just all to plain. We have a discussion about what might have been going on, and I explained that I had (rather belatedly) realized what the weather might be doing to the performance of the plane.  I had figured the effect of the weather on take-off and landing distances before the flight, but it didn't "click" that "aircraft performance" would be affected in many other ways as well.  So, I was a little surprised when she signed me off, and handed me my temporary certificate. (Perhaps she was satisfied with my self assessment of what might have been going on.)

A check ride is a check ride, but what a learning experience. One thing I know, I will never forget the effect of summer heat on aircraft performance again.

Crosswind practice

Haven't flow in nearly a month since getting back from Haiti.  Decide to go out, but make things interesting.  Call up Jordan to go do some crosswind practice.

The wind is gusting pretty hard as we take off from Caldwell.  METAR is reporting 13 gusting 25 knots out of 310.  Whoo hoo.

Head over to Orange County (KMGJ) to do some pattern work.  The automated weather is reporting 17 gusting 23 out of 300.  KMGJ has two runways: 3-21 & 8-26, either way is going to be a pretty strong crosswind.  No one but us crazy enough to be doing pattern work in this wind, so we have the airport pretty much to ourselves.

We start off on 26, which makes for a quartering headwind from the right .  Have to fight the plane all the way to the ground.  One second you think you have the centerline, the next you are off by 5 feet. The plane just wants to go all over the place.  Bank into the wind, use the rudder to keep the plane pointed down the runway, and land on the upwind wheel first.  Yeah, I know the theory, but doing it in this wind was something else.  The trick, of course, is to fight the crosswind, but not to rush to put it down, but when putting it down make it nice and firm. 

Flying the pattern is a bit of a challenge, too.  Have to keep the nose pointed nearly 30 degrees into the wind to keep the ground track parallel to the runway.  A really weird sensation---complete disconnect between the view out the window and what the plane is actually doing.  Takeoffs are a challenge, too. On one take off, I look back, and find myself having drifted off the runway center line on the upwind by a good bit.

After 4 landings on 26, we switch it up and practice a few on 3.  This time, a quartering approaching direct crosswind from the left.  I had just gotten the hang of dealing with the wind coming from the right.  And the wind feels like it's gotten a bit stronger too.  And maybe because it is more of a direct crosswind, the plane really wants to weathervane, especially on low speed final approach. Don't think I've focused this much (or worked up this much of a sweat) doing landings in a long time.

After three more landings on 3, head back to CDW.  Certainly an afternoon well spent. I know feel I can confidently land the 182 in pretty harsh crosswind conditions.

Learning to land again???

Been practicing for the commercial maneuvers in the C182RG.  A lot of power-off 180 approaches—this is an emergency maneuver to see if you can land the plane with precision, without engine power.  Fly the pattern, and when the plane is abeam the numbers, pull the engine back to idle.  Try to land the plane within 50 feet of the numbers with no power.

The problem for me is that compared to the 172s, the 182s feel a lot more nose heavy on the landings.  It seems to take a lot more pressure on the yoke to get the nose flared properly for the landing.  Not to mention the fact that the different "sight-picture" is really messing with my timing.  The upshot is that I'm consistently either flaring too high (and dropping the plane a little more than I would like), or I'm flaring too late and am landing flat.  Either way, not very pretty.

I struggled with learning how to land the 172s during the primary training.  It feels like that all over again.  Didn't think going up to a 182 would make that much of a difference — it is a Cessna after all, and not that much bigger.

I need to go back up with the 182s some more to get a better feel for the plane.

New year's resolution #2

This year, I've also decided to stop talking about getting my CFI, and actually do it.  But that means completing my commercial first, which has laid some what dormant for about 5 months now.

Was all set to go out this week when I got something that one of the kids brought home.  Knocked me flat on my back for better part of a week.  Sigh... the best laid plans of mice and men...

Instrument currency, again...

So one of my new years resolutions is not to let my instrument currency lapse.  And more important, do more to stay proficient (not just legal).  To that end, I go up in 68N with Tom.

Do the GPS26 approach into Randall (06N), do the missed approach, fly out to the Huguenot VOR for a couple of trips around the hold, then back into Randall for the VOR8 approach.  After that, back into Caldwell for the LOC22 approach.

Feeling much more confident than late last year.  What a difference some concentrated practice makes.  Or maybe it's he simplicity of the FADEC.  My new years resolution is to not go so much between practicing approaches.  We will see if I live up to it.

Landings

They have gotten to be much more smooth and consistent now, but for a while landings were the bane of my existence.  Given that it's the one thing you have to do at least once every flight, I spent quite a bit of time practicing and struggling.  It appears that a lot of people have the same problem.

This month's AOPA Flight Training Magazine has a nice list of online resources that explain the art of landing.  Haven't had time to go through them yet, but having a list with 10 different resources is immensely useful.

If my experience is any guide, people get stuck on something (like landings), it's very easy to fall into a rut.  There was a couple of weeks or so during my primary training, just prior to my first solo, where I was determined to nail "this landing thing".  For those two weeks (about 6 or 7 sessions total), I did almost nothing but pattern work.  This was incredibly frustrating, and in retrospect I was probably reinforcing my mistakes as much as anything during those two weeks.  And after two weeks, I just had to go and work on something else, even if it meant pushing the first solo back a bit.

In retrospect, part of the problem was that the approach that Tom was taking wasn't working.  This is not to disparage Tom's skills as a CFI.  Tom is a great instructor, and he has taught me well.  But for this one task, his approach wasn't working for me---I just was not "getting it". Even so, after literally hundreds of landings, I got to a point where they were passable.  Good enough to pass the initial pre-solo check, then the private pilot check ride, then a handful of other check rides since. But I always knew this to be my weakness, and each landing made me tense.

It wasn't until I had flown with a few other instructors---Kyle who did the stage checks, Peggy who has did my private and instrument check rides, Stanley who did my PFC training, etc.---with each imparting to me their little tidbits of wisdom about landing that all this started to make sense.  After that, the things that Tom was trying to teach me "clicked".

This is a long winded way of saying that, if you are struggling with something, it often helps to have multiple perspectives and approaches.  So, the AOPA list of online resources on take-offs and landings should be invaluable if only because it provides that diversity of perspective.

Qualified on the C182RG

After a few weeks of fairly consistent flying---twice a week---am finally qualified to fly PFC's C182RG. Now I can get back to the task of finishing up my commercial training.

But would love to go poke holes in the sky for pleasure at some point.  Perhaps the weather will cooperate next week.  Need to do some night flying, too.  That and remaining current on instrument flying.

Lots to do. So little time.

Incidentally, hit 25 hours total time as of today.  Another 100 hours to go before I get through the "killing zone"---some how, though, it seems like it will take much more than that before I start feeling really confident.

Instrument currency

I somehow let my instrument currency lapse.  In fact, the last time I was in IMC was nearly couple of months ago.  Since I have 10 hours to burn in the C182RG, I decide to use the opportunity to go out and do a bunch of approaches.

Fortunately the weather is cooperating---for the last couple of weeks as I've gone out, the ceilings have been nice and low, allowing me to go into actual IMC, and leave the cursed foggles behind.  Spent two days last week and two days this week in almost solid IMC for a couple of hours at a time.

I had forgotten just how disorienting this is.  Flying under the foggles is one thing, but flying in the "soup" is entirely another.  A whole different level of concentration that is required to maintain proper attitude, fight those erroneous "instincts", and keep everything right side up.

And flying those approaches was much more difficult than I remembered.  Just two months of not flying an approach, and the accumulated "rust" was considerable.  For one thing, everything happens significantly faster on a 182RG than in a C172.  And the complex aircraft gives you more things to have to worry about in the approach phase.  But that's really no excuse.  I had a tough time overcoming my tendency to fixate on one thing or instrument, while everything else went to heck in a hand basket.  For the first couple of approaches, I was truly embarrassed at the basic mistakes I was making. After 4 sessions, I'm technically "current" (that is, legal to fly IFR) again, but that just seems like asking for trouble.

I know all instrument pilots due this, but I am vowing to not let so much rust accumulate.  Time to do more IFR flying more regularly.

Cessna 182RG

Haven't flown in nearly a month.  Decide to get trained on the one remaining Paramus Flying Club aircraft, a Cessna 182RG (retractable gear).

I've actually been weighing my various options.  The commercial pilot certificate requires that part of the checkride be done in a complex, retractable gear aircraft.  Unfortunately, the plane I was training on---the school's 172RG Cutlass---is no longer available. In fact I was just a few sessions away from being ready for the checkride, so that was a considerable setback. There aren't a whole lot of retractable single engine aircraft around anymore---most aircraft manufacturers have found that given advances in aerodynamics, pulling up the gears gains you little in terms of performance, but adds quite a bit in terms of pilot training and insurance.  The school managed to get access to a Piper Arrow, but that won't come on line for a while, and having flown nothing but Cessnas, I'm not wild about having to spend a lot of (expensive) time getting comfortable with an all new aircraft. Some of the area schools have Cutlasses, but that would require getting checked out, and possibly establishing a working relationship with another instructor. So, I decided that getting checked out on the 182RG was the logical thing to do---I could use it for the commercial checkride, and then have access to the 182RG for use later would kill two birds with one stone, so to speak.

Unfortunately, I discovered that the 182RG is a very different plane from the 172RG.  The controls feel much heavier.  Everything is slightly larger.  The view out the windshield is a bit different. It's much faster, too, topping out at 160 knots cruise.  But I have to go through 10 hours of training to satisfy the club's insurance requirements, so I have plenty of time to get used to the plane.

Holy sh*t!

Excuse the expletive.  This hasn't been a good year for GA in the northeast, but another small airplane "landed" in a mall parking lot.  But this one was a bit too close for comfort.  The plane in question, N6117R, is the retractable gear Cessna 172RG Cutlass used by the flight school at which I get my training. I had been in this very plane just three days ago. When I initially saw the plane on the news, it didn't register, but the tail number kept bugging me until it hit me.

I know the pilot (working on her CFI) flying the plane at the time, and the instructor in the right seat was Tom.  Thankfully both were a bit shaken but uninjured.

I guess the silver lining in all this is: Tom really knows what he is doing, and you can pretty much land a 172 anywhere.  But still...