Steep Turns

I'm finally out knocking the rust off of my skills. I went flying with Richard on Sunday. As an added bonus, we took my boss's son and her husband with us. Luckily I was flying N733NB because it can carry a lot more weight and I could feel the difference a couple of hundred extra pounds in the back made. The one good thing was that I didn't need quite as much back pressure on the yoke while doing the steep turns because I had so much weight that far back. The farther back you go with weight, the more tail heavy the airplane gets. That also means that the nose gets a little lighter and easier to pull back on the yoke. Just don't go too far. That is part of the weight and balance equation and you don't want to get out of the envelope.

After we took off, we headed east then north. We got out to an area where we could do some high altitude (4000 feet) work. I did some steep bank turns at 45 degrees. After you get past 30 degrees you start loosing lift so you need some back pressure on the elevators to maintain altitude. Once I rolled past 30 degrees, I added the back pressure to maintain altitude. My requirements were to roll out within 10 degrees on the heading and no more than 100 feet either way of my starting altitude. This was a lot harder that I thought it would be. Once I got the hang of it, I had to be careful of overdoing it because of my 2 passengers.

Next we headed off to Sherman to do some touch and goes. The first one was OK but the second one sucked so we headed over to Grayson county to do a couple more. Both were mediocre at best. I guess that means that we'll be back doing touch and goes for the next time out.

Finally we needed to head back to McKinney so we made a dash south. when were were about 10 miles out, we called the tower and announced our intentions. I got to do an approach I have never done before at McKinney. Since the winds were out of the north we were landing runway 35. The normal traffic pattern for 35 is right hand traffic, which puts all of the traffic east of the airport. Since I was coming in from the northwest, I was given a left hand approach (over town). No big deal because we do right and left hand traffic all of the time but it was just a different picture I had never seen before. We landed and got off of the runway quickly then taxied to parking on the north ramp.

Both passengers seemed to be OK but didn't like the steep turns. It was bumpy also but that still wasn't as bad as the steep turns. I guess it is all a matter of perspective. I kind of liked the steep turns, but I also had the yoke in my hands.

Update:

I ran across this on YouTube. It is a really good piece on Harrison Ford. I loved the line "I'm just another Pilot".

My E-logbook

Starting Over Again

Today was an interesting chapter in my pursuit of the allusive pilot certificate. After my last rant, I managed to get in touch with another instructor, who happens to be the president of the board, and made a date to fly today. I reserved N737TY, the old plane I flew before it went away for 5 months. It was good to get back in it, especially since it has a new Garmin GNS 430W in it. Along with a new GPS, it has a new engine and a rebuilt firewall. In my previous rant (that was not fueled by alcohol), I was frustrated at my inability to fly. Calvin helped ease a lot of my frustrations and get me back on track.

I thought I needed to start back at the basics just to get a whole new perspective on what I am doing. So I told him that I wanted to do some basic ground maneuvers. I started with S-turns around a road and slowly got myself back into flying shape. I was rusty but I wanted this to be a kind of re-birth so I listened to how he explained what I needed to do to make the maneuvers better. We then moved on to turns about a point and I finally got a much better explanation of what I was doing wrong.

We got the plane back from a guy who was in my ground school class with me and it had about a half of a tank. While we were pre-flighting Calvin suggested that we head toward Greenville and get some fuel there to offset the incredibly high fuel cost at McKinney. The fuel at Greenville was only $4.00 compared to $5.69 at McKinney. I got to save $1.69/gal for 24.2 gallons. We then headed back to McKinney and were given clearance to enter the pattern on a right base for runway 35. Here is where the old habits kick in and although my approach was good, when I flared, I pulled back to hard too fast. That is what you get for not flying for a month. Of course a month is relative, but when you have as few hours as I have, a month without flying is an eternity. So I got busted for a less than stellar landing but we did survive and the airplane was still in good shape.

Calvin told me I needed to get back in the saddle and continue flying. I need to be flying with an instructor before I solo again. I knew this was coming, hence the reason for asking for Calvin's help. I can't tell you how much it helped to have a new and fresh point of view in my head while flying (I also liked his very calm and soothing voice). I will be flying again soon and more often, after an agreement with my boss who is letting me come in late once a week. I like to fly early in the morning to keep the brutal Texas sun from baking me too bad.

My E-logbook

I've Hit A Bump In The Road

I have a dilemma. I started a new job in January that demands more of my time during the day. I used to be able to occasionally get out to the airport and do some flying during the week. With the new job, I don't have time to do that. I have to be on the road by 7:45 AM, at the latest, to be at work by 8:30 AM. Traffic sucks and the best thing about it is I get to ride with my wife and use the HOV lane. I get finished at 5:30 PM and it usually takes an hour to get home. By the time I get home, eat and change clothes, it is 7:15 PM.

Here is where the flag for piling on should be thrown. Since I can only fly on the weekends, I have a very tough time making sure that we have acceptable weather and an airplane. Everybody wants to fly on the weekends. For the last month, we have had bad weather and grounded airplanes. These I can live with. What I am having a problem with is the fact that every time I try to get my instructor to fly on the weekends, he is out of town. I know that he flies a lot during the week. While that may be great for people who have the luxury of being able to sneak away for a while during the week, it really sucks for me. I am so frustrated that I can't get any instruction to finish this wonderful journey I have started, I am even considering giving it up because of this major hurdle.

I have endured financial hardship, a loving and wonderful wife who has sacrificed a lot for me to be able to do this, medical hell just to keep my third class medical current and now this seems like it is the one that may actually derail me. I keep this blog so all of my friends who have supported me can keep up with my training and now I don't have anything good to write and that bothers me. I'll try to do what I can to remedy this. As a matter of fact, I just reserved one of the airplanes for Saturday after I had a talk with my instructor. Of course nothing good is going to come from this as the plane I reserved is now grounded. Maybe it will be fixed by Saturday. Then again, I still have to get another instructor who is available. It sucks to be me right now.