90% Done, 50% to go...

[Floatsflyer]

[QUOTE=Bunkie;35364]My wife has been absolutely great about this. She understands that for us both to be happy, we need to look after each others dreams. Hopefully, I understand this as well. She's even okay with my plan to build an airplane.QUOTE] Beautiful!, you are a lucky man. Would your wife happen to have a sister with the same DNA make up and attitude?

[jjhoneck]

This is a great thread -- and we're all right there with you!

Don't give up! Every moment you put into flying is worth it, times ten. Better yet, time spent flying is not deducted from your lifespan -- so fly more often!

[Bill Greenwood]

Bunkie, I like your attitude. I am sure money is a problem, but you have invested your time and money and with some of your flight training done, and the written passed, you are over half way.
The only person that can make you a pilot now is you, that is if you just keep going. There was a man on tv who talked about the secret to finishing a distance race. Simple he said, just don't stop.
I have a friend who works at the Boulder FBO who seems a bright, capable, guy; a recent college graduate who loves aviation. Yet it took him 70 hours to get his private pilot certificate. He started in a Piper Warrior, great plane to learn in, but after about 10 hours the school sold the Warrior, so he switched to a Cessna and guess what, another 10 hours or so and the school sold that plane. He then switched to a Diamond DA 20. which is quite different and has a long and more complicated procedure, as well as being significantly harder to land. He never quit and is now both a pilot and has just gotten his instrument rating.
Oh, yes in the meantime he had to get over a broken neck vertebrae that he suffered falling out of a tree.

I would suggest you have long frank talk with your new CFI and school/club and emphasize that you really want to get your license, but that money is limited and you want to make sure it is not wasted.
Good luck and let us know how you do. Get going before winter shuts you down. We just have snow here this morning.

[Bunkie]

I'm glad that folks are enjoying my ongoing tale. I really appreciate the encouragement! I promise to write an update this weekend after my cross-country. If I get my solo sign off, I'm going to try to get one or two sessions in the 150 during the upcoming week. My personal feeling is that the only thing keeping me from being ready for my practical is knocking off the required solo time.

[Bunkie]

I had a pretty good flight yesterday. I really like my new instructor, Larry Gordon. The original plan was to do a short cross-country, but it took a while for the ground fog to burn off. We also had a lot of low clouds. The field is at 1600 feet of elevation and the clouds were at or below pattern altitude. So we changed plans plans to work on air maneuvers and pattern work.

First off, the club C150 is a very sweet airplane. It's down on power compared to the C152s and C172s I've flown but this particular airplane handles very nicely. After the initial takeoff we did a few climbing 360s and the aircraft held the turns beautifully. Control pressures are all very light and not once did I need to use any trim. I flew the entire time on the initial takeoff trim setting. We did a power-off stall and the airplane stalled nicely, giving a firm but not overwhelming shudder and it stalled without requiring very much rudder.

The clouds started to move toward the field, so I did a long straight-in approach and once I touched down, Larry told to me turn the landing into a touch and go. I applied power, lifted off turned crosswind and then downwind, not quite at pattern altitude and just short of being abeam the numbers, Larry reached over and cut the throttle. It took me a moment before I realized that we were doing a simulated engine-out landing. This was the first time I had done one with an actual landing (as opposed to simulating it at altitude). I hesitated a bit, trying to extend a bit before turning base and Larry quickly corrected me telling me to abandon a pattern landing, just turn 180 and get down to the runway. We had to add a bit of power to make up for the time I lost, I'll definitely remember not to hesitate next time.

Today is a rainy, foggy day so there's no flying for me today. We'll see when I can schedule the next one.

[Bunkie]

Finally got a chance to fly again yesterday afternoon. This was my second flight with my club instructor, Larry. He wanted to get some time with me doing maneuvers and some of my required hood time. I know that in previous posts, I've expressed frustration at the small setbacks resulting from my journey from instructor to instructor, but there is definitely a positive side. I can understand his responsibility. Yes, my logbook says I've performed required maneuvers, but he needed to see them. After all, he has to sign me off. Larry had me doing some things I've never done before: steep turns under the hood, the most extreme unusual attitude recoveries I've ever faced, and what happens when you try to hold the airplane in a power-on stall. I'm not sure if I just would never have progressed to these items with my other instructors, or if it's just the classic case of the student (that would be me) thinking that they know more than they do. I'm betting it's the latter. It's humbling, at times, this learning to fly thing.

So, at this point, a little reflection on the process and advice for beginning and potential students is in order: First, I've experienced a series of breakthroughs, plateaus and frustrations. It's part of the process. Some of it is not being able to fly when or as often as I want. Weather, scheduling and finances all play a part. The solution? Get over it and keep plugging away. The moments of sheer joy when I get the landing flare right or I get a 'nice job' from my instructor are the foundation of the determination to keep at it. Blow a maneuver? Keep at it. My first steep turn was awful. My second was better. At that point Larry was ready to move on, but I asked to do another one. That one was good enough to meet the standards. I wanted to get it right after getting it wrong.

Second, my major advice for potential and starting students is this: It will take how long it will take. Yes, some people solo in 12 hours. Good for them, but they are not you. While there are milestones, this isn't a race, it's a process. I try my best to learn something new each time I fly, no matter how small. There's an inspiring story out about a student pilot who had a landing accident whose video went viral. After some initial dismay, he got back in the left seat, faced his fears, completed his training and earned his certificate. My small frustrations pale in comparison. If you want to fly, keep at it, keep at it, keep at it. At this point, I'm guessing that I will be a 75-80 hour pilot by the time I get to my check ride. As I said earlier, I'm still flying even if I'm only a student and every hour is satisfying. The actual number of hours isn't nearly as important as being a safe, capable, always-learning pilot.

[I_FLY_LOW]

Having been there and done that with multiple instructors, even though a ton of money was spent in the process, one positive thing was, I was in the air...

[Bunkie]

Today, I learned a hard lesson. No amount of desire can make up for factors that should not be ignored. Today's lesson was scheduled over ten days ago. It was a short cross-country flight from KMPO to N40. Conditions were marginal: wind 270 at 12 gusting to 20. My instructor said that we were about at the limit. I really wanted to get this done as this was the second try.

My performance was mixed. I did well on navigation and pilotage. Enroute to N40, it was bumpy and the airplane was dancing around. I was feeling a bit nauseous, but I located N40 and entered the pattern a bit low. On final, I was a bit high so I chopped the throttle, set full flaps and wrestled the airplane into position. There was a point on short final where I thought I might blow the landing, but I actually made a really nice landing, almost automatically. We taxied over to the ramp, I got out of the airplane for a minute and then I got back in and we departed. The nausea got worse and I actually had to make use of the sick sack. After that, I was feeling better. As neared KMPO, I made a really stupid mistake: I mistook field altitude for pattern altitude. My instructor asked "why are we below pattern altitude?" I corrected and entered downwind. Again, on final, it was a bumpy ride. And, again, I made a really nice landing, rounding out exactly where I was supposed to, landing on the upwind wheel.

Here's what I learned. In retrospect, it was clear that I was really in no condition to fly. I had returned from the west coast late Thursday night, had driven over 200 miles on Friday (much of it back and forth to a 2-hour job interview), was a bit jet-lagged and was fighting off a cold. The result was some dumb mistakes on my part. I think it contributed to the nausea and it definitely affected my cognitive skills. I won't make this mistake again. It was a form of "get-there-itis" and I now know, first-hand what can happen. I don't think that we were in actual danger at any time, but had some other factor come into play, I can see how it could have been serious.

Contributing to my desire was that the trip out west included a helicopter descent into the Grand Canyon which I thoroughly enjoyed. It really pumped me up and made me anxious to get back in the airplane. As this process goes on, I realize more and more that self-management is the name of the game. Preparation, skills, vigilance and judgement are the watchwords here.

On a more happy note, both my wife and I loved the Grand Canyon flight. It was an incredible experience to *descend* into flight. The rim of the Canyon is about 5000' AGL and the landing point is about 1500' AGL (about 200 feet above the river), so you lift off, rushing over the ground which falls away dramatically. Flying so close to the walls of the canyon fulfilled almost all of my childhood fantasies about what helicopters could do. Absolutely incredible!

[I_FLY_LOW]

Sounds like you're going about it right.
No one's perfect, you made a mistake, owned up to it, and learned from it.
Good job!

[Bunkie]

This past weekend I did pattern work and, once again, I'm humbled by the experience of learning to fly. I learned a few new things, made a few dumb mistakes and need to really work on making it all flow rather than getting fixated on one thing or another. At the outset, I was paying too much attention to the DI so my instructor covered it which made me spend more time looking out rather than in. I thought I was doing pretty well, but at several times he told me "you seem tense". At the time my perspective was that I was trying very hard to pay attention and get it right. In retrospect, I see that he was right, there's a flow that I need to develop, to relax so as to be ahead of the airplane and not to over-think or over-control. He commented that on final he saw me fighting every small movement of the airplane "too much rapid, small deflection of the ailerons" and that I needed to relax and let the airplane settle.

Much to think about, for sure.

On a very positive note, I had one of those "Ah-ha!" moments having to do with the landing flair that points out a curious fact. At this point I have over 130 landings in my log book. Yet I realized that I wasn't doing things right until just recently. On final, with the nose pitched down, I was holding my fixation with the numbers too long and not transferring my point of view to the end of the runway. I must have worked it out subconsciously with my landings of a couple of weeks back. This time, because my instructor told me to do it, I was in control of the flair. Simply *looking down the runway* gave me the proper perspective to judge the height and since then, I've been much better.

One of the most interesting and rewarding parts of learning to fly has been what I've learned about myself and how I approach things. It can be a bit harsh, however. One needs a certain amount of ego to fly and the realities of the process can tend to give said ego a bruising.