Lesson 13 - Refresher

This is a place holder until I get the pictures from these flights.

Note to Self: Be Responsible

Today I canceled my flight lesson. It's not the weather; it's a beautiful day out. It's because I'm unprepared. For some reason I thought I could casually just start training again by showing up the the airport once or twice a week, but that's irresponsible. I have to make sure that I'm properly prepared the day before. I have to make sure I get up early enough to have a proper breakfast and catch the bus. I have to make sure I'm studied and up to date on what I'm going to be working on this flight.

I'm not only taking this training for the joy of flying, I'm disciplining myself. I'm training myself to keep myself in order and make better use of my time. When flying, something as simple as not getting enough sleep or forgetting to bring a chart could be the last straw that causes an accident that gets me seriously injured or, at best, damages the aircraft.

I've heard and I keep hearing stories about students in my school who have flipped the plane on landing or have landed short of the runway and so far everyone's been okay, but I don't want to join their ranks. I might not be as lucky.

Stay responsible.

Lesson 12 - Refresher

Today I thought I would have a relaxing reintroduction to the Cessna 152 and just get used to the fell of flying again. Not quite the case. We went though everything I've been practicing to get back up to speed: straight-and-level, steep turns, slow flight, power-on stalls, power-off stalls, slipping and touch-and-goes at Pitt Meadows. Seiji also thought I had twice the hours I I actually do, so he expected a lot out of me. It's great that I'm getting such rigorous training, and expected to meet such high standards, but by the end of the flight my brain is fried and frazzled.

Apparently, I'm doing alright though. Especially considering that I've been away for a year and haven't been studying. But I want to get better soon. I want to get to the point where I don't need to be told that I'm descending a little or drifting to the left every fin minutes. I think the best thing I can do to help this is working on my instrument scanning. When I started flying, my head was completely, inside the cockpit. My instructor told me that looking outside is more important and that 90% of my attention should be holding the "picture". Why use the artificial horizon when you have a real one? The problem I'm having now is that I'm not checking my instruments at all as well as I don't have the experience to notice a change in attitude or drifting from just looking out the window.

Another issue I have is that I don't trust the trim. Once I set it, I should just let it do it's job, but I have a habit of fighting it, thinking that I must always be controlling the attitude by pulling up slightly or pushing down slightly. Not only is this making me unnecessary causing me to climb or decent, but fighting the airplane makes me tense, and I have to keep reminding myself not to hold the yoke so tightly.

Return to Flight

My friend, Josh, wants to finally start his flight training after taking his familiarization flight with me over a year ago. So on July 12 we went down to the airport for him to start and for me to get back in the left seat and continue my training. After filling out all the paperwork and going though the briefing, Josh got to fly first. He's a tall guy, so we rented 172 for him which meant I got to sit in the back. That's geed because I brought the equipment to record the flight on camera and the intercom on a sound recorder, but the bad side was that it was the most turbulent day I've gone up and the pilot was someone who's only flown once before. I can take a lot when I'm in control, but when I'm in the back and the plane is bouncing and swaying all over the place, it's a bit harder to enjoy the flight. Especially when holding a large DV Camcorder.

It was a great day when we arrived at the airport, but by the time we had the wheels off the ground, some clouds started forming at around 500 feet. we snuck past the scattered layer them in the climb, but it only took until we got to the edge of the control zone the clouds were already half obscuring the ground. We did a few simple maneuvers, like turns, but it was soon time to head back.

We knew we were just south-east of CZBB, but we could barely see the bay and the shore in the west. Our instructor, Seiji, called and asked tower if we could descend over the bay, but because of IFR traffic we had to come around the north of the airport. Strangely, the turbulence seemed to go away after Seiji took control...

We landed safely, but and any longer up there and we would have had a problem. After a debrief and some talk about us three going hiking, Josh and I went back to the plane to practice out checklists. I was just looking to go though them quickly and memorize them, but Josh wanted to know what exactly did what and why we did that item when we did.

I didn't get to fly, but it was a good refresher and got me comfortable with the whole ordeal again.