More Solo Work

Recently we have had nothing but lousy weather. This weekend has proved to be nothing short of spectacular. I had 2 hours reserved on Sunday for some ground reference work. I left early to be at the airport on time but as soon as I got there, I realized that I left my log book and medical certificate at home. I won't fly unless I'm legal so I called home to ask the wife if she could bring me my logbook and medical certificate. While I waited, I talked to some of the other instructors about my new role with the flying club and what they wanted out of their flying club. It was good to know how everyone felt and what I needed to do to keep the general membership happy.

My wife finally arrived with my daughter in tow and I took them down to the airplane for preflight. Once we got our preflight done, my wife and daughter went back to the FBO and watched me taxi and takeoff. I flew southeast for a little while then went south to do some work of turns about a point. After I did that for a while, I flew over the park where my wife and daughter were playing. I wagged my wings and went back to doing some S turns. It was a little bumpy but not too bad so I continued my practice exercises and even flew over the park again.

Since I was just off of the south end of the runway and we were landing to the north, I got a straight in approach to runway 35. I did my impression of a landing, taxied back to parking and shut it down. All in all, a beautiful day to fly. Looks like my next flight is going to be a long cross country on 3/8. Weather permitting and if everything else works out, I'll get that out of the way. I can't wait.

My E-Logbook

First True Solo

I've soloed several times recently but only after a few laps around the patch. Today was a first. It was all me. I had been watching the wind all day because it was supposed to be "breezy". Luckily for me, when it came time to go flying, the wind was just about straight down the centerline, but at 15 knots. I did my preflight and even had the guys from the FBO come over and top me off for my big 0.6 hour of fun. Getting down the runway for takeoff was easy but as soon as I was airborne, I realized that I had to land. Pilots have an old saying that goes "Takeoffs are optional. Landings are mandatory." I will say that I am a lot more comfortable flying now but I always have some reservations about my skills. Today was a good example of my growing confidence.

My first landing was OK, slightly off the centerline, as usual, but smooth. My second one was a lot messier. I realized too late that I was carrying too much speed for my approach and when I flared, I was too high so I had a little one hopper to the shortstop. I was having an old recurring problem with the airplane. This particular airplane has a tendency to sometimes have a bad nose wheel shimmy when the nose wheel touches down. The only fix I know of that keeps the plane from shaking apart is to pull back on the elevator and take weight off of the nose wheel and it goes away. This did it to me twice today. By the time my nose wheel touches down, I am usually under 45 knots so I can't take a whole lot of weight off of the nose wheel but I do what I can.

After several touch and goes, I decided to call it a day and enjoy the nice sunshine of the afternoon, all 30 minutes that was left of it. I had fun but I still need to grab Richard and head to someplace we can get some good crosswinds and keep working on landings. A funny side note is that our last flying club meeting had the topic of "The Perfect Landing." It reminds me of a joke that goes "Santa Clause, a perfect landing, the Easter Bunny and some rain all converge on the same spot. Which one has the right of way? The rain because the other 3 are figments of your imagination.

My E-logbook.com

A Little Touch Up

I have been trying to make the second part of my cross country happen for about 2 weeks now. It looks like I have to wait again for a shot. Our weather here has been so wacky that it is hard to plan anything more than a couple of days out and even that is a big risk. I had scheduled this coming Sunday (Feb 17) for my next attempt. Unfortunately I have to fly this on a weekend because that job thing gets in the way. Now it looks like Sunday is going to be a wash because of the weather.

With that in mind, I also need a little brush up on cross wind landings (can you ever get enough?). So as a birthday present to myself, I went up for an afternoon of flying the pattern. I had just enough wind and direction to make for a nice little crab to stay tracking the runway on my final. My first landing was a little off the centerline but very smooth. It was funny to hear Richard tell me that I was off center but smooth. My next one was a little off too but just as smooth then I finally got into the swing. I could tell Richard was getting bored when he asks me what are we going to do next. I did get a lot of challenges thrown at me because we had such a busy pattern that day which made every one of my approaches different and unique. I got to make right hand traffic, extend my downwind leg for instrument traffic, land behind a departing Citation (caution wake turbulence) and even get vectored because I couldn't see traffic because of the sun. Finally, during one of our last passes, Richard just pulled power and said "You just lost your engine. Put it down." I had plenty of altitude and was close enough to the airport that I just put the airplane into it's best glide speed, made a very high approach, added flaps and put it down just past the numbers. I was feeling better about landings that I have felt in a long time but I only spent .6 hours flying today (it's still better than no flying).

After getting finished, I deviated from my normal post flight because I didn't do my normal pre flight. When I got to the airport, I was late but so was the guy who had the plane before me. When I got there and walked out to the ramp he left the keys in for me. So I didn't have to go to the key locker or remove the gust lock from the yoke. This screwed up my post flight because I didn't replace the gust lock and about an hour later I discovered I had the keys to the airplane in my pocket. So before we went out for the usual family birthday tradition, I had to go back to the airport, replace the gusset lock and put the keys back in the key locker. Happy birthday to me.

My E-logbook

Where Did This Come From?

This story borders on the surreal so I'll tell it slow so when I re-read it I won't think that someone else wrote it. This all started about a week ago when I called the communications officer of the flying club I belong to and asked a silly question about getting some shirts embroidered. Since we don't have anything to offer the membership, I thought that I would take it upon myself to do the legwork needed to make this available. I called some great people I used to work for (thanks to Kim at Alford Media) and got the info I needed.

I had to take the information to a board meeting to present it to them to make this an official request. While there, an old topic raised its head. Our vice president of membership retired last year and no one wanted the job. Part of the reason that no one wanted the job was the fact that Keith was amazing at this job. He had the charisma, knowledge, drive, connections and skill to do this job better than the average bear. The board was still looking for a replacement but no one would bite. I got a lot of mysterious looks and winks when the topic came up but I told them that the demands of my new job were keeping me very close to home until I was in full swing.

The fun begins when I get home and talked to my wife. I told her about what transpired at the meeting and she just looked at me and said that I should go for it. After I finished shaking my head I asked her why I should try to fill such big shoes, never expecting the first response. She told me that she knew how much I love flying, and everything that goes with it, and I should try to share that with the flying club. I really do like everyone that I have dealt with to date in the TFC. So I mulled it over and the next night, I called the president and told him, in so many words, that I was his man. I also called the communications officer, whom I have tremendous respect for also, and let him know what I was doing. He was somewhat disappointed because he wanted to groom me for his board position but was happy for me to join the board.

So at our membership meeting on Saturday morning, I was announced as our new vice president of membership. I am very excited that I can contribute to something that I enjoy so much. There are a lot of responsibilities, as I found out at the end of the meeting when I had to do the paperwork for a new member. I want to project on to every new member, just how exciting this adventure can be. If everyone gets just a portion of what I have received from this experience, they all will be rich in ways that they have never knew existed. I take on this role with a lot of respect for the ones who served before me and am hopeful that I can follow in the large footsteps that they have left.

Respectfully yours,
the new TFC vice president of membership