tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-58990062306914004002024-02-07T17:45:34.695-08:00Awkward BirdExperiences and musings of a GA pilot and <a href="http://www.aoaflight.com/">Certified Flight Instructor</a> from pre-solo days to today .... My home airport is <a href="http://airnav.com/airport/KRHV">Reid-Hillview</a> in San Jose, CA. I fly whatever I'm rated to fly at <a href="http://www.squadron2.com">Squadron 2</a>. Nissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13160194321295411721noreply@blogger.comBlogger315125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5899006230691400400.post-37742401701759078862019-11-05T11:19:00.000-08:002020-06-26T20:44:29.769-07:00I Wanna Go Again!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8tMxfWCE9k0QjFIFUk10tUaQsCKVY9ORCMlqTrZNcXwcCBfLmNsRZkSb_-sEUWlyyY-nYne9PXfWC7_QxvX4mAMMYE3v8C0Grrw7vjPf8Jhxp2Fvw26oI2pgaCANUzcoX0H5F_ayRPADx/s1600/loveofflying.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="355" data-original-width="474" height="237" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8tMxfWCE9k0QjFIFUk10tUaQsCKVY9ORCMlqTrZNcXwcCBfLmNsRZkSb_-sEUWlyyY-nYne9PXfWC7_QxvX4mAMMYE3v8C0Grrw7vjPf8Jhxp2Fvw26oI2pgaCANUzcoX0H5F_ayRPADx/s320/loveofflying.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
There's a cute meme, "Teach your child the love of flying and they will never have money for drugs."<br />
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Flying for me is a bit like a drug, when I fly I am happy. I'm in a good mood for the rest of the day. The next day I want to go up again!<br />
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My CFI used to say I was like a kid at the amusement park, always wanting to jump back in the line the moment I got off the ride to go again and again and again.<br />
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Over 2000 flight hours and 10 years later I'm still that kid in the amusement park, wanting to go up again and again. If I can not go up I am restless and annoyed that I cannot do my favorite thing. I flew yesterday, doing an IPC with that same CFI. Today I want to go again!Nissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13160194321295411721noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5899006230691400400.post-86404016835182673502018-12-08T17:45:00.000-08:002018-12-08T17:45:29.353-08:00When All Else Fails, Try Another DayI'm working with several private pilots now on their instrument ratings. One of them, Sam, is on the verge of finishing his rating... as is typical, he has to finish his written(!), needs to get comfortable and consistently competent handling multiple approaches at multiple airports in quick order and we need to do the required IFR dual cross country flight. This flight has to be at least 250NM cross country flying IFR "in the system" with three landings and three different types of approaches.<br />
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I devised a plan of three airports and three different approach types only 277NM (straight line distance). The VOR 19 at Paso Robles, the ILS at Castle AFB and last the GPS Z 31R at Reid-Hillview. We had the plane for today.. the weather looked good, if not great, and everything was good to go. Well, it was good to go as of Thursday mid-day anyway.<br />
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Thursday night I get a text. A private pilot student says he needs the plane we had reserved Saturday for his check ride. I've received many many texts like this before and 9 times out of 10 the person ends up not doing the ride. So I told him we wouldn't give up the reservation but if he actually was ready to go and the check ride would happen of course he could take the plane. Late Friday night I get the expected text that he wouldn't be doing the check ride. We were good to go again.<br />
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I get up and feel better than I had all week as I was recovering from a cold. I check the flight plans Sam emailed to me. I notice the first flight plan had San Lois Obispo indicated as an alternate. Hmmmm... the previous night Paso Robles was forecast to be VFR or at least high enough ceilings to do the VOR approach. I looked at the weather and Paso had ceilings below 200 feet and < 1/4 mile visibility and it wasn't forecast to get better. I messaged Sam told him to just file SBP instead of PRB since we knew PRB wasn't an option.<br />
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When I get to the airport Sam was ready to go, except he forgot to change the flight plan for the leg to Castle now that we were going to a different airport. No problem, he could cancel the plan and we could re-file once we got down there.<br />
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Then in a final scan of weather conditions I look at the satellite combined with the current conditions and realize 3/4 of the route to SBP and all of 7/8 of the route from SBP to MER was currently and, on a quick check of the TAFs, was forecast to be below minimums for the ILSs available on the route. The high pressure system that made this a great flying day also capped the fog and that, combined with calm winds, met the fog was not going to burn off as normal.<br />
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I told Sam it's not a great idea to fly over an entire 100s of miles over a couple valleys socked in with fog so low that you can't land an instrument approach - in a single engine airplane. We would have no options if we had an issue that required a landing en-route.<br />
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Not to be deterred we decided to try a northerly route. Santa Rosa to Chico to Reid-Hillview looked promising. Plenty of airports with plenty of approaches well above minimums along the route, more than enough distance, this would work! Sam cancelled the other flight plans and filed a new one going to Santa Rosa. We'd try for the ILS and take the VOR if we had to. We were good to go!<br />
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We get in the plane, it starts up strong. Get the weather and we're ready to go... Sam radios ground and as he starts his call it goes from very clear to broken and unreadable. I see the TX light flashing in time with the broken sounds coming from our plane. Ground said they didn't understand. He tried again with no difference. I do the call and my radio works great so we get our taxi clearance and I tell ground that we'll troubleshoot the issue with the other radio. I joke with Sam that I could do all the radio work - but we both know that's not a great idea. The last feature of my cold is a the occasional coughing fit - not something you want flying IFR in the system.<br />
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As we turn onto the taxi way I was thinking, we had a lot of issues and we haven't even gotten off the ground yet, maybe this is not a good day to fly. I said to Sam, "I'm thinking of invoking the 3 strikes rule." He let out a breath of air he seemed to be holding in and said, "I'm glad you said that. I was thinking the <a href="https://www.skybrary.aero/index.php/James_Reason_HF_Model" target="_blank">holes in the swiss cheese</a> are starting to align." We agreed to see what the radio did in the run up before making a final decision.<br />
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We got to the run-up and before doing anything else Sam fiddled with the mike switch to see if he could get it working again. His first test call worked for 75% of the call. I had him to it again and it was broken and unreadable again. That was it. We decided today is not our day. I radioed ground and got permission to taxi back to Squadron 2.<br />
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A beautiful flying day wasted. Or was it? Who knows why things happen the way they do. If there's one thing I've learned in aviation its do not try to force the issue. We have 4 alternate schedules set up for the required cross country flight. ONE of them will have to work. I hope. The initial forecast for our first attempt doesn't look great... but you never know what a week will bring.<br />
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<br />Nissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13160194321295411721noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5899006230691400400.post-36777425266105592662018-06-17T10:01:00.001-07:002018-06-17T20:50:02.380-07:00When All Else FailsIt never fails... whenever I work on a new certificate or rating (I'm working on my 6th now), I reach a point where I struggle with something and get frustrated. Good for me, I've been reaching that point quicker and recognizing it sooner with my recent efforts than I did for Private, for instance.<br />
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I'm working on my Multi Engine Commercial certificate now and as usual, hit that frustration point earlier this week. Struggling to master a task and failing mightily. In the after flight debrief my CFI was telling me what he thought the issue was. I argued with him. I thought the issue was something else. I left frustrated and annoyed.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgps-dCDffjpK_4WFdfUeJWtXzvVFYix9IcQ5-9mMixEg3fDBAQ53s6uKvtzgi4zM-xCSPIx9d0E9Ud_1XpD6jF6VwxXJ6Gzq1wpmb6L299U-eKbCMTL_F9mNQkQEXSG39UkhmkeEbDMIYt/s1600/instructions.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="319" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgps-dCDffjpK_4WFdfUeJWtXzvVFYix9IcQ5-9mMixEg3fDBAQ53s6uKvtzgi4zM-xCSPIx9d0E9Ud_1XpD6jF6VwxXJ6Gzq1wpmb6L299U-eKbCMTL_F9mNQkQEXSG39UkhmkeEbDMIYt/s200/instructions.png" width="159" /></a>The usual thoughts were floating through my head. "I'll never be able to....", "I should be better than this!", etc. etc. But as the evening wore on I started thinking about what my CFI was trying to tell me. And, while I still didn't necessarily agree with him, what I was doing certainly wasn't working. Maybe I should just stop thinking about it and do what he tells me. I figured it certainly couldn't be worse than what I was doing, and would probably be better. After all, he's been doing this for much longer than me with a much better track record of success.<br />
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We met the next morning and sat down to discuss the plan for the flight.<br />
CFI: "Any thoughts or suggestions before I DICTATE what we will be doing today?"<br />
Me: "I thought about this long and hard last night. You've been doing this a little more than I have so I figured I'm best off just doing what you tell me to do."<br />
CFI <i>(blink, blink)</i>: "OK then."<br />
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He proceeded to outline the plan for the flight. When we were walking out to the plane I asked him, "You were ready for a fight weren't you?" He was. And he wasn't going to let me hijack his syllabus anymore.<br />
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The result of the flight was predictable. I did what my CFI told me. It worked splendidly and I learned a lot. So, once again, the lesson for all pilots, old and young, experienced and inexperienced, and especially me. <b>When all else fails, do what your CFI tells you.</b><br />
<br />Nissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13160194321295411721noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5899006230691400400.post-5262997944332711522018-06-04T21:50:00.000-07:002018-06-04T21:50:02.792-07:00Happy (Aviation) Birthday To Me!Eight years ago today... June 4, 2010 was the first time I was onboard a light aircraft with a CFI and flew the plane. I was scared to death... I really wasn't that interesting in doing it. But I wanted to get over whatever my problem was and be willing to go flying with my spouse at the controls.<br />
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Eight years ago today, I took the flight controls and felt the wind beneath metal wings... to feel the reason for the bumps and jolts of turbulence. The pure joy of controlling a flying machine all on my own. I still had fear but I fell in love that day, fell in love with flight.<br />
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Today, my 8th aviation birthday, I've logged over 1570 flight hours in my logbooks, and I'm still learning. Today...<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>I started my day working with a new commercial candidate on his 2nd flight in a complex aircraft. We did a normal take off, manual gear extensions, emergency descents, power off stalls and a normal landing. </li>
<li>After that I saw my private pilot candidate off on the continuance of his check ride. He performed extremely well in strong wind and strong up / down draft conditions and passed with flying colors. </li>
<li>My next flight was supposed to be a multi-engine training flight for me. However, we decided not to do it with the bad drafts they experienced an hour before. </li>
<li>My last lesson was an instrument lesson for a private pilot seeking his instrument rating. </li>
</ul>
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On my 8th birthday I touched four aspects of aviation.. private, instrument, commercial and multi-engine. Not a bad way to spend my aviation birthday.<br />
<br />Nissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13160194321295411721noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5899006230691400400.post-87661166503068090652018-04-08T20:15:00.001-07:002018-04-08T20:15:57.983-07:00Friends don't Let Friends DriveA friend of mine, Steve, was taking his commercial check ride today. I was thinking about him. Wondering how it was going. Around 2PM I got a phone call. It was Steve.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic9fKIcXzCKqGXE46cbsYKzHZy_s5SO2-OT3ndGrTn7vHx2Rxoc0U9gclPIpnopEbD0DqBPRKdJL4dF3M3VZ3qBtmfM5y7B9mj0YrtczZyZtPD7HL0f-nwvTUNOLRRdo1OIkKSywOTAwK7/s1600/IMG_2492.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="959" data-original-width="1600" height="191" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic9fKIcXzCKqGXE46cbsYKzHZy_s5SO2-OT3ndGrTn7vHx2Rxoc0U9gclPIpnopEbD0DqBPRKdJL4dF3M3VZ3qBtmfM5y7B9mj0YrtczZyZtPD7HL0f-nwvTUNOLRRdo1OIkKSywOTAwK7/s320/IMG_2492.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Steve asking 1455X, "Why!?!?!"</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
His voice had a smile in it when he said hello. I was hoping it would be good news. Then he said, "Guess what I did on my check ride?" I said I hope he passed. He said, no.. he didn't pass. He was taxiing out to start the flight portion of the check ride with the examiner and the plane was backfiring. At first he tried to believe it didn't happen. But the backfiring continued. He reluctantly discontinued his ride. Which was good because he would have failed if he took off with the plane in that condition!<br />
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Steve was calling me to see if maybe I could come pick him up from Salinas Airport, only 40 NM away from Reid-Hillview. I was happy for an excuse to do something on a weekend day. Luckily a plane was available so I flew down to get him in a Cessna 172. It's been a long time since I flew left seat in a 172 but it was fun.<br />
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We returned from Salinas and shared a drink, chatting about his day and other random stuff. While chatting I sent this picture to our mutual CFI. The CFI replied that his wife said I was really nice to fly down and get Steve. Then he, the CFI, told his wife, "Friends don't let friends drive!".<br />
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Ain't that the truth?Nissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13160194321295411721noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5899006230691400400.post-58024779548754932632018-03-31T17:39:00.002-07:002018-03-31T17:39:36.994-07:00Reflections on a Picnic Table at 1500 Hours<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWQVIlLotZpryrmbkAfGK2kJJfWYyJvGgYoasel3OEpPLrAE3SnLGnj6EvosHZvGjFrr4qO8XPbvSPfPQEzw4VduH7x4jn9tZNy-jH-LeX858qkmf1OwBF10WHSOT1-bnZGLBzg0oH9uFI/s1600/IMG_2444.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWQVIlLotZpryrmbkAfGK2kJJfWYyJvGgYoasel3OEpPLrAE3SnLGnj6EvosHZvGjFrr4qO8XPbvSPfPQEzw4VduH7x4jn9tZNy-jH-LeX858qkmf1OwBF10WHSOT1-bnZGLBzg0oH9uFI/s320/IMG_2444.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The picnic table in front of Magnum Aviation, E16 Airport</td></tr>
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This rather unremarkable picnic table is tightly associated with the most challenging moment in my aviation life so far, honestly one of the most challenging in my life. While I’ve been to/from that airport countless times since, I’ve not seen this table since that fateful day. </div>
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When I last saw this table I had roughly 480 hours in my log book and was working on my commercial certificate. I was sitting at this table as the sun went down, ego shattered, devastated, embarrassed and shaken to the core. Working to pull myself together to fly myself home from what I saw then as a <a href="http://imanawkwardbird.blogspot.com/2014/02/its-hard-to-fly.html" target="_blank">huge defeat.</a> </div>
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Fast forward to today. 4 years and 5 weeks after that date. I have 1501.8 hours in my log book and that Commercial Single Engine Land certificate. I’m Certified by the FAA as a Flight Instructor, Instrument Flight Instructor, Advanced and Instrument Ground Instructor. I’ve successfully taught people how to fly planes from scratch, commercial pilot candidates and now pilots working on their instrument ratings. I found out today one of my early students who I taught through first solo passed his check ride (woohoo!). </div>
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I’m giving back to my aviation community and working on my multi engine commercial certificate now. Hours, certificates and ratings are all cool but what’s more important is this: I believe I am a competent and safe pilot, the pilots I sign off will also be competent and safe, and, maybe, in 20 years I’ll still have a little airport to fly in and out of that’s local to me. </div>
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Something inspired me to snap a picture of this table today and in doing so I recalled how devastated I was that day. That made me appreciate where and who I am today. I’ve come a long, long, way from this picnic table. Am I where I want to be? Who knows…. it’s the journey that’s important.. not the destination. I don’t think I’ll ever be where I want to be. But I can be pleased with the progress I’ve made and what I hope is a positive impact on the world around me. </div>
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Enjoy the journey folks... you never know when it will end. </div>
Nissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13160194321295411721noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5899006230691400400.post-86155113534128595812017-10-14T00:04:00.000-07:002017-10-14T00:04:04.124-07:00Best Job So Far - CFIIt's been a while since my last post. Its been a busy time since June. Busy instructing, busy dealing with life... but I wanted to share a little bit of life as a CFI.<br />
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<h3>
New Commercial Pilot</h3>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQjP17aDX78rs3PUp8tdqJsj5sdOvPM-XrFJjak655LMCW_jA4V9Z4qrLvmf_WSwc-kBW2-s_TJUqiAE0wUGMqw-uZKQxfV9Q1R3bVf3ldL4y9ex9Zx2RoChhn0Bz98mo1ryq3BgmD0WK8/s1600/IMG_0846.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQjP17aDX78rs3PUp8tdqJsj5sdOvPM-XrFJjak655LMCW_jA4V9Z4qrLvmf_WSwc-kBW2-s_TJUqiAE0wUGMqw-uZKQxfV9Q1R3bVf3ldL4y9ex9Zx2RoChhn0Bz98mo1ryq3BgmD0WK8/s320/IMG_0846.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">New Commercial Pilot Haoyuan Wen (right) <br />DPE Scott Rohlfing (left)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The first person I presented for a commercial certificate passed his check ride at the end of September. Hao is a great story. He came to me for his complex endorsement and then commercial certificate. I hadn't trained him before but I knew him from around the club.<br />
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He did his private training with another CFI that was trained by the same CFI that trained me. He comes from the same aviation "lineage" as I. As a result I found him very easy to fly with and train. On top of that he has a great personality and was just fun to be around. That's always a bonus when you're going to have to spend many, many hours in a close, hot, noisy environment like the cockpit of a small aircraft.<br />
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His training was relatively quick. Not as quick as we wanted it to be, it never is, but we met his main goal which was to finish his commercial before his father came home from China. When I put him up for his ride I knew he had the knowledge he needed and could apply it. In spite of the fact that he'd occasionally come up with a new word that didn't exist - words like "decompressurization" passed through his lips the day before his check ride. I knew he could fly very well and do all of the required maneuvers. However, as always, you never know how its going to go.<br />
<br />
He finished the oral portion of the ride quickly... in a little over two hours. That was a good sign. Then I was waiting for him to finish the flight portion. That seemed to be taking longer. So I logged into FlightAware to see where the plane was. They were still flying at 3:30 and it looked like they hadn't done any take offs or landings. I went to the terminal building to stay cool and wait. Then I heard them call in to land. That got me worried. They were coming back before doing the take offs and landings! Oh no! I watched Hao land the plane in what looked like a perfect soft field landing. I willed them to taxi back to take off again but instead they taxied back to the flying club. I walked slowly back to the flight club, trying to guess where the flight went wrong and preparing myself to hear the debrief of my candidate and find out what happened. Maybe I'd be able to do a quick "retraining" and sign him off for a retest that day?<br />
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I walked into the club and the examiner came in to the building, talking to another pilot he'd trained. I let them finish their conversation and followed him into his office. Then he smiled and shook his head. "Hao did good. He did really good!" I waited for the "but...." There was no "but". Hao passed on his first attempt! I told him how I was watching on FlightAware and was sure something went wrong. He told me to never do that. It wouldn't show you everything that happened so it just makes the waiting worse. I wish I knew that one before hand!<br />
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So my first Commercial Pilot Candidate passed on his first attempt. He said when he did his power off 180 the whole time he was just trying to make sure he wouldn't disappoint me and once he landed that maneuver he knew he was good. He made me very proud!<br />
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<h3>
New Mistakes</h3>
I was flying with one of my favorite students today. He owns a very nice Cherokee 180C. He'd been through a host of flight instructors and we'd been working together on and off for almost a year between aircraft maintenance spells. He's on the verge of soloing in his plane and today he told me he wanted to prove that his excellent performance the last time we flew together wasn't a fluke. The last time we flew together he did some great landings unassisted with word or deed from me.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPFYXQhzSAMV0Pc_R_i7w5jLZEy8_R8p5PnS-uARG0iZJsZ8Np-2Klt5BE4ys85oSo3b05CLMK9wiIwDuevgmsbcYLpQro8W3Cd_scnGw9rUlSHHWFD4kbJGt8p9zLWO_vTCGWmU2af1le/s1600/IMG_1452.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPFYXQhzSAMV0Pc_R_i7w5jLZEy8_R8p5PnS-uARG0iZJsZ8Np-2Klt5BE4ys85oSo3b05CLMK9wiIwDuevgmsbcYLpQro8W3Cd_scnGw9rUlSHHWFD4kbJGt8p9zLWO_vTCGWmU2af1le/s200/IMG_1452.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
Sadly, as often happens, when we want to prove something, we try too hard and have a bad day instead. Today was not his day. In his focus on being great, he came up with a new mistake. One one of his landings I noticed we were barely on the ground when his feet jumped up to the brakes. That was unusual but the plane was safe. On the next time around his feet jumped up to the brakes before we touched down! That was bad. Fortunately he landed straight and he didn't put a ton of pressure on the brakes (which would have blown his tires quickly). I explained to him that wasn't a good idea. And I'm sure he'll not do that again.<br />
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His patterns and checklist usage were getting worse, not better. I offered him the decision to continue or stop. He chose to stop. When we were done flying I shared with him how I spent 20 hours trying to be perfect when my CFI told me I was almost ready to solo and I suggested he don't make the same mistake. I think he "gets it". But I also know how hard it can be to accomplish that. In any case, I am sure he will solo soon. He has the ability.<br />
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Beautiful Landings</h3>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGUHkFRn_ownGrRc0bfPud6-muhaUtSDRrqKISlQCWYIXZ2_mQjKdE4MqnYFsEyX5YZJGniYzyawMtQ1rEIdyRgL-gbPcO_YrPeNlqSfyVfh5MaY3kervlbo1Pcm7fq0rD3yc9z8qe67F5/s1600/IMG_1497.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGUHkFRn_ownGrRc0bfPud6-muhaUtSDRrqKISlQCWYIXZ2_mQjKdE4MqnYFsEyX5YZJGniYzyawMtQ1rEIdyRgL-gbPcO_YrPeNlqSfyVfh5MaY3kervlbo1Pcm7fq0rD3yc9z8qe67F5/s320/IMG_1497.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Looking out the window of my apartment <br />at the smoke from the fires up north.</td></tr>
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Northern California is having the worse fires in history with the worst air quality ever recorded in the Bay Area from the smoke. Visibility has been very poor. So poor that I couldn't send my student pilot on his first solo cross country.<br />
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Instead we flew together and I had him practice lost procedures and VOR triangulation while under the hood. Then I introduced him to an old method to estimate time and distance to a VOR.<br />
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We headed back in to land. I got to observe as he flew a beautiful straight in approach. He did all of his checklists, radio work, and managed the approach perfectly. He added flaps one notch at a time in response to his glide slope, then he put in a forward slip to get down. He took out the slip at just the right time and touched down, light on the mains, on the centerline in plenty of time to get off on Charlie. It was wonderful to behold. Wow! I asked him after we cleared the runway if he always landed like that. His grin was huge and priceless.<br />
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These moments, a successful check ride, a beautiful landing, or even a tough day when I can offer some advice. These are the moments that make being a CFI the best "job" I've had so far!<br />
<br />Nissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13160194321295411721noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5899006230691400400.post-70652253832432454462017-06-10T22:31:00.000-07:002017-06-12T10:18:59.044-07:00Stuck Between Airspace and a Hard PlaceI am learning, the longer one flies, the more opportunities are created for failures, and experience, to happen. Today's failure... a stuck switch made what should have been a routine flight into a mentally exhausting trip. Un-forecast constant light to moderate chop made the flight physically exhausting also.<br />
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I was flying to McClellan Airport, 82NM from my home field, to pick up my daughter. I checked the weather in the morning and strong surface winds were forecast for the afternoon but no AIRMETS or SIGMETS were active. I was flying the club's Bonanza and expected about 45 minutes to get to McClellan once I was in the air. </div>
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I got VFR flight following so I wouldn't need to dodge the Delta and Charlie airspace of three of the four airports in the immediate vicinity of McClellan. I wanted a simple flight after a long week. Immediately after take off I got turbulence instead. It wasn't bad... and I was planning on climbing above the scattered cloud layer where I expected the turbulence would be less. </div>
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I was handed off to NorCal Approach and contacted them. As expected I was told to remain below 4,500 feet. With the clouds where they were I leveled off at 3000 feet and continued over Calaveras Reservoir and the hills north east of Reid-Hillview. The turbulence got worse and I was cruising over the hills in light to moderate chop. As the turbulence was not forecast and if I was feeling the roughness in a Bonanza I thought it would be good to report for the other planes that might be flying that day. </div>
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I keyed the PTT and asked Approach if they had time for a PIREP. When I released the PTT I immediately realized that I was still transmitting. Ugh! This was not a frequency I wanted to block. Commercial traffic flying into Oakland used this frequency to sequence. I tried physically pulling the PTT button out but it seemed stuck. I tried resetting the radios turning them both off and on, no change. However, suddenly the transmission stopped. </div>
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I was instructed to change frequencies to the next controller and was able to do my initial call. Then I was told to climb to avoid traffic. I attempted to respond and was unable to transmit. So I initiated an immediate climb and hit IDENT on the transponder to show I heard. I was given another instruction and when I tried to respond the PTT stuck in transmit mode again. This time I told the controller I was having problems with my radios, asked to cancel flight following and change frequencies. There was relief in the controllers voice when he told me to squawk VFR and frequency change approved. </div>
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I switched the radio to 122.75 (an air to air frequency) so the transmissions would go to a rarely used frequency. I tried some of the same things I did previously that seemed to stop the transmissions. Restarting radios, switching frequencies, switching between radios. Nothing seemed to work but eventually the constant transmission stopped on its own. A quick review of IFR lost com procedures wandered through my mind along with the thought that, just that morning, I had told my husband I would be willing to take the Bonanza into IMC. Not any more - at least not for a while. *sigh*</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI9MJoKZgyYR-DEb4AIAI9iMxAabM-d-ivpr9sW5ZCnwKzT4KjHh-ZEfl79sYeCTGIZFxVSWDIwaGsPUSxet3GU-DlpDEnadx1g4-QHWSvkPDDRIl0jttMwvxeDOQp6WBdlM227vID5EDG/s1600/mccairspace.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="664" data-original-width="1056" height="251" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI9MJoKZgyYR-DEb4AIAI9iMxAabM-d-ivpr9sW5ZCnwKzT4KjHh-ZEfl79sYeCTGIZFxVSWDIwaGsPUSxet3GU-DlpDEnadx1g4-QHWSvkPDDRIl0jttMwvxeDOQp6WBdlM227vID5EDG/s400/mccairspace.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">McClellan is in the center of this picture, surrounded by airspace.</td></tr>
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At the same time as this was going on I was being kicked around by turbulence and planning a route to get to McClellan (KMCC) without the benefit of radios. MCC is a non-towered airport and I wouldn't need a radio to land there. However, it was under the Class Charlie shelf of Sacramento International and right next to two other Class Delta airports, Sacramento Executive and Mather. The thought hit me... I'm stuck between airspace and a hard place (the ground). I'd have to blog this one!</div>
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I knew the thing I needed most right then was time, time to plan my route. So I slowed the bonanza down by dropping the gear ... slow enough that I was flying 172 ground speeds while I made my plan. I dropped down low because I knew the Charlie shelf was down to 1600 feet. Then I found some GPS waypoints for precise navigation between the Charlie and Deltas while I approached McClellan. I still couldn't transmit but I could receive so I got the weather and monitored McClellan's CTAF for other planes as I approached and landed. </div>
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I taxied over to McClellan Jet Center and took an open spot. They weren't there to guide me in because no one heard me coming! My daughter was there and I spent a couple minutes planning my return trip to avoid airspace and hopefully some of the constant turbulence by climbing higher and flying south of RHV and cross into the Santa Clara Valley near Los Banos instead of over Calaveras. I turned on the bluetooth on my headset and called my husband after we started the engine to test it out. It worked, barely. I figured I would call RHV Tower from near San Martin airport and let them know I was coming in NORDO (no radio). </div>
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We took off, still unable to transmit but able to receive. I used my handheld radio to make position reports at MCC but I doubt anyone could hear me. No one responded but it still felt better to try to say where I was. I climbed up to 5500 feet to cruise once out from under the Charlie shelf and hoped for smooth air. It was still constant chop but not as rough as it was before. Fortunately, my daughter is not at all bothered by turbulence. Eventually we encountered scattered clouds at 5500 feet. I chose not to climb further and descended again to 3500 feet. I had the power pulled back to 18 inches but the plane was still cruising at 150 knot ground speed with a powerful tailwind. </div>
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As we neared Stockton Airport I noticed the PTT was transmitting again. I still had MCC's frequency dialed in and I was hoping I wasn't blocking transmissions there. The thought occurred to me to switch the "mic" to intercom instead of COM1 or COM2. When I did that my daughter could finally hear what I said over the radio instead of just by yelling. Score! I thought. I had her look up the ATIS for Stockton airport, dialed it in to COM2 and monitored COM2. I had found a way to monitor radio frequencies and not block them. I modified my plan for RHV. I'd call them on my phone and let them know I could receive but not transmit. That made me feel better. </div>
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As we approached Los Banos and the turn across the hills between the central and Santa Clara valleys the turbulence increased. For the first time in my life I was starting to feel a tickle of nausea from the constant bumping and jolting, it was probably a response to the stress of the radio situation as well. It would not be good for me to throw up. I distracted myself by asking my poor daughter what her favorite song was. I slowed the plane down again and extended the gear as we went over the hills, just to stabilize the plane. We were almost clear of the hills and we decided it wasn't that bad. Gear up and bang - more turbulence. Oh well. I decided the quicker I got out of this the better and left the gear up until it was time to approach to land. </div>
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When we were abeam San Martin and I tried to make my call to the tower with my cell phone. I don't know if it was lack of reception, something wrong with my head set or what but the call failed many times. I found myself getting closer to terrain than I normally do in my distraction and decided to discard that option. Fly the airplane, damnit! </div>
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Then I tried my hand held radio multiple times ... we were within line of sight of RHV and I was hoping it would work. It didn't. I started to resign myself to the lost comm procedure and dialed 7600 into the transponder. I was annoyed. I could hear RHV clearly but the moment I switched to tower frequency we'd block that frequency. Then it hit me. Switch the mic to tower frequency when I want to talk, switch back to intercom to listen! So that's what I did. I switched the mic to tower frequency, made my call and immediately switched back to intercom. They responded with my tail number and I was in! Communications problem solved. I used that method for all other coms needed and it worked flawlessly. </div>
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That wasn't the end of the adventure however. Remember the surface winds I talked about at the beginning? RHV was reporting winds 320@14G22 when we got the ATIS. I had the plane in a stabilized, if bumpy, approach to land when, over the airport fence, we got hit with the strongest gust I'd ever experienced on final. The plane jumped left about 40 feet and suddenly dropped. I had anticipated this and had some extra airspeed ready. I moved the plane back over the runway and rounded out, ready to go around if necessary. After some fighting we were in ground effect and able to land smoothly. On my landing rollout I heard the tower tell another plane winds were 350@20. Yeah, I'd agree with that. </div>
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That flight was one of those "learning experiences" ... I experienced first hand how powerful distractions of troubleshooting problems can be. And I have a new trick in my tool bag to handle com issues in flight :) </div>
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Nissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13160194321295411721noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5899006230691400400.post-21454877745230108452017-05-05T16:38:00.000-07:002017-05-05T22:51:54.985-07:00Evolution of a PilotYesterday my CFII and I were flying together again. The first time in a very long time. We've been working on preparing me for the CFI-Instrument rating for the last few months. After covering all of the Instrument ACS and the CFI-I PTS it was time to get flying again. To see if I can teach at the same time as I fly instrument.<br />
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After the first approach he said, "The good news is, it can only get better from here!" Yeah, it was a cluster f*ck. I put that behind me, flew and "taught" the missed and holding procedure. Then flew the same approach a second time and did better both teaching and flying.<br />
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It was our first time up with me teaching instrument and it was an eye opening experience to say the least. To really teach instrument flying you have to be <i>waaaayyyy </i>ahead of the airplane, the controllers and the student. I'm at the point where I'm ahead of the plane and the controllers 99% of the time when I fly instrument. However, adding teaching to the process adds a whole new level of difficulty. It means I have to know what's going to happen, what has to happen, how to make it happen, diagnose why it doesn't happen when the student screws it up ... and ... be able articulate all of that at the same time in complete sentences a human can understand. Hey, if I can learn enough to be a decent CFI, I will be able to do this. Just takes practice.<br />
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But that's not why I'm posting about this... yesterday's flight brought to mind my own evolution as a pilot. Yesterday highlighted to me some other areas of progress that I hadn't considered recently.<br />
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<ul>
<li>Take off and climb out. On take off both he and I noticed the poor climb performance of the plane given the Vy airspeed. We both immediately figured the air speed indicator was off and when I adjusted the pitch for what looked like the proper Vy pitch. I got the right climb rate. I never thought I'd be able to do that when I started training... and now I tell my students that they need to do that!</li>
<li>Over the mountains - we flew directly out over the hills and were in some turbulence. Turbulence that, when I started flying, would have had me very nervous. I barely noticed it aside from how it made it difficult to hold altitude. </li>
<li>I was muttering at myself whenever I didn't hold a heading or airspeed the way I was planning on it - my standards for myself are going up significantly in what I consider good flying. At the same time I didn't let it bother me. </li>
<li>His comment about how it can only get better didn't bother me either. Years ago that sort of comment would have been immediate dark cloud over my head for at least a couple days. This time I just agreed and resolved to make it better quickly, which I actually did. </li>
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On the return to RHV I was thinking of <a href="http://imanawkwardbird.blogspot.com/2015/07/what-entrance.html" target="_blank">a flight we he and I did a couple years ago</a>. When we went out to the valley for some instrument work and came back in just before they shut down the airport. It was an incredible entrance. Then he said how he was reminded of that same flight. Knowing what I know now about how flights (and students) tend to merge together in the CFI brain I was surprised but pleased that he remembered that entrance too. <br />
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Yesterday was a nice way to start the a new phase of my own evolution as an instructor pilot.<br />
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Nissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13160194321295411721noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5899006230691400400.post-48860619037630076792017-04-08T21:38:00.000-07:002017-04-11T22:46:26.890-07:00A New Pilot is BornWhat is the ultimate accomplishment in aviation? Is it earning your own certificates and ratings? or is it giving the gift of flight to someone else? I really don't know. However, I can tell you this... going through a check ride from the CFI's seat is much more stressful to me than doing a check ride myself!<br />
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On Wednesday, April 5th, 2017, I presented my first ever candidate for a Private Pilot Certificate to an FAA Designated Pilot Examiner. Ty, my student, found me in Squadron 2 one day shortly after I earned my CFI certificate and asked me to train him. I didn't know him and he didn't know me. However, I think the experience was very beneficial to us both. He turned out to be a real pleasure to train and fly with. And, according to him, I was a great CFI. While we got along great and I was confident in his abilities, I was not prepared for the extreme stress of presenting a candidate for a check ride. Especially when my instructor told me many months ago that, statistically speaking, the first person a CFI puts up for a check ride will fail.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEFBqBlbNQle1kEPCAtQOieYa59xwFgRNOAeM_VCYDR0EgYTbaF65fZWeQbwGiCU4FN0IQM9NkbCYFH7wf746eocJOGrspEGDJUNrKpwtyZ6YYmzGhtcfaWWj9-CLKoCV3b-x3OB6kNsIu/s1600/TyCheckride.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="162" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEFBqBlbNQle1kEPCAtQOieYa59xwFgRNOAeM_VCYDR0EgYTbaF65fZWeQbwGiCU4FN0IQM9NkbCYFH7wf746eocJOGrspEGDJUNrKpwtyZ6YYmzGhtcfaWWj9-CLKoCV3b-x3OB6kNsIu/s320/TyCheckride.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Examiner, New Private Pilot, CFI (aka me!)</td></tr>
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My instructor was also the DPE for this check ride. Some would assume that would give me a special advantage and perhaps leniency from the DPE for my student. I knew better. I've seen him fail candidates from other CFI's he's trained. He'd already warned me that my candidate was likely to fail. And I know, no matter how much it would sadden him, he would absolutely fail my candidate if he could not demonstrate he will be a safe pilot and fly to standards. So, no, I expected no handouts from this particular DPE. However, I couldn't think of a better examiner to validate (or invalidate) that my student was ready to operate as a Private Pilot.</div>
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Because I do know this DPE I was comfortable enough with him to validate that my student was, indeed, eligible before the check ride (he would do that for any CFI) and ask if I could be there for at least the start of the exam. His response was funny to me. He said, "Yes! Absolutely! Present your candidate!". I had this bizarre vision of putting a bow around my student and handing him over to the examiner as a present! </div>
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The big day arrived and I was up early to let my student, Ty, into my office so he could prepare his flight plan. I told him from this point forward I couldn't help him unless he specifically asked for it. He was on his own. I worked on lesson plans for my CFI-I training while he did his flight planning. Then the examiner arrived at 9AM. Right on schedule.</div>
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He went through the paperwork and pre-amble explaining the ride and the potential outcomes. He re-validated that all of the endorsements and time were correct in my student's log book and verified the airworthiness of the aircraft. Then I was politely told to leave the room so the test could begin. </div>
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Now I knew I had, if things went well, at least 5 hours to wait before the outcome of the test was known. Fortunately I had two students to fly with to distract me from waiting anxiously. Around noon I got a text from my student saying he would lock up my office when they were done there. But he didn't say if he'd passed the oral or not. When I taxied back to the club after my first lesson I saw Ty. He gave me a grin and a thumbs up. So that meant he had passed the oral. </div>
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Time for my next student. I met up with him in my office and then we taxied out to the run-up. There I saw Ty was in the plane in the run-up with the examiner. My thought was "he made it to the run-up!". Then I saw them take off, "he made it to the take off!" Then I had to focus on the flight at hand. I had a great flight and was back at the club a little after 3PM. Then I had to wait. </div>
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As I waited I got more and more stressed. My husband was there with his camera to capture the moments and tease me. At one point I told him and another friend that I would much rather be taking the check ride than waiting! Finally we saw Ty's plane taxi up to it's parking spot. I knew it was possible to fail even now and I sat so I couldn't see Ty or the examiner. I just couldn't take it. </div>
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Finally they were done securing the plane and walking towards us. Ty looked grim and shook his head. The examiner looked stern. As they walked up to us, the examiner said, "You know, statistically, the first candidate a CFI puts forward fails.... but you never were one to stay in line with statistics!" Then he grinned broadly. Ty gave me a huge grin and a thumbs up! "You Passed!?!" I said. "Yep!" </div>
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My first student passed his check ride. First try! I had given the gift of flight. It was amazing! </div>
Nissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13160194321295411721noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5899006230691400400.post-41767635463444715382017-04-02T19:50:00.001-07:002017-04-03T12:47:54.590-07:00Engine Roughness after Take Off<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>The only real emergency is a situation you haven't been trained to handle. </i></div>
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My CFI told my daughter that many years ago when she interviewed him for a school project. The only real emergency is a situation you haven't been trained to handle. That phrase has stuck in my head for many years. Especially now that I'm training other pilots and future pilots. As I train them I try to make sure my pilots don't have a real emergency.<br />
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One of the situations I commonly train people to troubleshoot and handle is a rough running engine with some power loss. This is much more common than complete power loss. Once I'd experienced a engine that seemed to be running a bit rough with no power loss. However, I'd never experienced a severely rough running engine and major power loss. Fortunately, my training, and the training I've been providing, did prepare me for the situation when it happened today.<br />
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This afternoon I was in a Piper Arrow with a commercial student. We were planning on doing Chandelles and Emergency Descents, maneuvers Commercial Pilot candidates must master. We taxied out to the run-up area and he did the run-up checks. Everything, including all magneto and propeller checks, seemed fine. He requested take off and off we went.<br />
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On the take off roll my student commented he needed more right rudder than he expected. I thought the engine seemed to be running strong but the climb out performance wasn't as good as expected. He brought up the landing gear and it seemed to take forever to get to 500ft AGL. I kept checking my student's airspeed but he was climbing at Vy, which should have given us at least 800fpm climb rate. Just as we gained enough altitude to turn crosswind the engine started running rough, rougher than I'd ever felt before.<br />
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"The engine's running rough!" the young man said. I told him to turn downwind and not change anything until we got over 1000 AGL. Our climb rate was down to 100fpm, with occasional increases to 500 fpm in an updraft. My initial thought was the propeller was somehow out of balance because I felt vibrations throughout the plane. I told him to keep climbing and then turn off the fuel pump and pull back on MP and throttle to "25 squared" after we were abeam the numbers. This was deliberate because I knew I could do a power off approach from that location and altitude without issue. He did and the roughness seemed <i>slightly</i> better, though the climb rate was still pathetic. Time to troubleshoot.<br />
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We continued downwind, climbing slowly away from the airport. We both checked the oil pressure and temperature, fuel pressure, everything looked good. I was thinking now this was a magneto issue. The magneto check on the ground, just minutes before, was good, but I couldn't think of anything else it could be. With our climb performance so poor I didn't know what else would happen and I didn't want to climb away from the airport any further to attempt an airborne mag check. At about 2000ft MSL, I told the student to request a return to the airport to land.<br />
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We were cleared immediately to make a 180 degree turn and come back in to land on 31L. I told him not to change any other power settings until we knew we could make the runway if we lost complete power on our return to the airport. Once we were sure he slowly reduced the throttle and pitched for lower airspeed so we could slow down, get the gear down, and land. 30 degrees of flaps and a loooooong forward slip later we were back on the ground at RHV. The tower asked us if we wanted to stay in the pattern. We requested to taxi to transient to see if we could figure out the problem (perhaps a suddenly fouled plug?)<br />
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In transient we did a magneto check again and this time there was a major difference between left and right mags. Left mag ran smooth, right mag dropped 500 RPM and ran extremely rough. Just in case the spark plugs were fouled we ran up bit longer at high RPM and leaned aggressively. No difference. This was something we couldn't fix. We taxied back to parking and shut down the plane.<br />
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The problem could be a bad magneto, plug wires or a spark plug I think. In any case, it wasn't an emergency, even though it was quite disturbing for my student. For my own part I didn't feel nervous at all. It was a situation I'd been trained to handle.<br />
<br />
As we debriefed on the event I told my student what my daughter was told that day, "The only emergency is a situation you haven't been trained to handle." That gave him pause as he realized even with his private pilot training he was trained to handle that situation. At the same time, he said, he was really glad I was there with him.<br />
<br />Nissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13160194321295411721noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5899006230691400400.post-35529550277490683702017-03-26T22:40:00.001-07:002017-04-04T21:03:57.692-07:00Pet PeevesI did a flight review for a friend of my husband, Jeff, yesterday and Jeff said the friend asked if I have any pet peeves. When I first thought about it I didn't think I have any... but then, when I thought more, I realized I do.<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li>Centerline, centerline, centerline. Taxi, take off and land on the centerline!! Why? because if you can't stay on the centerline how will you stay in the middle of a narrow runway when there's a strong crosswind. Not to mention you just look much more professional. Our airport had a plane crash at night one night, he landed ok but, as far as I can tell, he failed to maintain directional control, let one wheel drop off the runway and ended up cartwheeling down the runway. Fortunately the pilot and passengers survived. But if he had landed on the centerline, there's a much lower chance of that happening.</li>
<li>Taxi speed. Taxiing is not a race. There's no reason to taxi at 20 knots or with full power while dragging the breaks. Seriously people. Take it easy, these planes aren't designed to handle well on the ground.</li>
<li>Coordinated flight. I'm sorry, I don't care how much right rudder it takes that you aren't used to using. Fly coordinated. For one thing it feels almost sickening when you fly uncoordinated. Who wants to feel like they're slipping or skidding sideways all the time? More import if you want to kill yourself, fly uncoordinated and stall a plane. Instant spin. And I'll bet money if you're a pilot who routinely flies uncoordinated you will not be able to recover from a spin quickly. </li>
<li>"Pinching the runway" a very common issue, the pilot is flying a distance from the runway and reduces power to start the landing process. Immediately the plane starts veering towards the runway... after which the pilot turns base and overshoots final. </li>
<li>Don't call in over a waypoint when you are nowhere near it. This happened to me today. My student and I were directly over a waypoint at an altitude. Another plane called in over the same waypoint and at the same altitude. In this case I knew that plane was well behind us because I knew where it took off from, when, and we were flying a much faster plane. Fortunately the tower realized there was a faster and slower plane and which was which. </li>
<li>Probably my biggest pet peeve. For Christ's sake, fly a heading! Pick one. I don't care what it is... just pick a heading and fly that way. It drives me nuts when private pilots just cannot maintain a heading. They flop all over the sky!</li>
</ol>
<br />
Yeah, I have my pet peeves. I'm sure every pilot and CFI does. What are yours?<br />
<br />Nissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13160194321295411721noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5899006230691400400.post-31717308685656401812017-03-26T22:09:00.000-07:002017-03-26T22:20:42.256-07:00Pilots do/say the funniest thingsI've decided to keep my blog going and share more of the funny / amusing things my students do. These are private pilots, student pilots and more experienced pilots. Our funnier moments prove we are <u>all</u>, <u>always</u>, learning. Here are some recent funny moments.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Turnabout is Fair Play</h3>
I was working with a pilot on his complex endorsement. Complex endorsements are needed for aircraft with retractable gear. A large part of complex training is designed to imbue the pilot with a healthy paranoia about landing gear. There are many ways for Arrow landing gear to fail, or appear to fail. I use them all when training people for complex to make sure they are consciously and constantly checking the gear before landing.<br />
<br />
On this particular flight the gear was "failing" often for my student. And he was, indeed, getting paranoid. During the flight I also demonstrated some specialty take offs and landings for him. After we finished the flight he said he had a confession to make.... he had "failed" one of the landing gear on me by pulling out the gear light bulb, but it didn't work because I was also paranoid about the gear (where do you think I got the idea to make my students paranoid?), so I pushed the bulb in as a matter of course on final. We both had a good laugh on that one. And I was very glad that I practice what I preach!<br />
<br />
<h3>
Flashlights at 5500 Feet</h3>
Flying with a student on a night cross country. I pointed out an airport and the airport beacon for him to know he was getting close to his waypoint. He took his handheld flashlight and pointed it out the windscreen so he could better see the airport. After a second he looked at the flashlight and said, "That won't work. Will it?" "Nope," I said. We laughed hard about that one.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Where's the Door?</h3>
Working with a pilot on his complex endorsement. He's spent his whole flying career flying Cessnas which are blessed with pilot and co-pilot doors. The complex aircraft we were flying was a Piper Arrow. Pipers only have one door on the co-pilot side. This was his first flight in the Arrow. After our flight we shut down and I got out of the plane. There was a sudden laugh from inside the aircraft. The pilot said, "I was trying to figure out how to open *my* door!"<br />
<br />Nissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13160194321295411721noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5899006230691400400.post-42785825541329259652016-12-30T23:15:00.000-08:002016-12-30T23:15:24.127-08:00Whee!Is that something a CFI is supposed to say? "Whee!" ? Is a CFI supposed to high five their student when they land on the centerline or fly a heading perfectly or land on the mains instead of flat or handle an un-stabilized approach with style?<br />
<br />
I don't know I "should" be doing such things, as a CFI... mine certainly didn't. But I've found myself doing that recently. Celebrating with my students as much, or sometimes, more than they do, when they do something really well. Or when they recover from a botched approach and learn something in the process?<br />
<br />
I solo'd my second student today. It was awesome.... the best part was watching him learn and adjust his performance on his own. On his first landing he floated most of the way down the runway. The second approach as about half way down the runway before touchdown. Last approach he was off on Charlie, a wonderful touchdown. Light on the mains, nose gear high. Beautiful to behold. I was practically dancing with happiness. <br />
<br />
How cool it is. To be able to teach others how to fly and take joy from their accomplishments!<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Whee!!!!!</i></div>
<br />Nissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13160194321295411721noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5899006230691400400.post-14362964213878747782016-05-19T21:47:00.000-07:002016-05-19T21:47:00.493-07:00Quality vs Cost<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-size: large;">"Flight training is too expensive."</span></i></div>
<i><br /></i>
I've heard that phrase so often in the years that I've been flying that it is engrained in my psyche. Flight training is too expensive, flying is too expensive. We must make things cheaper so we can get more pilots in the air. It costs too much to pay $125 or $150 every two years to see a medical examiner. Requiring a flight instructor to work with an instrument pilot on instrument currency requirements in a simulator is a "burden". AOPA and even the FAA use these terms and herald any chance to make flying and flight training less expensive as a win for the aviation industry. The Sport Pilot Certificate and the Pilot's Bill of Rights 2 are two examples. In the latest <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2016/05/12/2016-10168/regulatory-relief-aviation-training-devices-pilot-certification-training-and-pilot-schools-and-other#h-15" target="_blank">NPRM from the FAA</a> says, "it can be expensive to hire a flight instructor".<br />
<br />
Like a good soldier I march forward, with those words burned into my brain. Now, as a CFI, I feel responsible to provide a successful training experience to my students. I realized recently I am so deeply programmed by the "flight training is too expensive" mantra that I have unconsciously compromised on my training plans to try to make the training cheaper for my students. I've tried to combine training that shouldn't be combined, for instance. Or not told them I felt additional training was needed because it was not directly related to the instruction I was hired to provide.<br />
<br />
Today I feel my students and I are very fortunate because in the occasions where I tried to compromise in order to make things cheaper, circumstance forced me to end up doing what I knew was right anyway. The resulting situations forced me to opt for separating the training tasks as they should have been in the first place and suggesting additional training because I could no longer deny the students <i>really</i> needed that training. You know what happened as a result? They were happy to accept the suggestion of additional or separate training without the slightest argument. Not once did they say, "this is too expensive". I was bending over backwards trying to make flight training less expensive when I should have been focusing on making the training I provided as valuable as possible.<br />
<br />
Frankly I'm tired of the "flight training is too expensive" mantra. Yes, flight training is expensive and we would all benefit if it was less so. But focusing on cost alone is missing the mark entirely. AOPA's been trying to figure out ways to reduce the cost of flight training for decades. To what result? A pilot's certificate with limited privledges that you can earn in half the hours which everyone knows still takes way more than the 20 required. What would happen if AOPA and the FAA focused on ensuring the time spent flight training was better spent? What if we focused on creating quality flight instructors who provided real value with every flight. Who created safe, proficient and constantly learning pilots? What if the FAA insisted on CFI's interjecting real life scenarios into ATD instrument currency work instead of removing the CFI from the equation because it's "too expensive"?<br />
<br />
One thing my brief experience in flight instructing has taught me is (and yes, my flight instructor told me this too) never compromise my standards. If I compromise my standards to reduce cost, I also reduce the safety and proficiency of the pilot I'm training. I reduce the value I'm providing. <br />
<br />
I am glad that I've discovered this bias in myself and can guard against it now. I wonder how many other well meaning CFIs are doing the same thing? I wonder if pilots would fly safer and smarter if the CFIs training them were hounded to increase the quality of the training they provide rather than to find ways to cut corners every way they can to reduce the cost?<br />
<br />
<i><br /></i>Nissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13160194321295411721noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5899006230691400400.post-59254537137113428412016-03-16T18:14:00.001-07:002016-03-16T18:14:10.262-07:00Happiness Is... <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaMhc-DpZnOwlEAJQXKXiy3BTV9kyHNXHMWfbzK5i6folWFA7dhu5AIqSgMvtyiUAlVC7bM_lqKBW5iBLy0ae7uAR6FOuzTH_zWzB7qUl4ZE0ssGTjkeIxXK0HuOztKnuBk73x3FiGCcdP/s1600/arrowhappy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="194" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaMhc-DpZnOwlEAJQXKXiy3BTV9kyHNXHMWfbzK5i6folWFA7dhu5AIqSgMvtyiUAlVC7bM_lqKBW5iBLy0ae7uAR6FOuzTH_zWzB7qUl4ZE0ssGTjkeIxXK0HuOztKnuBk73x3FiGCcdP/s320/arrowhappy.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Happiness is Lazy 8s for the fun of it. Solo flying just because I want to fly, need to fly, after another one of <i>those</i> weeks and <i>those</i> days. Where co-workers complimented me on maintaining my cool in very contentious conditions.<br />
<br />
Happiness is leaving behind the cares of the world. Or the fact that two students cancelled on me making my revenue generating day a revenue reducing day. I got to fly and that's what matters.<br />
<br />
Happiness is doing some darned good normal, short and soft field landings in gusty, crosswind conditions after not flying that type of aircraft for what seems like forever. Doing one of the hardest commercial maneuvers within PTS spec on first try (and 2nd and 3rd and 4th - I was having fun!) the first and only time I've done Lazy 8s after my CFI check ride in December.<br />
<br />
Happiness is the joy of flight, of playing in the air, of freedom. That's happiness.Nissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13160194321295411721noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5899006230691400400.post-5780929622480247942016-02-20T17:32:00.002-08:002016-02-20T17:32:32.490-08:00It Never Gets Old<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNTsE-hmqCqDfQhphSR-Qu3aYnIjwZUweWv6Dl5zlXWQaoQq16wyQ8S9RuKXnV73P2ngmQfaQT-b3W8I_egZ6cn0ey-_CwmKvO_tMHORih7jbcZdAiDNdL6fuJMStqfPSGVTCjB6ZkFYc-/s1600/c152.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNTsE-hmqCqDfQhphSR-Qu3aYnIjwZUweWv6Dl5zlXWQaoQq16wyQ8S9RuKXnV73P2ngmQfaQT-b3W8I_egZ6cn0ey-_CwmKvO_tMHORih7jbcZdAiDNdL6fuJMStqfPSGVTCjB6ZkFYc-/s320/c152.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Earlier this week I had the opportunity to fly this little 152 solo for the first time. You may recognize this plane from my spin training. I'd not flown it for anything but spin training and never solo.<br />
<br />
I found a small break in my work schedule and went up. The winds were stronger than the usual at our airport. They started at 140@16 and then changed to 120@20 while I was flying. In spite, or maybe because, of the winds I had a great time.<br />
<br />
We got bounced around a lot, the little plane and I, but it was fun, like jumping on the bed as a child. I stayed in the pattern because I didn't have a lot of time. The first takeoff I reminded myself I didn't needs as much right rudder as I'm used to flying more powerful aircraft. The plane climbed very well with just me and 16 gallons of fuel. Every landing was light on the mains, and right on the centerline. I didn't even need full flaps to nail short field landings with the strong winds.<br />
<br />
There's a certain feeling a pilot gets when they fly a new plane solo for the first time, no matter how big or small that plane is. It never gets old!<br />
<br />Nissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13160194321295411721noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5899006230691400400.post-45369510471709708682016-01-24T18:28:00.001-08:002016-01-24T18:28:55.145-08:00It's Official !<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyne2rYTIbxk4_0BmsAlpKn8YAl484PXaCUMloZ3vQMJ5dNx75bNPrrqf0MRxQx61em922sBgb-GZTCE9FMO8tS_dmedO6wUd3Vy4cjfh6P0BqPfZQB1nol3ySU-Qsz6tmESXHcqiG_p8o/s1600/cfi_cert_online.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyne2rYTIbxk4_0BmsAlpKn8YAl484PXaCUMloZ3vQMJ5dNx75bNPrrqf0MRxQx61em922sBgb-GZTCE9FMO8tS_dmedO6wUd3Vy4cjfh6P0BqPfZQB1nol3ySU-Qsz6tmESXHcqiG_p8o/s400/cfi_cert_online.jpg" width="400" /></a>Well... at least it's online! At the speed of government the online Airman Certificate lookup shows my Flight Instructor Certificate. It only took 6 weeks. While that's longer than I like it's certainly quicker than I've seen other parts of government work. I'll have to keep my eyes open for the actual hard card certificate in the mail.<br />
<br />
I'm still really enjoying instructing. I completed my first complex endorsement training today and endorsed the pilot's log book. Then I turned around and did a ground and flight lesson for my private student. He is doing extremely well.<br />
<br />
Yep, fun fun. Tiring but rewarding. I didn't even mind missing part of the Broncos game to do it!Nissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13160194321295411721noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5899006230691400400.post-34633086355793281582016-01-16T21:16:00.001-08:002016-01-16T21:16:12.710-08:00Flight Instructing is FUN!Finally - I am exercising hard won skills and knowledge as an active flight instructor! And do you know what? <b><i>It is fun!!</i></b><br />
<br />
I really had no idea what to expect, actually being responsible to teach other pilots or future pilots knowledge or skills they didn't have before. Sure, my flight instructor (and the ASI) spent time pretending to be students and making common errors, etc. but I always knew they were fully capable of flying these planes and doing these maneuvers. It is different when flying with a pilot that truly doesn't know and is relying on me to teach them.<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>I thought I would be nervous - I wasn't. </li>
<li>I thought I would have to force myself to act as a CFI and not just pilot - that came very naturally to me, as natural as breathing. </li>
<li>I knew I could teach successfully on the ground, I didn't know if I could teach in the air - I can. </li>
<li>I had no idea if I would really <i>like</i> flight instructing. Would I enjoy letting go of the controls and controlling what happened in the plane more with my voice than my hands and feet? - I did! </li>
<li>I thought I would be bored not doing the flying myself - I wasn't. I was fully engaged in every moment of each flight like I was the one with my hands on the controls, not my students. </li>
</ul>
<br />
My first student - a pilot I'm working with on a complex endorsement - asked me if it was hard to give someone else the controls. <i>It wasn't.</i> Wouldn't it make me nervous? <i>It didn't.</i> Because I knew, no matter what he did, I could take control of the aircraft and stay safe. And I was ready to do so at all times. He's a very enthusiastic pilot and takes instruction well. I've really enjoyed flying with him.<br />
<br />
My second student - a young man restarting his private pilot training after 6 hours of flying and a five year hiatus is a joy to fly with. He was relaxed and light on the controls and more coordinated than some 200 hour pilots I've flown with. He wants to study and be the best pilot he can be. I have a very good feeling about him.<br />
<br />
I can feel my skills and understanding of flying improve exponentially with every flight it seems and I'm not even doing most of the flying. I think this shows a key misunderstanding I had of what flight instruction is. I always thought it odd that CFI's could log PIC time at the same time as their students. I figured it was a way to make sure the flight instructor was held responsible as Pilot in Command if something went wrong. But now I am starting to think that's not the whole truth.<br />
<br />
I don't know how it is for other CFIs, but for me, I know, I feel, I breathe, I think, I am, flying that plane. I am so 100% a part of and aware of every aspect of the flight, from general situational awareness to awareness of the student to awareness of what the student is doing and what the aircraft is doing as a result. Being ready to take control immediately if needed. I don't have to touch the controls at all. I'm still flying the aircraft.<br />
<br />
Flight instruction is a "job". It's something we get paid to do. Oddly I forget that I'm getting paid to do this. I'm having too much fun! I've been around the block too many times to think it will be this fun all of the time, but so far it's started off great and it's a lot more fun than I ever imagined!Nissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13160194321295411721noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5899006230691400400.post-29233582913811357422015-12-25T13:22:00.000-08:002015-12-25T13:22:52.295-08:00Merry Christmas<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYdNPGvDhPwTWptJzCIjLPSGo9cMf9ceEiX4384RqLXq0dNR1hpiZ4WwDftnwcMH-QfopG2iiMPkwuI-oxLYbNGH23MUZkKBMJLkohP_7zH27TrtnFGH7zynfMvwgnx-72NbioGWYsizH-/s1600/ab_nm_CFI_2015.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="193" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYdNPGvDhPwTWptJzCIjLPSGo9cMf9ceEiX4384RqLXq0dNR1hpiZ4WwDftnwcMH-QfopG2iiMPkwuI-oxLYbNGH23MUZkKBMJLkohP_7zH27TrtnFGH7zynfMvwgnx-72NbioGWYsizH-/s400/ab_nm_CFI_2015.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This mug is probably the best Christmas gift ever. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
It's Christmas Day... there's a cold wind blowing in the clear blue skies, stirring the tree tops above and pushing popcorn clouds past the window. It's a great day to stay indoors and enjoy. As I write this I'm watching, for the bazillionth time, <u>A Christmas Story</u>. My husband is taking a nap and my daughter is visiting her boyfriend's family. My brothers and sisters are in 5 different states and my parents are at their homes. I desperately miss my family on days like today. But I can smile too... I was able to see my brothers and sisters and their families and my Dad and step Mom for a fantastic week in St. George Utah this year. And, I completed my CFI this year. To top it off and bring a tear to my eye, my brother sent me this mug. That's a photo of me flying the Arrow I trained in for so long. The name of this blog, my nickname and CFI 2015. I am so blessed.<br />
<br />
I'm writing this to share this wonderful gift with you because it makes me smile and we should always share what makes us smile. I'm also writing to wish all who have read this blog over the years the very Merriest of Christmases and a Happy New Year. I wish you all the opportunity to reflect on the people who have made your lives richer by their presence. If you are very lucky you will be with some of them. Reflect on the memories of people who have flown west but are always in your heart. Reflect on the challenges and accomplishments of the year and the joy of just being alive.<br />
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: center;">
<i><b><span style="color: #38761d;">Merry Christmas!</span></b></i></h3>
Nissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13160194321295411721noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5899006230691400400.post-84096787110647674572015-12-20T19:21:00.002-08:002015-12-28T11:30:57.170-08:00The Planets Align and a CFI is Born<h3>
We Have a Date</h3>
Tuesday, December 1 - I drive to work extra early to avoid traffic. I'm sitting at my desk working and my cell phone rings - "No Caller ID" it says. Normally I don't answer "No Caller ID" calls, but this time I did. The caller asked for me by name and identified himself as the Aviation Safety Inspector for the San Jose FSDO. He was calling to schedule my CFI check ride!<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6rMQwaj9W8Xl1MZ4dunti06iffoDKsgg9A0TllvKbs2Il_JfIo6PF2v-De2fyEUNow0DGMf5dTa5-A5V7-fz-HT0SVDVUAJ2fgzUZQY61_-SeIVhSnzjnfjO2JNB1ZbOS9jrFhdN3n-xn/s1600/IMG_7424.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6rMQwaj9W8Xl1MZ4dunti06iffoDKsgg9A0TllvKbs2Il_JfIo6PF2v-De2fyEUNow0DGMf5dTa5-A5V7-fz-HT0SVDVUAJ2fgzUZQY61_-SeIVhSnzjnfjO2JNB1ZbOS9jrFhdN3n-xn/s200/IMG_7424.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Private & Commercial Lesson Plans</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I was thrilled to hear from him and I think he could tell. We agreed to schedule the ride for Wednesday, December 9 at 7:30 AM at the flying club. He picked the date. I was willing to move any meeting I had to in order to do this ride but I had no meetings scheduled that day. We had a very pleasant chat as he told me what to expect and asked if I was endorsed and ready to go. He started to explain how it's OK for people to download lesson plans from the internet but if I did that he'd make me write one out in front of him. I told him not to worry, I had lesson plans I'd written from scratch. He seemed pleasantly surprised about that.<br />
<br />
I texted my CFI, Scott, with the exciting news. Then I told my husband, Jeff, what was coming. I made him swear not to tell anyone else. I'd had the unfortunate experience of going up for a check ride with the whole world knowing and failing the ride. I didn't want to have that happen again when I was going up for the most difficult check ride of all. Lastly I checked the forecast for the my check ride date. The weather looked clear for most of the mid week. <br />
<br />
<h3>
Preparing for the Ride</h3>
I had a week to do any final preparation for my CFI check ride. Looking back I think I spent it exactly the right way. I had already planned to fly on the 1st so I did that. I practiced performance maneuvers, soft field take offs and landings, emergency descents and emergency approach to landing. Later that evening I flew again to get night current. Three trips around the pattern with a full stop landing for each. That was all the flying I did.<br />
<br />
My work remained extremely busy. So I didn't have much spare time to worry about my ride during the week. The weekend before the ride I volunteered as Race Control for the 25 Hours of Thunderhill. As a result I got to spend time with my racing family and I had something to do aside from pace and worry all weekend. During my downtime at the race I reviewed my lesson plans and studied the finer details of how magnetos work.<br />
<br />
I met with Scott twice... once on the 1st to just calm down my spinning brain and discuss what we'd have to do next (complete the IACRA form online and some final paperwork). The second time was because, as usual, I came up with a couple more questions. The second day we met was the morning of the 7th. I had a small window I could step away from the office and he had a small window in the middle of his corporate flying day. The weather was not cooperating but Scott was his usual professional self and flew the instrument approach back into RHV to meet up with me. I think we talked for about an hour and that was it. The weather forecast for the rest of the week did not bode well. Low ceilings were forecast for the entire week.<br />
<br />
Monday night I gathered everything I needed for my check ride. My private and commercial syllabi and lesson plans and all of the materials I needed for all of my private and commercial lessons (I didn't know which ones I'd be asked to teach). My reference materials: the 2016 FAR/AIM, Airplane Flying Handbook, Pilots Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge, Aviation Instructors Handbook, sample POH for both C172 and Piper Arrow II. My iPad with useful videos and even more reference material. My pilot certificates, medical and knowledge test results. Both of my log books (so I could prove I was properly endorsed). In the end I had three bags of books plus my laptop bag and my flight bag. I looked at the mass of materials and reflected on the time I'd spent with them all to get where I was. Somehow the mass seemed appropriate.<br />
<br />
I was ready. I didn't need to do extra preparation that week between scheduling and the actual date. I had spent the previous year and a half preparing for this ride. There was no last minute thing I could do. So I didn't. Tuesday, the 8th, I left work early and reviewed my notes one more time. Then I went out to dinner with my husband and relaxed for the rest of the evening. I checked the forecast before going to bed and it was getting worse. The ceilings were going to be below 2000' most of the day it seemed. That was one thing I couldn't control so I didn't worry about it. I figured at the very least I could get the oral portion out of the way.<br />
<br />
<h3>
The Big Day</h3>
I got up at 5 AM and checked the TAF nearest to my airport. The forecast hadn't improved. It looked like I would be doing the oral only. I was disappointed but I looked forward to getting that out of the way. I knew the oral portion of the CFI ride could be 4 hours or more and that, in itself, would be a long day. When I left the house at 6 AM I told my husband my intent was to pass the oral today at the very least. He wished me a sleepy good luck.<br />
<br />
I drove the mountain roads towards the valley and airport. My route takes me past a view of the Monterey Bay. When I reached the highest point of my drive I looked out towards the bay in the pre-dawn light. I thought I saw stars above the bay. I tried not to get my hopes up. It was very normal for clouds to hover low over the Silicon Valley when it would be clear above. I mentally rehearsed my "we won't be flying today but let's do the oral anyway" speech for the ASI. It wouldn't be the first time I'd have to split a check ride that way.<br />
<br />
I proceeded down the mountains and could see the valley lights. That surprised me... I could see the lights, and as the pre-dawn light increased in the sky I could see the outlines of high cirrus clouds but nothing low. It was still quite early though and it was common for clouds and fog to engulf the valley later in the morning.<br />
<br />
I stopped at a nearby Starbucks for coffee and something to eat for breakfast. It wouldn't be good for me to attempt this on an empty stomach. As I pulled into the parking lot I realized I forgot the Private Pilot textbook I intended to use with my syllabus. It was an hour drive back home so that wouldn't work. I texted my CFI who lived about 10 minutes away and asked him if he could bring his. He could. Crisis averted.<br />
<br />
I had 45 minutes before the ASI would arrive and I needed to get the aircraft log books and prepare them for review. I was told to expect the ASI to bring the maintenance safety inspector with him to inspect the aircraft so I was ready for a major focus in this area. The club's owner (and A&P AI), Mike, let me in to the office to get the log books and reviewed them with me briefly. <br />
<br />
It was 7AM and the inspector, Jeff, walks in the door alone. No maintenance inspector in tow. 30 minutes early. I shook his hand and told him I was getting ready and asked him to make himself comfortable as he chatted with Mike. I continued to prepare the log books and lay out my materials. It was about this time I realized I left my CFI PTS at home with all of my notes in it. I had a copy of the PTS on my laptop but that would hurt. Oh well, if that was the worse that happened I'd be thrilled.<br />
<br />
About 7:15 Scott walks in the door with the Private Pilot text in his hand. He was surprised to see the ASI and told him that he arrived early deliberately to get here before the safety inspector did, but it didn't work out that way. They knew each other rather well so they started talking and I told them both I'd use the next 10 minutes to eat my breakfast.<br />
<br />
<h4>
Proving Eligibility</h4>
It was 7:30 and time to start. Scott and Jeff (the ASI) and I closed the door to the office and we began. The first thing we had to do before the ride could officially start was verify my eligibility. First, a little background about my situation... My CFI, Scott, is also a Designated Pilot Examiner (DPE) performing check rides in this FSDO for the last year. He's also been instructing and flying full time for the last 14 years. As an understatement, Scott knows his stuff. The ASI, Jeff, knew it. I knew it too. And between Scott's expertise and my "detail oriented approach" I was fully confident I had everything required. The best way I could describe this portion of the experience was a dance. We all knew the moves we had to make and the next move that would happen.<br />
<br />
The ASI took my log books and asked me to prove I was eligible, which I did. Then he started flipping back through my log books to look at my Commercial, Instrument and Private training and endorsements. Normally this is an area where the ASI or DPE can identify problems with previously issued endorsements - not to invalidate the candidate but as a scenario to test the candidate's application of the rules around endorsements. What happened next was funny.<br />
<br />
<i>"Scott did your Commercial?" "Yessir" "Don't call me sir, that's my dad." </i><br />
<i>"He did your Instrument?" "Yes" </i>I see the beginning of a grin on Scott's face.<br />
<i>"And your Private?" "Yes"</i> Scott's grin gets bigger.<br />
<i>"That's no fun then!" </i>Jeff said with a sigh and a laugh and he hands my log books back to me. Scott and I laughed.<br />
<br />
Jeff knew my endorsements would be correct because he knew the caliber of the CFI that did them. I hope to someday be just as frustrating for anyone trying to find errors in endorsements in the future!<br />
<br />
Next was IACRA and ensuring what was in the computerized system matched (roughly) what was in my logbook. The numbers in IACRA didn't look right to Jeff and he questioned how/why I had so many more hours in IACRA than the "amount forwarded" total in my log book. I opened my laptop and pulled up a quick calculation of the hours which proved the correctness in IACRA. Scott pointed out I was using an application he wrote, on a Mac, for this.<br />
<br />
Soon the verification was over, IACRA was electronically signed and the ride began. Scott shook my hand and patted my shoulder as he left the room. It was up to me now.<br />
<br />
<i>Normally I go into great detail about the my check rides in my blog. This time I won't. For one thing the ride was close to 8 hours long and I'm sure people are getting tired of reading at this point. For another I wrote up 5 pages of notes about the ride for Scott's benefit and the benefit of anyone else going to take a CFI Initial Check Ride. <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IV8X2AYRFQ6SyYZrnEdwmKr9Cakq7Im554pK005lgsc/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">The notes are posted here</a>. Feel free to review if you'd like to see what a CFI candidate has to do on a CFI Check Ride. In the mean time I'll share more the internal experience of what it was like. </i><br />
<br />
<h4>
Oral</h4>
Going into the oral I was confident I would do well. As Scott told me once, he knew I know my stuff and he'd never seen knowledge fall out of my head. My confidence went down rather quickly though. I was asked about the CFI privileges and limitations and I knew what they were but I couldn't recall which regulation, specifically, set those privileges and limitations. Part 61 of the FARs was not good enough. Jeff pressed me for the specific regulation and, at the same time, offered up more questions that confused me further as I tried to look it up. I was flustered but I finally found the regulation and proved myself correct.<br />
<br />
I let that go and continued to answer questions. The next set of questions were all about learning and teaching theory. This is where my PTS with notes would have been very helpful but I didn't have it. I knew the concepts and a couple of the key terms for each topic but I didn't have them all memorized. The good thing was, the ones I did have memorized where the most important and most relevant to aviation training so we were able to move past them. Maybe my very high score on the FOI written test helped with this. I felt I did very well when talking about the CFI's responsibility in the training process. Endorsements (again) and limitations, how to teach and why.<br />
<br />
We moved on to technical subject areas, aerodynamics and the like. Sometimes I struggled with the intent of the questions and the way the ASI jumped around in his questioning but I kept going and did well. I felt particularly strong on stalls and spins, which he touched on many different ways during the questioning. It took me forever to recall what makes an aircraft turn - it's the horizontal component of lift. I'll never forget that again!<br />
<br />
Then we talked about systems. Explain the fuel system. That stopped me cold. I knew the fuel system, I had a lesson with fuel systems embedded in it but I wasn't ready for that answer. I started to explain the fuel system but I went into too much detail and was very awkward. That wasn't going well. So we paused for a break. I came back and said I'd try to explain it like I'd explain it to my daughter. He was pleased when I said that... so I tried again and it was better. Then explain the electrical system and a couple more. I was definitely weak there compared to everything else but not so weak that I had to stop.<br />
<br />
Topics switched again for National Airspace and VFR weather minimums. That I could teach! It was something I'd taught many times before for student (and even commercial pilot) candidates I've worked with to prepare for their check rides. As I went through the lesson Jeff said I was the only person he tested that didn't have a problem on one of the loopholes for class G night VFR weather minimums. I felt better after that one.<br />
<br />
We covered <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IV8X2AYRFQ6SyYZrnEdwmKr9Cakq7Im554pK005lgsc/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">many, many more areas</a> between 8AM and 11:45 when we broke for lunch. Finally I knew I had passed the oral portion of the check ride. Jeff and I looked out the window and the skies were, by some miracle, clear. He said we didn't have to complete the ride today if I didn't want to. It was a long day after all. I told him I'd check the weather and let him know after lunch. Then we agreed to meet at 12:30 to start back up.<br />
<br />
<h4>
Lunch</h4>
I was definitely feeling the early start and the previous four hours of questioning and teaching. I put away some of my materials and the aircraft's log books. Then I wandered around the club a bit in a daze. Finally I took my iPad with me to Jamba Juice to get something to eat. I couldn't imagine eating anything more solid than a fruit smoothy at that point. The skies were clear and the wind was calm as I drove to get my food. I looked at the skies in disbelief, watching for signs that the air would be turbulent above. Part of me wanted to have a good reason to delay the flight. I was tired. Maybe I needed more practice.<br />
<br />
At the restaurant I checked the weather - sure there would be an AIRMET for turbulence if nothing else. No AIRMETs, no PIREPS indicating the weather would make the flight difficult. The Santa Clara Valley was clear and calm and ready for my flight. This was probably the best weather I'd get all month and I knew I didn't actually need more practice flying. I decided to go for it and texted Scott to let him know. His response was, "The planets are aligned. Go for it!" I didn't know that Scott and Jeff had already talked and Scott assured him I was going to fly.<br />
<br />
I headed back to the club to make sure the extra fuel I requested for the aircraft was onboard. Jeff told me our flight would take 2 to 2.5 hours. The last thing I wanted was to run out of fuel on a check ride so I added to my reserve.<br />
<br />
<h4>
Preflight</h4>
We walked out to the plane to start the flight at about 12:30PM. As we walked towards the plane I started to describe how I would teach pre-flight. After a minute or two he stopped me and told me to go ahead and preflight the aircraft and he would ask me question as we went. The first things I did was hand him the airworthiness certificate and registration to inspect. I also showed him the weight and balance data. (Which, of course, led to questions about the max gross weight of the aircraft).<br />
<br />
As I went about my preflight he observed and asked questions. I enjoyed this part. I'd spent a lot of time getting to know this plane and while I didn't recall off the top of my head the 3rd component of the structure of a wing (that would be the rib) I knew everything I needed to. After a while it seemed like a game of question and answer where I felt in my element. At one point he asked me, "Why is the sky blue?" Huh? I felt like I was in a Robin Williams routine so I quipped, "Because of the atmosphere". He actually said the answer was because the atmosphere reflected blue wavelength or something like that. At that point I laughed and told him he was worse than my CFI, Scott. Scott would never ask a question so far from left field like that. Not unless he was giving me a hard time anyway.<br />
<br />
<i>Once again I'm not going to go into major details about the flight portion. You can read about it <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IV8X2AYRFQ6SyYZrnEdwmKr9Cakq7Im554pK005lgsc/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">here</a>.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<br />
<h4>
Flight</h4>
Before we boarded the plane I gave Jeff my standard briefing including briefing what we would do in the case of fire, failure or loss of control on take off roll, take off or climb out. Then I briefed him on the route we were likely to get on taxi.<br />
<br />
We pulled the plane out and started up. We started to taxi with me on the controls. As I taxied I was asked about how I would teach radio com. I found I fell very easily into teaching mode in the plane. Splitting my awareness between taxiing safely, monitoring the aircraft and answering his questions and making sure my "student" didn't cause any issues.<br />
<br />
I did have one surprise. I had not done any flying from the right seat under the hood before and I had to do it on the ride. I found it much easier to do than expected. Which was good because that was the start of the ride. I was happy that I got to do soft field take offs and landings because I had spent so much time working on that skill. I got to do a Lazy 8, another favorite maneuver and hard won skill. I even had to do a Power Off 180. The Power Off 180 was my commercial check ride nemesis but nemesis no more due to the hard work, expert instruction and learning I'd done since that first check ride failure. I was very comfortable doing the stalls and teaching them.<br />
<br />
As always there was one maneuver that wasn't stellar - this time it was the commercial steep turn. I performed that maneuver worse than I had done in months. However, I heeded Scott's advice and taught my way through it as I kept the plane in spec (barely). I nailed the maneuver immediately after that. As I did each maneuver I didn't let anything before color what I did next.<br />
<br />
Even better, I felt completely comfortable playing the role of CFI in this plane. I found myself naturally monitoring what my "student" was doing and correcting him when he was off. I was able to observe and critique the nuances of my "student's" performance and I always started with the positive. My main problem was figuring out when he was being a student vs an examiner but eventually I decided I'm supposed to be PIC so if I saw something wrong, even when I was being debriefed on my own check ride as he flew, I called it out and got it corrected. I didn't figure out that he was asking me to do a self critique when he asked me how I was doing. But that was OK.<br />
<br />
<h4>
Check Ride Over</h4>
As you can guess, especially if you read the detailed notes. I passed this check ride. First try. The hardest check ride there is. After the ASI announced the check ride was complete my mind kept repeating, "Holy Shit! I'm a CFI!" over and over. I was elated and relieved. Me! A CFI! who-da-thunk-it? I was stunned and totally unsurprised at the same time. I helped get access to a printer so I could get my temporary airman's certificate. Jeff, the ASI, was grinning broadly the whole time. He seemed happy for me too. When I talked with Scott on the phone later that day he said something I will treasure forever. He said something like, "You cannot see my face right now but I'm beaming with pride."<br />
<br />
One test over a very long day and all of my work was rewarded. In a way it was redemption for my Commercial ride, especially that successful Power Off 180. In a way it was the culmination of over 750 hours of flying and 4.5 years of flying with one of the best damned CFI's around. I feel like I was training for this flight since my first pinch hitter flight in 2010 when I flew, in the right seat - scared to death but in love with the feeling of flight - with the same flight instructor that trained and endorsed me for this certificate.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4Or7TUmjXqtMHvnHIqP0HMv3eq0O0V8WIamDRxw5YmsHpRf-L-OjLWFEmd2JhktbIHacaY1DOW63BKru14qJLzF4m1loDUxgoyr69uufBBGPgnHaglGl9rwYuHiZuF8mexQB0LEV6ylOQ/s1600/CFI_Checkride_Over.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4Or7TUmjXqtMHvnHIqP0HMv3eq0O0V8WIamDRxw5YmsHpRf-L-OjLWFEmd2JhktbIHacaY1DOW63BKru14qJLzF4m1loDUxgoyr69uufBBGPgnHaglGl9rwYuHiZuF8mexQB0LEV6ylOQ/s320/CFI_Checkride_Over.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Me and the ASI, Jeff, after my successful check ride.<br />
A new CFI is born. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
If you know me at all you know my passion for aviation. If you've been reading this blog for a long time or if you know me extremely well you may have some grasp of the demons I had to face and conquer in order to get to and be successful on this particular check ride. Not only did I have to learn how to fly the aircraft from both seats to commercial standards. Not only did I have to learn how to teach and how to prepare lessons and Federal Aviation Regulations and all of the technical subject areas of knowledge it takes to take a brand new pilot to where they need to be. I had to learn how to be PIC of myself; to let go of my fears and the days and moments when I'm not perfect and turn those moments into opportunities to experiment and learn more.<br />
<br />
I am incredibly grateful that my husband decided to get his pilots certificate back in 2008 and that he happened to train with the same CFI, Scott. I'm grateful that Scott made such an impression on him that I decided to trust this particular CFI to take me up and teach me just enough to safely crash land a plane if my husband had a heart attack. I am extremely grateful that Scott had the availability at the right time to take me on as a student, multiple times, to train me for all of these certificates and ratings and the wisdom to send me off on my own in between so I could really learn. I was given the gift of flight and now I am certified to give that gift to others. What gift could be greater than that?<br />
<br />Nissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13160194321295411721noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5899006230691400400.post-36463818362040515422015-11-29T21:15:00.000-08:002015-11-29T21:15:22.498-08:00750 Hours<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4Mej0vgWriVbFcfM4LG76DSaw7E65UbcH9X8NFeBjXqtY8iJlNChtLTRlccNQxpDky0WD60MsDFvQeCZz8YHAKlGSaH6mJV0JycZN28Swqp5zmxPhBZ1EuDFXBzGKEE4rdQnf5PuwY6w5/s1600/sanjose.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="144" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4Mej0vgWriVbFcfM4LG76DSaw7E65UbcH9X8NFeBjXqtY8iJlNChtLTRlccNQxpDky0WD60MsDFvQeCZz8YHAKlGSaH6mJV0JycZN28Swqp5zmxPhBZ1EuDFXBzGKEE4rdQnf5PuwY6w5/s320/sanjose.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My 750th hour - San Jose on a beautiful November day</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
There's a saying that goes something like this.<br />
<i>Pilots log hours flying as if no other hours matter.</i><br />
<br />
I can't say that's entirely true. One year I logged 1000 miles run. I didn't count how long it took to run 1000 miles. Figuring I ran a 10 minute mile on average that year I ran for approximately 167 hours in one year. Coincidently, looking at my logbook, I've flown about 166 hours in the last 365 days, over 150 hours in 2015 so far. Hmmm... I digress.<br />
<br />
I flew my 750th hour yesterday. I thought it was going to be today, but it was yesterday. What did I do yesterday. Ah yes, I did the same thing I do most times I fly now-a-days. I worked on refining some maneuvers, saying fresh or better as I wait for my CFI check ride date to be set.<br />
<br />
Yesterday I wanted to improve my emergency approach to landing. After which I was going to practice a bit of slow flight and steep turns. Happy to report that I pulled power around 4500 feet within glide range of South County and not only did a successful approach to landing, I landed it on the centerline, within commercial spec of normal landing distance and made it a soft field landing to top it off. Sweet! Then I flew over towards Lick Observatory to practice slow flight (that's where I took the photo above). Very good. Then I was going to do steep turns. I've been doing great to the right and "bouncing off the bumpers" to the left. I knew what I was doing wrong and I knew why, but I had trouble improving as much as I wanted. I was on a schedule so I didn't waste too much time on that and flew back to RHV. Unusually for me, I did not let the steep turns bother me. As I went about my day I thought about the problem and thought of a couple different ways to address it.<br />
<br />
Today I flew again. First I flew to Half Moon Bay for lunch with my friends. Then I flew south to the practice area near South County and worked on the two ideas I had to improve my steep turns. One worked well. It took about half of the error out of my turns. My second idea took the rest of the error out of the turns. I repeated a couple times just to be sure it was repeatable. I was pleased and went back to RHV. I can't describe how good it feels to be able to correctly diagnose and resolve problems with maneuvers. It's especially hard to do for oneself.<br />
<br />
I can't say my last year of flying has been my easiest. I've come close to quitting training many times. However, most of my problems have been "between the headsets" as my CFI likes to say. Good news is - I have learned much "between the headsets" as I've struggled and fought with myself to get past them. 750 hours ago I never would have said I'd be where I am today.<br />
<br />
As I told a young man last year when he said he wanted to learn how to fly...<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Learning to fly is the hardest, most wonderful, and most rewarding thing you will ever do.</i></div>
<br />
With over 750 hours in my logbook, I'm still learning!<br />
<br />Nissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13160194321295411721noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5899006230691400400.post-85944506799754312882015-11-22T20:35:00.000-08:002015-11-22T20:35:38.613-08:00A Beautiful Weekend Day<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXWdobAZoDt3K4-Dl8l_PK319Icjc4hqlOwwps5cBBdYS4DwW1iP2eKpQ_jEmqvdx_tnRGP5QVI_bE9qEdThzqoh9TFa6ILz036SXK6rnB9yCsMQAaXvJaAxJRzzOAPt_dAHp8ek1Rb4lU/s1600/12250175_10207104539064678_4888019148618502308_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXWdobAZoDt3K4-Dl8l_PK319Icjc4hqlOwwps5cBBdYS4DwW1iP2eKpQ_jEmqvdx_tnRGP5QVI_bE9qEdThzqoh9TFa6ILz036SXK6rnB9yCsMQAaXvJaAxJRzzOAPt_dAHp8ek1Rb4lU/s320/12250175_10207104539064678_4888019148618502308_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Smiles all around as we enjoyed our flight!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Today my friend, Roy, and I flew up to Petaluma airport for breakfast at the 29er Diner. He was very interested in how to fly through Bravo airspace. So I suggested we go up the East Bay route (avoiding Bravo) there, then go south through Bravo over San Francisco Airport on the way back because I knew it would be busier later in the day. I didn't know how much busier it would be!<br />
<br />
On the way there we took off on a Calaveras departure and got an un-asked-for Bravo clearance direct to Petaluma within 5 minutes of contacting NorCal. Nice! We flew direct past Oakland airport and directly over the water from Oakland to Petaluma. It was very quiet with almost no traffic on the radios or in the air. Roy had fun taking pictures. Eventually I gave him the controls to fly straight and level and talked him through using the default nav page on a Garmin 430W to maintain a precise ground track. I also practiced staying out of the way in a crowded cockpit. A skill every good CFI has to learn.<br />
<br />
Things changed on the way back! We took off from Petaluma and climbed to 5500 feet towards the Sausalito VOR. We listened to NorCal's approach frequency which was very busy with a bunch of planes doing Bay Tours and getting traffic call outs. It took a while to get a word in and request a Bravo transition. I was given a squawk code and told to stay clear of Bravo for now.<br />
<br />
We continued towards SFO. I was monitoring the distance to SFO airspace and preparing to circle rather than enter the airspace without a clearance. For the first time I was denied my Bravo clearance. ATC said they weren't accepting any transitions due to traffic at SFO. They asked if I'd like to fly at 2500 feet over Oakland Colosseum instead. Sure! Just a 3000 foot rapid descent required to get below the Bravo shelf before heading towards Oakland and finding the colosseum. At least this time I had an idea of where it was!<br />
<br />
We were switched to Oakland tower who sent us to Lake Chabot - we didn't know where that was so we requested vectors. After that we were offered the option to fly along the 880 towards Hayward at 1500 feet. We took that and were switched to Hayward tower and told to remain north of the extended runway centerline. Eventually the tower told us we could fly south of the runway centerline and maintain VFR below 4500. I turned south and started to climb to a more comfortable altitude. The tower asked my altitude shortly thereafter. Told him it was 1600 and he said we were supposed to stay below 1500. I apologized and said I thought it was 4500. He apologized too.<br />
<br />
No harm done, we continued to Reid-Hillview at 1500 feet over some very populated areas. The whole time the radios were buzzing with planes talking with ATC and little planes were flying everywhere. Reid-Hillview as crazy busy too. <br />
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It was a beautiful fall, weekend, day, right before Thanksgiving and a perfect day to fly. It seemed we weren't the only pilots who wanted to take advantage of the opportunity. We are so lucky to be able to live and fly where we do :)<br />
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<br />Nissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13160194321295411721noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5899006230691400400.post-30741579952234887382015-11-21T20:46:00.000-08:002015-11-21T20:46:41.417-08:00The Value of Flying LessIt's odd for me to say, but there is some value to flying less it seems. At this point in my training, I'm done with training and now what I'm doing is maintaining my skills. I'm no longer meeting with my CFI on a weekly basis. My lesson plans for private and commercial are complete and ready for the FAA to look them over. The request is in to the FSDO for my check ride. No word yet on a date. So there's not much for me to do now but maintain.<br />
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I had been flying 3-4 times a week, trying to perfect my technique. Now I'm flying 1-2 times a week and, what I'm finding is, I seem to do best with about 10 - 14 days between "practice" sessions. A practice session is when I go up and go through all of the maneuvers to keep them fresh in my mind and reflexes.<br />
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Today I went up on a gorgeous fall morning and did all of the maneuvers that I may be called upon during the CFI check ride. Takeoffs, landings and go-arounds (9), fundamentals of flight (4), performance maneuvers (4), ground reference maneuvers (4), slow flight & stalls (7), and emergency operations (3). 1.7 hours, 6 takeoffs and landings and everything I did was easily within spec and quite fun.<br />
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It's a different type of flying now... not trying. Not thinking, just doing and "teaching" as I do. I ran into my CFI after the flight and told him how happy I was with my performance. He said he wasn't surprised at all. I'm glad it didn't surprise him. It actually didn't surprise me either... I found after a 10 day vacation when I came back I flew extremely well so I was hoping for a similar result with a 2 week break between practice sessions.<br />
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Tomorrow I'm going flying for brunch with some friends, I'll practice general good airmanship then. The same thing I did last weekend when I flew with my daughter to Sacramento so she could tour her future school. At the moment my plan is to touch each maneuver once a week, or once every two weeks depending on work and weather, and not stress it. I'm ready... and I think my job now is to maintain my readiness as simply and economically as possible. I need to start reviewing my lesson plans I think, so they're fresh in my mind whenever the FSDO calls!<br />
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<br />Nissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13160194321295411721noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5899006230691400400.post-54302215628144143622015-11-09T13:19:00.000-08:002015-11-09T14:36:54.872-08:008s on Pigs and Other News<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_IIe7HlyLUX5PimHv4pjXRQ9dq8QOVWOnciwLhml1aIwuRlU5vBH0cGlTlsEVdBELiZ8FwXRD9cixz-_bHyiWnVSH0iTQJOANC5JvdaWWwYSJzdG2M5QPaIqxuj6AHAxmxVJ4lQfcOugx/s1600/IMG_7388.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_IIe7HlyLUX5PimHv4pjXRQ9dq8QOVWOnciwLhml1aIwuRlU5vBH0cGlTlsEVdBELiZ8FwXRD9cixz-_bHyiWnVSH0iTQJOANC5JvdaWWwYSJzdG2M5QPaIqxuj6AHAxmxVJ4lQfcOugx/s320/IMG_7388.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">8s on Pigs<br />
A herd of pigs is off my wing as I practice<br />
the 8s on Pylons maneuver</td></tr>
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<h4>
8s on Pigs</h4>
For commercial pilot (and CFI) training we do a maneuver called 8s on Pylons. It's one of my favorite maneuvers and one I do well. However, for some reason the last few times I went up to practice the maneuver I wasn't doing as well as I knew I could. The last time I went up to practice I had the same problem. <br />
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I didn't get upset though. I did a couple things instead. I noticed I'd have problems on the 1st half of the 8 but not the second. I recalled the common errors for the maneuvers. One of the common errors for this maneuver is lack of situational awareness and another is poor pylon selection. I knew my pylon selection was good. I realized my problem was not starting the maneuver correctly on the first pylon I selected. Turning onto the first pylon is difficult when flying from the right seat because you lose sight of the pylon you'll be turning on long before you get to it. Good situational awareness and using other visual cues to identify when you're over the pylon is the key to turning on to the desired point without being able to see it.<br />
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I practiced just that piece, picking items on the ground and looking at the things around those items to decide when to turn on to the "pylon". Within 10 minutes I had it nailed. So I restarted doing the full 8s on pylons and everything worked great! For fun I started choosing harder and harder objects to turn on. One of them was a dark grey blob at the end of a field. I set up and used my situational awareness to turn on to the blob and found myself doing 8s on a herd of pigs! It was fun and I was thrilled to figure out and correct an error on my own.<br />
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<h4>
Death Valley or Bust </h4>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU5iESoCqxd1V2FKN2nlD_I0Xpz6NpL47N3cNwSNal66gjLll9djIKner-g8ji5IXkvzG-VLmw5QC3nSLCYDqnTez-rVnKd7bGZ2LzdSwr9dnCnVLUG_DpGfNaItLgRTvBypPkRI6OXvZ5/s1600/IMG_7410.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU5iESoCqxd1V2FKN2nlD_I0Xpz6NpL47N3cNwSNal66gjLll9djIKner-g8ji5IXkvzG-VLmw5QC3nSLCYDqnTez-rVnKd7bGZ2LzdSwr9dnCnVLUG_DpGfNaItLgRTvBypPkRI6OXvZ5/s320/IMG_7410.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Looking south along the mountain range.<br />
Lenticular clouds in the distance mark strong winds aloft.</td></tr>
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This weekend my husband, friend and I were going to fly to Death Valley as part of a Fly-In event commemorating the start of Air Mail service into Death Valley. It was going to be fun, and it was. Until the plane's alternator decided to have issue after issue after issue. In the end we flew to Reno, NV without issue. From Reno to Carson City - 18 miles away - where the issue decided to occur. We fixed two alternator issues there within an hour and a half, then took off for Death Valley.<br />
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Everything was great until I brought the gear up and the alternator failed again. We turned back to Reno airport and landed there because we had friends in Reno that we could stay with. We quickly found the source of the issue and worked out a fix for that. By that time it was too late to attempt Death Valley and too late to attempt a return to home base over the Sierras. Both routes were blocked due to changing weather. If we had been able to do the flight as planned when we took off everything would have been fine. However, we weren't. The trip was a bust. We spent 4 hours to fly a total of 36NM and travel a total of 0 feet from start to finish.<br />
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<h4>
Other News</h4>
This morning my CFI sent the formal request to the San Jose FSDO to schedule my CFI initial check ride. Now we wait. In the meantime I hope to wait out the snows and weather and fly back to San Jose tomorrow in time to catch my flight to Seattle tomorrow night for work. Life sure isn't dull or boring!<br />
<br />Nissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13160194321295411721noreply@blogger.com0