Groundschool - Aircraft Performance

We got into all kinds of gooey math problems last night. It was really a lot of fun. We had an interesting time calculating weight and balance problems. It woke up brain cells that were hibernating through the difficult translation of METAR, TAF, PIREPS and............. I can't go on anymore.

Some of the problems are pretty straight forward but every now and then they would sneak in a trick answer or two. If you read carefully (really read the whole question), then it is usually easy to figure it out. My problem is that I would get in a hurry and think I knew everything but ended up doing something wrong. I'm learning.

There will be no more flying for a while. I have to go back out of town next week and I'll be too busy to get any flying done for about 3 weeks. At least I got a lot more done than I expected this week.

Crosswind Training

I booked some time today in N733NB because it was going to be a beautiful looking day. When I booked the time, I knew that it was going to be windy and the wind was going to be a cross wind. I didn't realize that is was going to be so hard. We had a 15 knot direct crosswind. My instructor said that we would do crosswind landings today and a "little baptism by fire." It was quite a busy time for a guy who only had 2 hours of training before this.

To show how windy it really was, here is the METAR data for today:
KTKI 120053Z 33003KT 10SM CLR 17/01 A2981 RMK AO2 SLP098 T01720006
KTKI 112353Z 30013G20KT 10SM CLR 21/M02 A2980 RMK AO2 SLP094 T02061017 10222 20194 51009
KTKI 112253Z 30016G22KT 10SM CLR 21/M02 A2979 RMK AO2 SLP090 T02111017
KTKI 112153Z 29014G26KT 10SM CLR 22/M02 A2978 RMK AO2 PK WND 28026/2150 SLP087 T02171017
KTKI 112053Z 26015G24KT 10SM CLR 22/M01 A2977 RMK AO2 SLP083 T02171006 56012
KTKI 111953Z 30014G19KT 10SM CLR 22/M01 A2978 RMK AO2 SLP084 T02171006
KTKI 111853Z 29013G18KT 10SM CLR 21/01 A2979 RMK AO2 SLP089 T02110006
KTKI 111753Z 31012G19KT 10SM CLR 20/01 A2980 RMK AO2 SLP094 T02000006 10200 20089 50007
KTKI 111653Z 30007KT 10SM CLR 19/04 A2981 RMK AO2 SLP093 T01890039
KTKI 111553Z 29011G15KT 10SM CLR 17/06 A2980 RMK AO2 SLP092 T01720056
KTKI 111453Z 30007KT 10SM CLR 16/07 A2978 RMK AO2 SLP088 T01560072 52025
KTKI 111353Z 31009KT 10SM CLR 13/07 A2976 RMK AO2 SLP079 T01330072

Once we got going, it was a lot of work. The crosswind on taxi was tough. I remembered the quartering tailwind lessons for the DVD's where you dive away from the wind. When we got to the run-up area, I did the usual turn into the wind and run-up to 1700 RPM. When I killed on mag, it was running rough so I leaned the mixture and it seemed to settle down. Of course after leaning the mixture I tried running it rich again and it had settled down. The other mag was fine.

We taxied up to the hold line and asked for permission to take off. As soon as another Skyhawk landed we were able to take off. I got in the pattern and did about 8 crosswind landings. Just when I though we had finished, Richard asked me if I was in a hurry and I said no. So he asked me to turn to 150 and head for Rockwall to do some more touch and goes.

McKinney (KTKI) has a 7000 ft runway that is 100 feet wide. Rockwall is 3373 feet long and 45 feet wide. It has just been repaved and is very easy to spot from the air with its new markings.

We did several more touch and goes into a crosswind and finally needed to head back to KTKI. So we contacted the tower about 10 miles out and were given a direct in approach. So one more crosswind landing to go and I get to rest my weary left arm and legs. We got in, taxied back to the North ramp and did our post flight check list before we shut everything down. I'm still tired.

Before we left, I wanted to have some fun with Richard so I showed him my new gadget I got for flying. Everyone needs one of these. Maybe Cessna will start offering it as an option (see below).


I also found out that my increasingly expensive cheap headset finally works like it is supposed to. I was quite impressed at the noise reduction from a passive noise reduction headset and how good the mic, that I thought would be questionable, sounded.

Total flying this time: 1.4 hours
Total Hours - 3.4

Ground School - Weather Services

This one is even harder than just pure weather. The average person may see their local weather guy give the weather but did you ever wonder where he gets it? There are several places a pilot can go to get weather. The FAA wants you to get your flight briefing from them. There are 3 different kinds of briefings.

First you have a standard briefing. It covers everything you should want to know about weather. Next is an abbreviated briefing that is used to update an earlier briefing. Finally, there is an outlook briefing. This is used when your departure time will be more than 6 hours in the future.

The things contained in a weather briefing are pretty cryptic unless you know how to interpret it. It's also acronym soup (in case you are hungry for this kind of thing). There are METARs, TAFs, PIREPS, ASOS, AWOS, AIRMETS, SIGMETS, DUATS, DUAT, Winds Aloft, TWEB, HIWAS, Weather depiction charts, Radar summaries and last but not least Low-level Significant Weather Prognostic Charts. That's enough to tongue tie the best auctioneer.

As a side note, I decided to take a practice test. Since I'm only half way through, I thought it would be dismal but was pleasantly surprised when I scored about 78%. To score 80% or better, you can't miss more that 12 questions out of 60. I missed 13. I'll go over the ones I missed and go back and work on those sections (and even the ones we haven't covered).

I'm Finally Legal

I got a call today from my doctor who said that he finally got an OK from the FAA for my medical. I can legally fly now. The only down side to it is that my certificate is only good for one year. If you are over 40, your certificate should be good for 2 years. Because of my medical history, they want to watch me a lot closer. So I have to go the the neurologist for a consult next year and have another EEG done. The doctor said that the FAA will probably not put any restrictions on me after next year if everything turns out like it did this time (I don't see why it wouldn't. I've been seizure free for over 16 years.).

As soon as I got home, I got my log book and made my first medical entry into it. I really can't wait to see when the weather will turn good again so I can go back up before I have to go out of town again.

I also got another surprise today. I have been fighting a headset issue that I thought would be easy to fix. I got a headset from a friend who got it in a garage sale. A Dave Clark H10-76. I looked it up on their site and it said that it was a Military headset. OK? I knew it had the same plug on the end of it that helicopters use. I looked around to see if I could find an adapter for it and I went with the cheapest one I could find ($48 from Aircraft Spruce).

Since I don't keep a general aviation intercom system handy, I wasn't able to test it until I got to the plane. Of course I had problems with it. You know, Murphy. So I get home and start researching this headset. I didn't read very close but upon further review, it seems that the mic element can't have a DC bias voltage on it. If it does, it won't work. Guess what GA systems have in them? DC bias voltage. I was about to order a new mic element when I thought I should call Dave Clark and speak to someone in customer service who may know this thing a little better than me. I'm glad I did.

It seems that not only will the mic not work but there is an impedance mismatch in the earpieces too. They just happen to make an adapter that will fix everything for $126.75 plus shipping. I go to the website and try to order this thing and it won't let me order it. I have to call someone back at customer service and get them to enter it for me. I can't wait to get some extra cash and get me a new ANR headset. Unfortunately, that will cost me about $500 - $600.

I also updated my picture for the flying club website. I tried to find something that was so far away from what the other guys do for their pictures so I gave them this one.

Strange Easter Weather Means No Flying

What a strange bit of weather we are having. It's kind of ironic that we have been studying weather in ground school this week and we get snow in Texas for Easter. The last time it snowed here on Easter was over 40 years ago. I always wondered if the Easter Bunny was hot with all of that fur when we have our usual spring temperature.

Another weird fact is on Saturday the high was 44. The high temperature one year earlier was 88.

I'm going to be looking at the weather forecast and see if I can get some flying in on Wednesday as I have to go out of town the next week. I need to get more hours flying. I also tried to contact my doctor on Friday and see if he got my medical certificate on Friday. He was out of his office and working in the ER in Allen. I left a message for him and hope to hear from him on Monday. I'm a little nervous because he and the neurologist were very optimistic but they aren't the FAA. Anytime you have to trust the logic of someone who works for a government agency, you usually lose.

The Hard Part About Ground School Is...........

We finally got to the part I knew I was going to dread, weather. What makes it so hard is the fact the even the professionals rarely get it right. There are a lot of areas that the FAA covers in the test and it is a lot to digest. They cover everything from types of clouds to inversion layers, temperature, dew point, wind shear and even lenticular clouds (they are cool to see but stay far away). Most of the other concepts of flight make a lot of sense but this one is a little tougher to comprehend.

Next week we start on weather services. If you think weather is tough, try to get an accurate weather briefing. Where do you go? Who do you call (don't call your local TV weatherman at home and ask him for a briefing)?

I haven't studied this hard in a long time. I actually am having a lot of fun doing this. It gives me something different to do on Tuesdays and Thursdays without staying out too late and not in a smoky bar somewhere (that is for Friday nights).

Ground School Week 2

I didn't get a chance to write about ground school last week. I was a very late starter and didn't have my study material until yesterday. I had a King Schools study course but it required me to go back to Monarch Aviation all of the time and take tests there before I could advance through their course. The material was great but the production quality was less than desirable. It looked like it was shot on VHS. I did like the ability to take tests at the end of each section but the ASA course I'm taking now does the same but looks a lot better. I really liked the quality of the Sporty's stuff too.

I found out that in my first class, they went over a lot of material that I didn't know so I really paid attention. My second night was informative (I still didn't have my material) but it did cover material I already knew very well. I joined this class to try and get something more out of it than just what was in the study material. I can study this material on my own and probably ace the test. I wanted some interaction with other potential pilots and to see how I stacked up against them. I do enjoy talking to most everyone but I made the mistake of trying to catch up to where the class is and surpassing it. I did it all in one night. I ended up going 3 sections ahead of where we are. What we are doing right now (Procedures and Airport Ops), I have already covered in my old material. I am caught up until we get to weather, even though I think I need to do the weather all over again because it is really hard. There is a large amount to cover in weather and it is always changing.

Tonight will be a short post as I need some sleep. I'm too worn out from work today and helping Anna get over being sick. Here is to Thursday.

Lessons - Day 2

What a day. Today was probably the best weather we have had here in over a month. It has been overcast with threats of rain for the last month. When I got up this morning, I checked the weather and all I saw was 10 miles plus visibility with no ceiling at all. What a great day to fly!



I was scheduled for 3:00 to 4:30 in N733NB (see picture above). To begin with, I had to help my brother move some furniture from his old apartment to his house this morning. At first it was a great idea but as the day started to wear on, I was getting concerned. We finally got the last load to his house at 1:30. I had not even had breakfast or lunch. I had to get something to eat quick, get to the house, grab my bag and head out to the airport (it is 15.5 miles away). I made it to the FBO at the airport by 2:45 and sat around waiting for my instructor to show up for the next 15 minutes. I knew he was somewhere because I saw his car outside but I couldn't find him. So at 3:08 I called his cell phone and sure enough, he was on the North ramp so I went out out see him.

We just had a lot of bad luck today. My headset is not working (I found the problem this morning) so I needed to use one of his. Of course his spare was in his car at the FBO. So I started the preflight. Luckily he had a key for the airplane so I could get started. I checked the fuel and it was low so we had to have the fuel truck sent out to us. By the time we finished the preflight and finished our checklist, it was already 3:42. We started our taxi and called the tower and asked for permission to taxi to the north end. This was my first time talking to the tower and it is a little intimidating. We got our clearance and ended up number 3 during an extremely busy period at McKinney. By the time we started our takeoff roll, it was 3:54. I only had 36 minutes left before I had to turn the plane over to the next person on the list. Nothing like rushing a little.

We finally got airborne and flew to Murphy and did some more turns around a point. I flew around that water tower circle 5 times. Next we did some S turns following a road. As we were heading back Richard said that he was getting bored that I was catching on so quickly that he wanted to do a couple of things before we landed. I got to do a low level pass across the runway then back to the pattern. We got a curve thrown at us as we applied power to go around. When Runway 17 is the active runway they use left hand traffic (all left turns). The tower asked us to follow another plane for right hand traffic. OK, whatever the tower wants, the tower gets. This time we do a touch and go. After this one, we followed the normal left hand traffic pattern. To tell you how busy it was, we were number 4 for landing behind a Lear jet and 2 other Cessnas. We got in and taxied straight to our spot, did our post flight inspection and was walking to the FBO and the guy who had the plane after me, was walking toward us and we just handed off the keys.

What a great start and a beautiful weekend. I'm trying to get my friend Bryan interested in flying also. He is starting to sniff the bait but he hasn't bit the hook yet.

Total flying this time: 0.9 hours
Total Hours - 2.0

First Flight

Well I finally got to go up for my first official lesson. To make it official, I got my logbook signed. I was even allowed to bring my wife and daughter up with me, which was quite a surprise. My daughter wasn't scared and just jumped right in the back and put on a headset and wanted be a part of the flight. The good and bad news to come out of that was that my microphone on my headset quit working so I had to swap headsets with her. At least my instructor and myself were able to communicate without any interruptions. Here is a shot of my daughter ready for action:

I have been sweating whether we would get to go or not because of some very bad weather the day before. Parts of Dallas/Fort Worth received as much as 6 inches of rain the day before. In our little piece of the world, we only got about 2 1/4 inches. As luck would have it, the forecast I had been looking at for the past 3 days said that Saturday would be good weather behind a cold front. Since most weather men in our area can't seem to get much right lately, I was very worried. Saturday arrived and it was gorgeous.

We did our preflight and finally headed to the Runway 35 run-up area to finish all of our pre-take off procedures. Now the moment of truth. Looking at the wind sock, it said we had about a 10 knot crosswind directly from the west and we are heading north. I was hoping my first flight would have been a little less demanding. My surprise was that the wind sock is on a hill east of the runway. The west side are where all of the airport operations and hangers are. They blocked the wind so I had a very smooth takeoff. I say it was smooth but that was only the first 30 or 40 feet. Then we got hit with the cross wind and I started having to really fly then.

My wife was in the back taking some pictures until my daughter took the camera away from her. At least I got about a dozen usable shots and about 4 dozen shots of the floor, her foot, the back of my head and anything else you can think of. Here is a shot of us heading east away from the McKinney airport (KTKI):

After all is said and done, we were up for about an hour and got a lot done. I practiced coordinated turns, flying around a point and crabbing into the wind to follow a path. My instructor told me that he doesn't usually push that much onto his students but I handled everything so well that he just kept pushing.

As we were heading back on a straight in approach we flew over the town of Fairview where they have noise abatement rules that require us to be at least 1500 feet and throttled back. I have a friend who lives there and tried to show my wife and daughter but my daughter decided that she would throw up instead. She did so well until we started our descent. When we got on the ground (a pretty good landing if I say so myself), we taxied to our parking spot and I had to run down to the FBO and get some towels and some water to clean up the mess. My wife jumped in and knocked it out before I could even get the first towel wet. I really hated to dump the post flight checklist on my instructor but he understood the extenuating circumstances.

All in all, a I had a great day. I just needed to get home to a quiet environment to replay everything back to remember all of the little nuances that are needed to fly an airplane correctly. After all, the end result is to get my license so I have to do this a lot more and get it right on my check ride.

As a side note, my instructor informed me that I was on the front page of out flying club website. We had someone come out to one of our ground school classes and take pictures last Tuesday night. The photographer chose to use a picture that had me and my girth prominently displayed in the foreground of the picture. Maybe the flying club will change the picture and gain some dignity again.

Total flying this time: 1.1 hours
Total Hours - 1.1

I Can Fly

For the last several years I have wanted to get my private pilot license. I made a promise to a friend I lost to cancer that I would pursue it. My problem was that I had a medical condition that prohibited me from ever getting my license (or so I thought). The fact that I hadn't done anything about it was starting wear on me. I had promised that I would see if there was anything that I could do to get cleared for a 3rd class medical but I just kind of blew it off. As time went by, I kept getting a nagging feeling that I was not living up to a promise I had made and it was really starting to bug me. It would be so easy to just blow it off and go on with life like nothing happened. So at the end of last year I sat down with my wife and let her know that I thought I needed to explore the idea of talking to a CME and see what my shot at getting through the process would be.

To be honest, I really didn't want to awaken any sleeping giants but I did make a promise. So I went against my procrastinating ways and made an appointment with the guy that everyone told me was the best at finding solutions to difficult medical conditions. I barely passed the basic portion because of my slowly deteriorating eyesight. I've been blessed with amazing eyesight but after turning 45, they are starting to go. Once we got through the easy part, I asked what it was I needed to do to satisfy the FAA.

So here we are 3 months later and I have passed all of the tests required by the FAA. I'll find out some time during the first week in April whether or not I have to jump through anymore hoops. The one thing that has happened is that I have now joined a flying club, started ground school and on Saturday March 31, I take my first lesson. So it is no more simulator for me. I'll be going up in N737TY a 1978 Cessna 172N for a couple of hours with my instructor (who happens to be my neighbor).

We'll have to see how things go after Saturday (if the weather holds) as to whether I'll have a future in this. From everything I've done already, this should be somewhat anti-climactic but I won't bet against it.