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Thread: 90% Done, 50% to go...

  1. #11

    Join Date
    May 2013
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    Wow, what a beautiful day to fly! My lesson went well and I really like my instructor, he gave me a solid critique of my flying and it was easy to apply what he explained. I did pretty well. We were flying over the south shore of Long Island near the western end of Fire Island. I'm going back on Wednesday for an hour of ground school to cover airport operations and discuss my cross-country flying. Flying the 172 felt completely natural and I appreciated the extra power of the larger engine. I made a fairly decent landing. My approach was solid, but I leveled off a bit high (maybe 2-3 feet high), so I came down just a bit hard. That I definitely have to work on. I did well on slow flight, stalls and steep turns, all of which, I'm told, were good enough to pass. We also executed a simulated engine loss and, believe me, having all that beach as a potential landing site is very reassuring! The plan is to proceed with the dual cross-country before getting to my solo work. I'm really looking forward to flight planning and executing the plan.
    Last edited by Bunkie; 06-15-2013 at 04:18 PM. Reason: Grammar correction

  2. #12

    Join Date
    Jul 2011
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    I am glad to know that you are still pursuing this. It may seem to be taking a long time, but if you have the time and money and most importantly the perserverance you will be licensed pilot, maybe even by Oshkosh or at least this summer.
    Getting a rating can be a little like my college career. I was the best reader in my entire school as a kid, and never really had to learn how to study. College was a bit of a wake up. Now some people sped through in 4 years, but not me. Like fine wine I assumed it should be savored over an extra year or even two.
    I never thought of myself as anything less than an eventual college graduate, and I kept going, not without some detours and I graduated.
    Besides, if the good Lord had wanted me to do nothing, but study there he would not have made coeds or waterskiing nearby or a national championship football team to go watch. I even coached an intermural team one semester, but I finally found time to graduate, and guess what, there is no asterisk on my diploma.

    So keep going, and I'll let you in on a little secret, despite how many people try to pretend otherwise, flying a small airplane in good weather is really pretty easy, and something most anyone can do, if they are willing to learn.
    Last edited by Bill Greenwood; 06-21-2013 at 11:27 AM.

  3. #13

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    May 2013
    Location
    New York City
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    Tomorrow I do my dual cross-country. I'm really looking forward to it. I'm flying in the morning (taking time off from work) so I shouldn't be bothered by the forecast of scattered afternoon thunderstorms. More once I'm back.

    At this point I'm really motivated to complete my training. I *will* get my certificate. I have no doubt, it's just a matter of time and practice, but definitely by the end of the summer. Then I can go on to the next step which will be figuring out how best to continue flying (buying an airplane, joining a flying club, renting, building my own plane, etc.) ;-)

  4. #14

    Join Date
    May 2013
    Location
    New York City
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    The cross-country went well. It was really interesting seeing how the ground planning worked in the air. On the outbound leg, I filed a flight plan and activated it in the air. For the return leg, I got my first experience with flight following. The flight went pretty much as expected. There was a slight change in the winds which affected timing, but nothing major.

    I have a few things I need to work on. First is watching my altitude. I tend to trim the aircraft slightly nose high so I tend to climb. The second issue is trim related as well. As a result of not correctly trimming the aircraft, attention spent on the plan tends to result in slight deviations from straight and level flight. I'll work on this to get it right. the final issue I had was that the landing at Groton wasn't one of my best. There was a bit of a crosswind, it was a right pattern (which I hadn't done for two months), my turn to final was properly lined up and I was a bit high on final. My instructor suggested that I try a different technique. I tend to hold the crab until almost in ground effect. He suggested that I transition to aileron control about 100' above the runway for directional control, holding right aileron for a right crosswind and concentrate on using rudder to keep the nose pointed down the runway. Upon return to FRG, I gave this a try and it definitely helped. I touched down on the upwind main wheel, and led the left wheel drop while holding the nose off. I'm anxious to practice this.

    So, here's what's on my list of uncompleted requirements: 1) Long dual cross-country. 2) Night cross-country. 3) Night takeoffs and landings (some of which we'll cover during the cross-country) and, finally, about an hour of hood time to complete the instrument requirement.

    Hopefully, I'm not boring you guys with my story. I'm just incredibly excited about what I'm doing.

  5. #15
    David Pavlich's Avatar
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    Dec 2012
    Location
    Mandeville, LA...humidity central
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    139
    Keep on boring us! I'm sure that I can speak for the majority and tell you that it's fun reading your enthusiasm.

    David

  6. #16

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    Jul 2011
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    Bunkie, re holding a trim setting. Remember to let the plane accelerate to cruise speed after you level off from a climb or slow to cruise speed after a descent and only then can you really do your final trim setting. If you change power you will need to retrim also. Often if there is an electric trim, it may be easy to overshoot, an sometimes a fine tune with the manual trim wheel is good. I don't ever want to trim in level flight so there is a gradual creeping descent, I'd always want to be a little high rather than low.

    As for as holding an exact altitude; that is the goal, but really if you are going on a real cross country flight, you want to be paying attention to navagation and weather updates and not just fixating on the altimeter.
    If I fly from Colo to Oshkosh, I might often be 100 feet off cruise altitude when I am looking at a sectional or out the window. It really has nothing to do with safety of flight. Let's say you are going east at 7500 and gain 200 feet. Another guy is coming west at 8500 and slips down 200 feet. You are now 7700 and he is 8300. You still have 600 feet of vertical separation. Few people are going to vary as much as 200 feet, more likely 50 to 100 before a correction. It is important to be at odd plus 500 going east or even plus 500 going west, and especially in crowded airspace or in times of marginal visibility like flying into the sunset.
    And of course in the pattern you want to fly pretty much at the correct altitude, but again 50 feet is not the critical fact of landing.
    It is more critical latter on when you fly instrument approaches, but first things first.

    PS, there are such things as autopilots for long trips also.

    Good luck, keep going and keep us posted.
    Last edited by Bill Greenwood; 07-06-2013 at 05:21 PM.

  7. #17

    Join Date
    May 2013
    Location
    New York City
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    Night Flying!

    Last night I got my first taste of it. I was somewhat apprehensive. My first instructor told me that he hated night flying and wouldn't do it if it wasn't required. I have heard from others that it's their favorite kind of flying. We spent the time practicing landings in the pattern.

    I had a ball!

    I actually had very little problem with depth perception as I had a good picture of my attitude resulting from the "shape" of the runway lights. What I found tricky were the following:

    -Identifying landmarks, especially the airport. FRG is lost in a sea of lights. I found that I paid much more attention to compass heading to keep my bearings.

    -During touch and goes, it was a bit disorienting during the takeoff phase. While on the ground, it was hard to judge where the end of the runway was without referring to the amber lights. Knowing that I had used up a good part of the runway landing, it made me a bit nervous.

    -The 172 I was flying didn't have any instrument lighting. This wasn't a problem because I keep in my flight bag one of those headband lights with both white and red LEDs and this worked out great. There's a lesson in this. Early on, I bought a hand-held radio which I keep with me at all times. My flight bag also has a flashlight and my Swiss Army knife. One can never be too prepared.

    My instructor said I did quite well.

    I loved it. Seeing the crescent moon at what felt like the same level was a wonderful experience. As the session went on, the other traffic died down until it was just us. I have always loved airports at night. Back when I was rampie at JFK, I exspecially enjoyed those quiet times waiting for the next DC-8 or 747 to arrive and wake up the night.

    Next week, it's on to the night cross-country. After that I need a little hood time and my solo hours (and solo cross-country) and I've met the requirements and could, theoretically, take the flight exam at any time. Almost there!

  8. #18

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    Jul 2011
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    Re: night flying. It is easy on a clear moonlit night in good vfr. On the other hand it can be hard and dangerous if visibility is lacking .With no moon you can fly into a cloud .For really good pracitce go do your ifr practice flight on a dark night. I had a friend who was an Air Force instructor during the war in Vietnam trying to teach the S Vietnamese to fly and navingate. The S V guys didn't want to fly at night, too dark, also didn't want to take off from their weekend social events to train.

  9. #19

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    May 2013
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    New York City
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    Well, last night was supposed to be my night cross-country, but my instructor had to cancel. We'll try again on Monday night.

  10. #20

    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Posts
    171
    This is the best post I've read in a long time. Keep us informed on your progress!

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