Lesson 10
After yesterday's no-go because of high winds today I had two lessons scheduled. The first was just a ground school lesson. C had me use page flags and highlighters to mark all the relevant sections of the 2005 FAR/AIM. He was pretty thrilled that I had already done it so we spent a little time looking through the sections. The only thing specific that he wants me to focus on at the moment is 91.155 Basic VFR Weather Minimums. As for the rest of it ... "well just start memorizing it". Oy!
C had me pull out the Dallas Terminal Area Chart and he pointed at things on the chart and I had to tell him what they are. Not too hard, though I missed a few. Some I just blanked on but some I just flat didn't know. We also did this with the Dallas Sectional to cover things that were not represented on the other chart. Then C gave me a few minutes alone to absorb the weather minimums. When he came back he would point at a spot on the map and say, "we're at 3000', what are the weather minimums?"
What was easy for me to visualize reading the grid in the book was not so easy to visualize on the sectional. The minimums don't change that much for most of the controlled airspace, but the Class G rules really tripped me up. From now on when I study the minimums at home I'm going to do it with a sectional in front of me.
One interesting thing I learned was that the little yellow blocks denoting cities and towns are the actual dimensions of the towns lights when see from altitude at night. Now that's handy!
I also didn't realize until C told me that the victor airways, even when running through Class G airspace, are considered Class E controlled airspace.
Then we spent a half hour or so talking about emergencies, about the ABC flow (airspeed -- best field -- checklists) and stepping through some of the scenarios.
C mentioned again that he wants me to start studying for the written test. He said the sooner I get it out of the way the better as then I'll be able to concentrate on the cross-country training. So I picked up the Gleim study guide.
Later in the afternoon I returned for a flying lesson. While C was there at the desk when I arrived the plane wasn't back yet. So we went into the hangar to see if there was a Skyhawk to look at ... sure enough there was. One of the recent 172 SPs had the prop and cowling removed so that the entire engine and firewall was exposed. C pointed out the cylinders, magnetos, vacuum pump, fuel injector, spark plugs, etc. Some parts were removed so not everything was there. I did get a good look at the nose wheel and I was surprised to see how it's just bolted on to the bottom of the firewall. It didn't exactly look flimsy, but I expected something a little more robust. All in all the engine looks pretty straightfoward, like the one in my old Honda hatchback ... just minus the giant radiator.
About the time we were finished gawking P, one of the senior instructors, came out and we asked what the plane was in for. He showed us where the bottom of the firewall, just above the nose gear attachement points was wrinkled and bent. Someone had done a seriously hard nose landing in this plane! He told us that there's still an evaluation going on but at a bare minimum everything from the firewall forward would need to be replaced. I'm not sure if he meant the entire engine as well or just the structural parts. As far as the insurance company was concerned the plane was a total write off. Ouch!
Finally, N729SP returned from the previous lesson and I went out to preflight. It has been a week since my last flight and it really felt nice to get out there move around her .. flipping switches, looking for dents and dings, moving the control surfaces. Everything looked great and we had full fuel. So when C arrived I pulled out the towbar and we pulled her out to the line.
For the first time I tried to use my new flow to go through the start procedure without referring to the checklist line by line. It went pretty well ... started on the first try and I remembered to look at the oil gauges quickly. We got our clearance and taxied out to hold at alpha where we were subsequently cleared to taxi to runway 15. Again, for the runup I tried to do my flow and not go line-by-line through the checklist. I was so intent on the runup part that I did it before I did the controls check, which normally comes first. Regardless, I got them all done. I radioed the tower and we were cleared for takeoff.
The conditions were wonderful, winds 150 at 6 knots, skies clear, temp 6-degrees C, visibility 13 miles and altimeter 3044. We reached Vr pretty darn quick and I was able to trim out at a 75 kias climb. At 1300' I turned to the left and departed the pattern following Arapaho Road to the intersection with Preston where we turned left again and headed north to the practice area at 2000'.
Once in the practice area C had me climb to 3000' where he took the controls and asked me to pull the power to idle whenever I wanted. I did and he demonstrated an engine out emergency and landing. As a bonus, since we were surrounded by lovely flat fields, he picked one rather close and spiraled down over the approach end until we were at the right altitude to land. During the go around we only climbed to about 1500' where he had me pull the power again and he demonstrated an abbreviated version of the engine out emergency.
Now it was my turn. Back up to 2000' we went. No sooner had I trimmed for level flight C pulled back the power. OK, first bring the nose up to trade speed for altitude and then trim for 68 kias. I look out the window ... hey! where'd all those beautiful flat fields go!? Now everything looks hilly and covered in trees and surrounded by power lines. So I switch my attention back inside ... fuel selector both, cut-off valve in, mixture full rich, fuel pump on ... no engine restart ... ok, let's see cut-off valve out ...
"Where are you going to land?" C asks me.
Oh yeah, now I'm looking back outside. Everything still looks hilly except for one spot. There .. I point ... that's where we'll land. I start a turn toward the field.
"Watch your airspeed."
Where was I, oh yeah, mixture pulled out, fuel pump off, mag switch off, open the doors.
"OK, let's go around."
So I put in full power and we climb out. C walks me through it again. Let's see, do I have enough fingers to count the things I forgot? NO.
We did a couple more of these and with the last one I seemed to get the hang of it. I was able to pick out my field and get us down to the right height and attitude to successfully land. And I remembered to do most of the checklist steps.
Then we did one more where I picked a road to land on. The road was nice and straight and had no poles, power lines, etc near it. But instead of circling and landing on the beautiful bit right below me I just followed the road and did the checklist. By the time we got low enough to land on the road it had power lines running along one side. Doh!
Then we simulated a wing fire. It really took me a few seconds to remember what I needed to turn off ... oh yeah, lights, pitot heat. And we put the nose into a shallow dive and slip away from the flames to hopefully put the out.
After that we headed back in. I was so flustered over how I had done that I totally munged the radio calls to Regional Control and Addison Tower. We got clearance for a straight in landing to runway 15 and though I rode the glideslope white-over-white the whole way down I managed to pull off a good landing ... just the right amount of flare to touch down on the mains and just had to use moderate braking to stop us at the desired turnoff.
So, C said I did ok but I really wasn't happy with myself this time. I thought I was way too timid with the controls during the emergency simulations though I did do a good job holding the speed to around 68 kias. But I've got to work on the checklists and on setting up for landing. I think I was partly visualizing my landings in the context of the pattern at an airport. Cow pastures don't have patterns! If the field is to the right then turn right and go there. If it's to the left then turn left and go there. I don't need to waste time and altitude trying to conform to an imaginary traffic pattern.
I think the next lesson will be better. We agreed to only go on Saturday if the winds are giving us a healthy crosswind to play with. Otherwise, next Sunday we're going to do a longer flight to go up to Grayson County airport (GYI) where there's very little traffic to compete with and we're just going to do touch-and-goes and emergency drills.
This flight: 1.1 hours
Total: 13.2
C had me pull out the Dallas Terminal Area Chart and he pointed at things on the chart and I had to tell him what they are. Not too hard, though I missed a few. Some I just blanked on but some I just flat didn't know. We also did this with the Dallas Sectional to cover things that were not represented on the other chart. Then C gave me a few minutes alone to absorb the weather minimums. When he came back he would point at a spot on the map and say, "we're at 3000', what are the weather minimums?"
What was easy for me to visualize reading the grid in the book was not so easy to visualize on the sectional. The minimums don't change that much for most of the controlled airspace, but the Class G rules really tripped me up. From now on when I study the minimums at home I'm going to do it with a sectional in front of me.
One interesting thing I learned was that the little yellow blocks denoting cities and towns are the actual dimensions of the towns lights when see from altitude at night. Now that's handy!
I also didn't realize until C told me that the victor airways, even when running through Class G airspace, are considered Class E controlled airspace.
Then we spent a half hour or so talking about emergencies, about the ABC flow (airspeed -- best field -- checklists) and stepping through some of the scenarios.
C mentioned again that he wants me to start studying for the written test. He said the sooner I get it out of the way the better as then I'll be able to concentrate on the cross-country training. So I picked up the Gleim study guide.
Later in the afternoon I returned for a flying lesson. While C was there at the desk when I arrived the plane wasn't back yet. So we went into the hangar to see if there was a Skyhawk to look at ... sure enough there was. One of the recent 172 SPs had the prop and cowling removed so that the entire engine and firewall was exposed. C pointed out the cylinders, magnetos, vacuum pump, fuel injector, spark plugs, etc. Some parts were removed so not everything was there. I did get a good look at the nose wheel and I was surprised to see how it's just bolted on to the bottom of the firewall. It didn't exactly look flimsy, but I expected something a little more robust. All in all the engine looks pretty straightfoward, like the one in my old Honda hatchback ... just minus the giant radiator.
About the time we were finished gawking P, one of the senior instructors, came out and we asked what the plane was in for. He showed us where the bottom of the firewall, just above the nose gear attachement points was wrinkled and bent. Someone had done a seriously hard nose landing in this plane! He told us that there's still an evaluation going on but at a bare minimum everything from the firewall forward would need to be replaced. I'm not sure if he meant the entire engine as well or just the structural parts. As far as the insurance company was concerned the plane was a total write off. Ouch!
Finally, N729SP returned from the previous lesson and I went out to preflight. It has been a week since my last flight and it really felt nice to get out there move around her .. flipping switches, looking for dents and dings, moving the control surfaces. Everything looked great and we had full fuel. So when C arrived I pulled out the towbar and we pulled her out to the line.
For the first time I tried to use my new flow to go through the start procedure without referring to the checklist line by line. It went pretty well ... started on the first try and I remembered to look at the oil gauges quickly. We got our clearance and taxied out to hold at alpha where we were subsequently cleared to taxi to runway 15. Again, for the runup I tried to do my flow and not go line-by-line through the checklist. I was so intent on the runup part that I did it before I did the controls check, which normally comes first. Regardless, I got them all done. I radioed the tower and we were cleared for takeoff.
The conditions were wonderful, winds 150 at 6 knots, skies clear, temp 6-degrees C, visibility 13 miles and altimeter 3044. We reached Vr pretty darn quick and I was able to trim out at a 75 kias climb. At 1300' I turned to the left and departed the pattern following Arapaho Road to the intersection with Preston where we turned left again and headed north to the practice area at 2000'.
Once in the practice area C had me climb to 3000' where he took the controls and asked me to pull the power to idle whenever I wanted. I did and he demonstrated an engine out emergency and landing. As a bonus, since we were surrounded by lovely flat fields, he picked one rather close and spiraled down over the approach end until we were at the right altitude to land. During the go around we only climbed to about 1500' where he had me pull the power again and he demonstrated an abbreviated version of the engine out emergency.
Now it was my turn. Back up to 2000' we went. No sooner had I trimmed for level flight C pulled back the power. OK, first bring the nose up to trade speed for altitude and then trim for 68 kias. I look out the window ... hey! where'd all those beautiful flat fields go!? Now everything looks hilly and covered in trees and surrounded by power lines. So I switch my attention back inside ... fuel selector both, cut-off valve in, mixture full rich, fuel pump on ... no engine restart ... ok, let's see cut-off valve out ...
"Where are you going to land?" C asks me.
Oh yeah, now I'm looking back outside. Everything still looks hilly except for one spot. There .. I point ... that's where we'll land. I start a turn toward the field.
"Watch your airspeed."
Where was I, oh yeah, mixture pulled out, fuel pump off, mag switch off, open the doors.
"OK, let's go around."
So I put in full power and we climb out. C walks me through it again. Let's see, do I have enough fingers to count the things I forgot? NO.
We did a couple more of these and with the last one I seemed to get the hang of it. I was able to pick out my field and get us down to the right height and attitude to successfully land. And I remembered to do most of the checklist steps.
Then we did one more where I picked a road to land on. The road was nice and straight and had no poles, power lines, etc near it. But instead of circling and landing on the beautiful bit right below me I just followed the road and did the checklist. By the time we got low enough to land on the road it had power lines running along one side. Doh!
Then we simulated a wing fire. It really took me a few seconds to remember what I needed to turn off ... oh yeah, lights, pitot heat. And we put the nose into a shallow dive and slip away from the flames to hopefully put the out.
After that we headed back in. I was so flustered over how I had done that I totally munged the radio calls to Regional Control and Addison Tower. We got clearance for a straight in landing to runway 15 and though I rode the glideslope white-over-white the whole way down I managed to pull off a good landing ... just the right amount of flare to touch down on the mains and just had to use moderate braking to stop us at the desired turnoff.
So, C said I did ok but I really wasn't happy with myself this time. I thought I was way too timid with the controls during the emergency simulations though I did do a good job holding the speed to around 68 kias. But I've got to work on the checklists and on setting up for landing. I think I was partly visualizing my landings in the context of the pattern at an airport. Cow pastures don't have patterns! If the field is to the right then turn right and go there. If it's to the left then turn left and go there. I don't need to waste time and altitude trying to conform to an imaginary traffic pattern.
I think the next lesson will be better. We agreed to only go on Saturday if the winds are giving us a healthy crosswind to play with. Otherwise, next Sunday we're going to do a longer flight to go up to Grayson County airport (GYI) where there's very little traffic to compete with and we're just going to do touch-and-goes and emergency drills.
This flight: 1.1 hours
Total: 13.2
posted by AirmanChet at
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