Flight: 7/30/2005 It's checkout time.

Wow, been a while since I’ve written, and for the two people who come here I’m sure that’s been very depressing. Unfortunately when you get things like a mortgage and bills…flying kind of takes a back seat when you’re dropping $100 an hour to be up in the air. On the plus side, the new home is beginning to smooth out and my budgeting has been pretty much on track. This has allowed me to get back in the air again!

Ok, once again it’s time to change from Schaumburg Airport, back to Palwaukee. Schaumburg does an interesting thing with their rates on the planes. With the gas prices being up, it of course costs more to fly as well. Instead of raising up the prices, they charge you the same amount for the plane, but tack on a surcharge for gas (extra $3 per hour). Now the planes are already making them good money, and I can possibly understand the surcharge when the prices spike in the middle of the summer. However, when the prices drop back down, they still keep the fuel charge on there. Back in December they told me “yes, the charge is still there but should be going away soon since prices have dropped since the summer.” And I have to admit that they did in fact do away with the charge as promised. However in doing so, they simply raised the rate of the plane by $3 per hour so you still get to pay the same amount!? Whoopee. Same thing happened again this summer but now it’s an extra $4 per hour. To sum it up, I’ve had enough BS from there and have left with no plans to return any time soon.

So in comes Palwaukee. Palwaukee Wings has a nice selection of aircraft with mostly newer planes, but you pay a slightly higher rate. They have several older Sundowners and those fall quite nicely into my price range, so I decided to get checked out in one of them. The plane does in fact have a much older feel to it. To start, the flaps are manual so you’ve got to pull a bar to activate them. I didn’t that I would enjoy this much at first, but eventually grew used to it and it didn’t really bother me. I mean who really cares how you activate the flaps anyway as long as I don’t have to climb out on the wing to do so, right? While in most other respects it felt pretty close to a Cessna 172 (what I’ve flown in the most), the plane does feel a bit heavier and slower, however it also feels more stable when coming in for landing and you’ve got a slight crosswind. This works out well because I found that the landing gear is also less forgiving than that of the Cessna. Perhaps the best feature of the Sundowner is that it’s a few inches wider than the Cessna. This means that I am no longer pushing my big shoulders against the person next to me. It was for sure good to have an extra couple inches between the instructor and myself. Other than that, you’re really flying all on your own. Most of the electronics and optional features don’t work, so in terms of navigation you really are on your own. Not sure if I’ll continue flying these or opt to get checked out in one of the Cessna 172SP’s (1998) which they rent. I’d pay about $20 more per hour but have enjoyed that plane a little more I would say. Though it’s still tough to say that in all honesty simply because I might enjoy the 172 more because I’m used to it. I really should give the Sundowner a couple more shots before making up my mind.

Flight: 1/15/2005 - New year, same weather.

So it's been a while since I've gone up and if I waited too much longer, I would have to go up with an instructor again. Not because of any regulations, but the place I rent from requires you to fly with them every 45 days to avoid getting a checkout. More likely than not this is just to get you to come in more often (most places are a standard 90 days before checking you out again). I mean really...am I going to turn stupid and forget everything in 6 weeks? I'd hope not. Hell if that's the case then there is no reason to fly.

So I get down to the airport and file a cross country flight up to UES (Waukesha), which is around central Wisconsin. Great, I'm set to go...the plane has been pre-heated for me, and I go through my usual startup routine. I strap a map to my knee and get ready to go. Now on a side note, I planned on conducting this flight solely by pilotage. This means that I look at the aviation map on my knee and do my best to match it up with what the ground looks like. Aside from using radios to communicate, I would use no navigational equipment like VOR's or GPS systems. This isn't common practice and most pilots simply plug coordinates into a GPS or tune a VOR and fly right for it, but it's good to brush up on those skills every once in a while...especially if the electrical system goes out and then you really are forced to fly by looking out the window. So I have all my points plotted out that I'm going to look for along the way and I begin rolling down the runway. Smooth takeoff and the plane is performing better than normal (in the winter the air is more dense, so the propeller chops through more air and pulls better). After the initial turn on course I reach over to tune the VOR (as backup) and notice that some of the digits are not lit on both of the NAV radios (device used to tune the VOR). Now I can sit there and guess the frequencies or count the clicks after a digit in another column changes, but since this flight is to be visual anyway and it would take more attention...I just let it be and forget the VOR as a backup. No GPS either in this plane so that's one thing less to worry about I guess. Shortly into the flight I discover that there's a tiny gap in the door that is letting a nice breeze in directly on my. Something like that you never figure out until you're actually in the air, however the air is a bit cooler when you're 6500 feet above the ground, so the breeze is a bit more noticeable. Never fear, a plastic bag is here. And after wrestling around with the bag (I know it was out to get me), the gap in the door is finally plugged. Great...let's get some heat in this plane since all that cold air dropped the temperature a bit. Surprise! No functioning heat in the plane! Well there was, but a teeny tiny bit. Not even worth mentioning. So I guess the jacket will stay on for this flight.

It's 45 minutes later and I'm approaching Waukesha. Fantastic. Except that one of my radios goes out. Not a problem because there are two radios in the plane so I stick to only using the second one. Somewhere I'm beginning to feel like I'm in a Warner Bros. cartoon. You know when the good guy and the bad guy are having a 'dogfight' in their airplanes and after the bad guy gets shot and there's a huge explosion, you see him peddling a little bicycle with tiny wings an a propeller? Yeeeaaaaaa. Anyway, the flight back was only eventful in the sense that I was hoping not to lose any more equipment. Sort of like playing strip poker and being down to the skippies. Now with all of this equipment not functioning (or not being there in the first place :), this is sometimes a symptom of the battery or alternator going as some of you pilot folks might know. But I did check that early and often, and found that not to be the issue. I think bitter cold could have contributed to it more than anything else.

So back to Schaumburg for a few landings and it's time to tie this puppy down. On the short walk back inside I look over and my eyes catch this other cool looking plane...(to be continued).

Long time no see.

Been a while since I've written anything...guess that's because the flying has been a bit more routine. Mostly just keeping in practice by flying around from Schaumburg to Palwaukee for some practice landings and then back. Only news is that I'm searching for somewhere other to fly than Schaumburg. The rates have been bumped up so they are now on par with Palwaukee's rates...so why drive 30 minutes to pay the same I would 5 minutes from home? Only problem is selection. Strange as it may seem, there aren't that many places to rent from around the Chicagoland area without either having to drive way out somewhere or joining some flying club and paying dues. Now I'm sort of option A...the driving way out somewhere part. Now a lot of the places are clubs where there's a startup fee and monthly or annual dues. The clubs are perfect for the guy who likes to fly once a week, and I guess has the money for it. But there are others like myself who like to go up just once or twice a month...maybe even less during the winter, and would end up paying way more by joining a club. So here comes Palwaukee. A total of 3 places to rent from. Airway, where I learned how to fly and got my license, I'm not really interested in renting from at this time. There's a smaller selection there with a high priority for students. That's understandable, so just better to look at other options I think. So we have "The Flight Center" as one of our choices. Rates are good as is the availability of aircraft. But from speaking with enough pilots, it doesn't seem like the best place to rent from. I've heard of enough people getting yanked around there by the owner that it simply wasn't worth even checking them out. When over 90% of 30 reviews gives a horrible rating, that's gotta mean something is up. This leaves us with the "Windy City Flyers". Beautful and plentiful selection of 23 aircraft available in different configurations. Only downside is that the rates are sky high. We're talking that I'd be going from paying $90 an hour to somewhere around $140 an hour if you factor in how few hours I fly per year (it's 'few' hours compared to some, but more than the average private pilot), add in their monthly, annual, and startup fees...and you've got some high times. Then again it is more of the rich mans club anyway so I'm sure the people that fly out of there have no problem with that cost. That pretty much sums it up for what's available at Palwaukee. I could mention "American Flyers", but they only do student training. And another place called "Flight World" with $135 an hour rates and only 3 planes to choose from, I might as well go with Windy City Flyers. Ahh well, maybe I'll try scoping out Waukegan airport again...but they weren't much better last time I checked.

Flying Door County

Well I forget the exact date and I don't have my logbook handy to check, but I think it was late July or early August that I went up with Kristin for a family get together/birthday party to Door County, Wisconsin. For those who've never been there before it's sort of a nice little place to go and get away for a few days. It's like a Dawson's Creek style town (so I'm told :) but a bit more interesting. There's cool places to eat, you can shoot guns pretty much anywhere (hey, I mean it's Wisconsin right?), and enough activities to keep busy a few days. In any case my thoughts were to fly up there for the weekend, but decided not to because I might get stranded coming home on Sunday if the weather wasn't too agreeable. And as it turned out the weather going up there would not have been the best to fly in, so I picked the next best alternative and that was to ride my motorcycle up there and just rent a plane from one of the local airports there to take Kristins family up.

I arrived on Saturday at the local airport in Sister Bay...about a 30 minute drive from where we were staying. Did a quick hour long checkout with the instructor and before I knew it I was on my own, flying up to the airport up in Fish Creek, which was just a couple minutes from where we were staying and would make it much easy to pick people up and drop them off.

First up was Kristin and her aunt who's birthday it was. I guess she'd been up many times around that area, but still seemed to get a kick out of it. It was also interesting for me to be able to navigate my way around a totally new area without the use of any instruments. Great way to keep in practice with being able to recognize where you are. After departing and clearing some trees that are close off the runway, it was mostly smooth sailing from there. We flew around for about 40 minutes and then headed back in to pick up the next passengers. Now the interesting thing about landing at Fish Creek airport is that it's surrounded by trees, which always make it a windy landing since trees break up smooth winds and make them choppy. Man I wouldn't want to fly out of there on a real windy day. So the next folks showed up a few minutes later...this was another aunt of Kristin and her cousins boyfriend. I thought more people would be coming up, but this was the last of them, so we flew around a couple small islands out on the lake, then they stuck with me as I flew back to Sister Bay to drop off the plane and drive back. Overall everyone seemed to enjoy flying around. I guess the biggest pressure was on me since I was flying with no maps to make sure I knew where I was going. It was actually not that bad. Since Door County is a peninsula, it's pretty easy to make your way around...sure I could have tuned in VOR's and NDB's (I'll talk about those some other time), but the challenge was kind of fun. We descended into Sister Bay and had a nice smooth landing...then a relaxing drive back. In the end I guess I liked this decision better to rent a plane up in Door County than to fly out there...maybe next time I'll fly there instead.

Questions? Comments? Want to add your own story? Email me at BIGGY350Z@yahoo.com

Flight: 7/12/2004 - Bright lights, small city...Rockford

You know what they say about Rockford, right? Yea well neither do I. Actually I don't think they say anything other than it's far from Chicago and it has a nice little track to race a motorcycle on. So on a perfect night for flying I decided to get my currency and fly out somewhere instead of just going around the city for another skyline tour. Nothing like a 28 minute flight out to Rockford. Let me back up by explaining what I meant by saying "get my currency". See when you have a pilots license, you need to do certain things in order to continue operating an aircraft with no restrictions. And if I want to be able to carry passengers at night, then I must have at least 3 night landings within each 90 day period to have that privilege. There's lot's of other little guidelines that must be followed, but I won't get into those now.

The flight is pretty basic and only took me about 20 minutes to plan out. Technically I didn't have to plan anything or even have a map...if I just wrote down a few frequencies, I'd be good to go, but it's nice to stay in practice of being able to do it. Realistically the GPS unit does it all for me, but you never know when it'll go out. So I got my markings on the map, my checkpoints, frequencies, altitudes, flight plan, and headings. Now it was off to the airport and into the plane. We departed on runway 29 (heading of 290) and did a tiny turn to the left of one degree to keep a heading of 289 which is what I calculated when factoring in magnetic deviation (compass error correcting for where true north is basically) and also with wind correction. Winds were pretty weak aloft so I'd have to compensate just one more degree to be on course, but I have had times when I've corrected more than 10 degrees to battle against the wind. Unfortunately the GPS does not factor in wind so that's always up to the pilot.

I called up a Rockford Approach controller and got flight following (they put me on radar alerts if there's another plane near me) and flew a nice calm flight. When coming in for landing I asked that they turn the lights up all the way just so I could see how bright it was and MAN were they bright. There were so many lights glaring from the runway that it almost made the landing more difficult than if they were off! First landing went smoothly and on the 1.5 mile runway (8000+ feet) I think I used maybe around 1000, but only because I had to continue rolling to actually reach the first taxiway to get off! Otherwise it only takes several hundred to stop :) Realistically I could probably takeoff and land about 2 or 3 times on the same runway before running out of space. So we did a couple full stops and taxied back then departed back to Schaumburg. My final landing which would get me current would be back at Schaumburg. This was my first night landing at Schaumburg so it was interesting in trying to pick the airport out from all of the city lights. Not as easy as Palwaukee because it's much smaller and Palwaukee is located near a nice dark forest preserve so it stands out even more. Schaumburg is smack near some major malls and towns so it was a bit trickier, but I still had the airport beacon in sight from 20 miles away. In for landing at Schaumburg was as smooth as could be and the plane was soon after parked and shut down. Couldn't have been a better night for flying or a smoother flight. There's something about those calm summer nights that relaxes you when you get back down on the ground which just can't be explained.

Trading spaces

The place that I have been renting from...Airway Flight Services at Palwaukee has been great. My biggest concern with them is the availability of the aircraft. Since students are a priority and there are only anywhere from three to five planes available, this means that there are plenty of days when I cannot go up. It's also nice on occassion to take a plane out for the weekend which would be very difficult and require greater notice time. Even in those times, there's a possibility that I could be knocked off the schedule for a student.

So for greater availability and a bigger selection I have chosen Northwest Aviation at Schaumburg Airport (06C). Their lineup includes around a dozen Cessna's and plenty of other aircraft to pick from including Pipers, Cherokees, and Warriors. There's only a couple things I don't dig about them. It is a bit further of a drive for me so it takes a bit longer than the 10 or 15 minutes I'm used to. It's also a non-towered and single runway airport. There's just something nice about having a selection of runways to land on and a controller to talk to. I guess I just like busier airports more. And while their prices are a bit lower at 0C6, there are still other fees that could add up here and there since it is a larger company. It's not as much of a 'family feeling' that you have at Airway where if you rent the plane for the day, they're perfectly ok with you bringing it back without the minimum hours flown if it's just a bit under. At 0C6...you have to check in advance on that specific airplane and that specific date to see if they'll charge you a minimum of three hours per day, though I might be fortunate in the plane that I like doesn't seem to be all that busy.

So I've had my checkout with an instructor and have been introduced to the new plane that I'll be flying. Everything went pretty smoothly and I'm looking forward to going on a few weekend trips this summer.

Questions? Comments? Have your own story to add? Email: BIGGY@cycleforums.com

Flight: 4/3/2004 - Let's go see a movie in Minneapolis

Well if I ever asked for a long distance flight, this is starting to get up there. Minneapolis ain't exactly a hop, skip, or a jump away. So four of us set out after a night of flight planning. Top thing on my mind was the weight of the plane with full passengers and the amount of fuel I could take. Myself and the girlfriend work out nicely because with her being around 130 and me being at 230, we average out to about 180...which is like 2 average passengers. The other two passengers however clocked in at over 420 together. Not only was it difficult to ask the ladies their weight in the first place, try suggesting that you might not be able to depart with them on board! So the fuel, weight, and balance of the plane was all calculated and I was good to go. The flight began beautifully. Seemed like the perfect day and the turbulence which was up ahead should be out of my way by the time I reach that point. That point was right around Madison and it seemed as though the turbulence was in no hurry to go anywhere except right for me. It was not pleasant from that point on. In fact so unpleasant that several of us got a little air sick. So to ease up the flight and load up on some fuel, I stopped off at Lacrosse. From there we needed to make a decision to go on or turn back. We were a little over half way there and the rest of the flight would be just as bumpy. All of the passengers were in favor of continuing so about 30 minutes later we were back in the air. Another hour and a half of bumps here and there and Minneapolis finally came into sight. No bigger relief to land with the airsick bags full, but hey...we made it! From there it was much better.

I wasn't looking to going home, but figured I would go enjoy the movie "Faster" and then head over to the Mall of America. Would have been a great plan if I didn't fall asleep after the movie in the pilots room at the airport. So only saw the mall from the outside when we went to pick up our friends who went there while Kristin and I saw the movie.

The flight back was mostly uneventful. The wind was now with us and the flight was fairly smooth. Everyone slept, and Chicago was coming into view. To give you an idea of how much winds play into a flight...it took a little under four hours to fly to Minneapolis and just under two and a half on the way back. The flight back would have been perfect except there were some strong wind gusts in the Chicago area. Time to make a choice. I can either attempt to land at Palwaukee (home base) and abort the landing if the gusts were too much (winds were gusting up to 34 knots from the north), or land outside Chicago where they were slightly less and wait out the conditions. I decided to go for the first option, allow myself three attempts and if those failed I would seek to land elsewhere. Coming in for the runway I had the tower controller constantly coming online and giving me the winds about every five seconds because the conditions were changing that rapidly. I would hear: "Winds 360 (coming from north) at 14 knots, gusting to 34" on one call and the next would be "Winds 360 at 20 knots gusting to 30." So my best bet was to come in a little faster on the approach. Why faster? Because the plane is more stable that way. At about 20 feet above the runway I kept a little bit of power in until I felt ok to pull the power and touch down. The last thing I wanted was to be coming in and have winds push me straight down into the runway from above me. There was plenty of runway to glide over for a little while before I would call a missed a approach and try again and I was getting close to that point. My hand went behind the throttle, getting ready to give full power and go around, but I felt a moment of calm come over the plane. Without any hesitation, pulled the power, dropped the remaining degrees of flaps and touched down. The landing was probably the smoothest one I've ever had considering I've never flown in those winds. Ya couldn't even feel the wheels touch the ground. All in all I realized what I can and can't do. While I was ok under those conditions and had everything mapped out, I'm not sure I would pick that situation again :)

Comments? Got your own flight stories for me to add? BIGGY@cycleforums.com

Flight: 2/14/2004 - Happy vday

Next to my check ride, I was looking forward to this flight the most. Mostly because it was a surprise flight for my girlfriend. So let's begin the story...
To start off I told my g/f (Kristin) that we were going out to dinner downtown Chicago, but I wouldn't let on to the name of the place we were going. I told her it was a surprise. What I really had in store was a 45 minute flight along the lake shore over to Michigan City for dinner at a nice place called Hannah's. I'd ridden there once before with a few biker buddies of mine and it was a great ride and place to eat so I figured why not. There were more things I needed to factor in for this flight. One was actually being able to fly there. Currently I'm only rated to fly in VFR conditions (see one of the first posts for description of VFR). So if the clouds were too low or the visibility too poor...I can't fly. Next I needed a rental car to be there waiting at the airport. I was fortunate enough to get some friendly Enterprise reps in the area who had no problems leaving the car with the keys in it since their offices would be closed by the time I land. And finally Hannah's was very understanding when I tried to make reservations with the time and date. See, if the weather would be bad for flying on Saturday, then I planned on making some excuse for getting out of dinner on Saturday with Kristin and see if the weather would be better on Sunday. Luckily the weather was ok for going.

Driving to her house I made all the phone calls to the airport, car rental place, and restaurant to announce that I'd be coming in. Now there was one additional catch. How the hell do I drive to the airport instead of going to the city? To get to the city it's a completely different route. No worries. I had an imaginary gift that I picked up for a buddy of mine which I had to drop off so he could give to his girlfriend. I had to fake a conversation on the phone with him while Kristin was sitting in the car with me, but she seemed ok with dropping off the gift. In fact I even faked getting on the expressway until she corrected me and told me to not forget to go to my buddy's house. Perfect. I had her in the palm of my hand. So we're chatting and chatting...just a minute or two from the airport I see the runways come in sight. So I make a small announcement..."Oh yea, and by the way, we're flying to Michigan for dinner." Kristin's voice skyrocketed in pitch as she flew back against the door saying "WHAT?!?! NO! WE'RE WHAT? WE CAN'T BE!" Which was fine because I still had to find a parking spot :) As I was getting out of the car, Kristin seemed to be nervous and not getting out, so I did the gentlemanly thing of opening her door for her...then dragging her out. Which really wasn't that easy. At this point her palms were as sweaty as can be, so her hand was a bit slippery. I think she was in a state of shock right up to the point of takeoff. Then everything became ok and she seemed very relaxed. About 40 minutes later we were touching down at Michigan City Municipal and making our way to the rental car awaiting us. Dinner was perfect. We hung out afterwards and talked for a while, then headed back home several hours later. Perfectly smooth flight there and back even though the clouds were a bit low...but no problems to report. Takeoffs, landings, and flight were as smooth as can be and it only took two weeks to prepare :) Only thing I regret is getting the New York strip steak instead of the fillet...damn!

Can you land a plane?

My last post about showing Brian landings got me thinking about a question that comes up on occasion. Guys are often the ones to jump in with a positive response on this one. "If the pilot of an airplane passes out, has a hear attack, etc...do you think you'd be able to fly the plane and land it?" Something like 75% of guys respond saying that they think they could handle it. The survey was asking about guys stepping up to the plate on a commercial jet too! Now looking at my last post we can see that the airplane I'm flying, a single engine Cessna 172 which cruises around 130-140mph, is not exactly comparable to a commercial jet that is 20 times the size of a Cessna, about 400mph faster, and has a lot more procedures to follow in order to land. And at the controls of the Cessna we have Brian...fairly capable of picking things up quickly and good at following instructions. Even with my hands still on the controls and guiding him real time with instructions...our results would not have been favorable if I let him continue with the controls. Forget about that, but even before telling him to release the controls I was making corrections for him the entire time anyway. This more or less answered the question for me about someone with no flying experience landing a plane in one piece. Forget about a Cessna...now let's move this up to a jet which is traveling much faster and requires a MUCH more precise touchdown on the runway. You get the idea.

In fact the other week one of my moms friends was asking me about flying because he was looking into taking lessons. To quote "How hard can it be? I can drive a car, right?" Well to answer...it can be very hard. When I started my lessons I not only drove a car, but I rode motorcycles, raced dirt bikes, went scuba diving, paragliding, and even sky diving. But flying relates to driving a car about as much as scuba diving and sky diving go together. Learning to fly is fun...but by no means is it easy. Coming in to land with the ground coming up at you around 500 feet per minute is a bit different than a stop sign coming up at the end of the block. Hell if I was on a commercial flight and the pilot got knocked out I'm not too sure that I would even be able to land the jet. Sure I'd know how to talk to the traffic controller and read all of the instruments, but I hope that auto-land feature would still be operative :) So before anyone decides to come charging up to the cockpit offering their brave skills in landing that 747...try taking an intro flight in that single engine plane and see if you've got that down first.

Your thoughts? BIGGY@cycleforums.com

Flight: 2/10/2004 - Up with a buddy

Nothing too eventful in this flight. One thing I actually decided to do on this skyline tour was to go for a full loop around the city. Generally to be on the safer side (and easier) I stay off the coast of the lake shore, then just turn around and head back north right along the lake. There are several reasons for this. Of you would like to do a circle around the downtown area then a pilot has to do several things. One is to stay away from O'hare by at least 6 miles. Another is that you have to be at least half a mile away from the downtown area. And let's not forget about Midway airport who's airspace must also be avoided. But it doesn't end there. Since Chicago is a populated area...I must be at least 1000 feet above the ground. This isn't really a problem, but at around 1100 feet above ground is O'hare's airspace. So I have a couple miles in each direction to move and I must hold the airplane between 1000 and 1100 feet. So factor in all those things and it turns out to be a much better skyline tour for the passengers while I keep a strict eye on the gauges and GPS. But the flight went pretty well and we headed back to the airport to practice some landings. Brian has always had an interest in flying but has enough other hobbies at this time that take up his attention. So I figured I'd have him help me land the plane. I explained how to land the plane and demonstrated on the first landing. Conditions were calm and clear with very little traffic at the airport, so we had the main runway all to ourselves. I had Brian attempt to land the plane the additional times, having him with his hands on the controls (while I kept a fairly tight grip myself). The whole time I would talk him through each step...reducing the power, dropping the flaps, turning carb heat on, making the turns, decent rate...well you get the idea. And pretty much each time I'd have to step in to make corrections. You don't think about how tough it is to learn until you're trying to show someone else. In any case after we taxied back to parking and shut down, Brian had tons of other technical questions which I was happy to answer. Other people asking questions helps keep me sharp as a pilot too :)

Flight: 2/1/2004 - First flight

So my dad's birthday came around this year. Rather than any gift, I figured I would hold off on flying after getting my license and take him up first. Our schedules worked out so that we could go up only in the evening...which in most other places would be pretty boring since there's little to see on the ground, but here in Chicago it might be more fun to fly at night than during the day with the nice view of the lit up city. Funny thing is that you don't realize just how much power and lights the city has until you see it from a birds eye view. Otherwise the flight was not very eventful...which I guess is a good thing. Lot's of questions as to what this does or how this works, which are actually fun to answer. I didn't really think about all of the things I had to learn in order to get my license until after it was all over with. It's only now when people ask a question about this or that, that I realize why it took so long to make it from start to finish. So we spun around the city, did a couple fairly steep turns, checked out the sights, and headed back. Total flight time was 1.0 hours.

Flight 1/18/2004 - Unexpected Checkride

Ahh yes, the checkride. A checkride is a flight with an examiner who either approves or declines your application for whatever pilot license you're striving for. This is the final point...and if you don't pass, then you go practice again and try again.

Originally my checkride was supposed to have been in early December. Thank god I live in Chicago where the weather will always be at it's worst when you need it. So after a month long delay and rescheduling three times, the day finally arrived...checkride day. There were two slight problems that day. One was that it was fairly windy. While not too windy to fly in general, probably not the best day for a test because you've got to be fairly precise when it comes to takeoffs, landings, and maneuvers. So I already had it in my mind that I would go over the oral portion of the test with the examiner (Leslie), and put off the flying portion for another day. The other problem was that the ground was completely covered with snow. Normally this isn't a problem because there are enough navigational instruments in the plane to find your way almost anywhere in the world, but on the checkride you are to fly using 'pilotage' only. Pilotage is basically looking at the flight map on your knee, then looking out the window to see what looks familiar and finding your way around. Cover everything you're used to seeing with snow and it becomes a real party!

The oral exam went pretty well. In fact I went into such detail with the answers that Leslie seemed a bit shocked. About four questions into the exam she said "I can see that you're more than prepared...so it's ok to just give me a one or two word answer." That's ok, I continued answering the questions throwing every bit of knowledge in my head that I could. I was even warned by other pilots and instructors not to answer more than necessary because I could go into a detail that is incorrect and cause myself to fail. And since both portions of the exam have to be more or less 100%, one wrong note could be an instant failure of the test. Other than that, the oral exam was pretty uneventful.

It was towards the end of the exam where I went through my speech of putting the flight off for a better day, then she asked if I would fly the plane that day assuming that I already had my license. My response was "Sure, not that bad of a day." Perhaps an incorrect response because Leslie then told me to do just as I would if I had my license. If she told me to do something and I felt unsafe or uncomfy doing it, then being the PIC (Pilot In Command), would have the option of not performing her request until the wind conditions changed or we were at the right airport/area to perform the assigned task. Next thing I knew...I was starting up the airplane and taxiing to the runway that the tower assigned me for departure. Not the best start to the flight. While I always knew where I was, I could not find my first or second checkpoints on the ground since everything was covered in snow. Checkpoints are usually a series of points on the ground that can be easily spotted and matched up on the flight map such as lakes, rivers, small towns, other airports, and intersections. You use checkpoints that are spaced out 5-20 miles if you want to fly somewhere without using the navigational instruments. In any case, Leslie seemed ok with this because I knew where we were and then instructed me to find a specific airport (Lake in the Hills). Not too difficult. Here we did several types of landings including an emergency landing with the engine out. From there we headed North to test my ability to recover from stalls, spins, and show the ability to turn the airplane at a steep bank angle. In one final test I had to put on special goggle which restrict your vision to only see your instrument panel while blocking out the outside world. This portion of the exam tests your ability to fly through conditions such as clouds or strong haze when you simply can't see anything. Here I had to use the navigational instruments to fly to certain points, keep my altitude, speed, and heading. No problems there either so it was back to the airport. Passed with flying colors. She rated me as being one of the top ten exams she's ever administered...but who knows, maybe that's the story told to everyone :)

Back inside there was some final paperwork, a picture that my instructor took (for their wall'o'fame), and I received my solo t-shirt back (see below). The thought of being a pilot still boggles my mind, time to go rent a plane in Hawaii and do some island hopping.

Flight: 12/10/2002 - All alone

This flight and several others that I will be posting took place quite some time ago, but was a big step...so I figured I would publish this flight and a few other key ones while catching up to my current flying.

Ok so this would be the first time I solo as a student. While the flight is actually quite short and you never go more than a mile or two from the airport, it's a stepping stone to getting your license. First time when you look over and there's no instructor next to you, first time the airplane is 100% in your hands, and first time you get to log the flight as you being the Pilot In Command (as opposed to 'Dual Instruction').

I was a student at Airway Flight Services, and learning to fly in a Cessna 172P. This plane is a whopper. Compared to a 737 which cruises at 500 knots (575mph) the 172 cruises at about 120 knots, seats four, and flies so easily that you would almost have to TRY to get it to crash..

So my instructor and I departed Palwaukee Municiple Airport (my current base where I now rent from) and we headed up to Waukegan Airport. Palwaukee is pretty busy for being a small airport so if you're looking to practice take-offs and landings then you're better off going to other airports where there isn't as much traffic. First I had to show my instructor that I could control the plane and actually perform the landings so we did three take-offs and landings together with no help from my instructor. After the third landing I waited to hear what my instructor would say. If I didn't perform up to par he would simply tell me to call the tower and request a departure to the south (back to Palwaukee), but before I could even think of that I heard him say "Call up the tower and request a taxi to parking." Ahhh, the magic words. I taxied the plane, we got out, did some final sign offs on my paper work, and I found myself sitting in the plane all alone just a few minutes later. What better way to second guess yourself on even making your initial radio call than to be sitting all alone. But it didn't take long for me to get over the anxiety of not having an instructor to fall back on and I made my way to the active runway.

During any normal 'first or initial solo', the process is pretty simple. Depart, do a full pattern, and land. Then you taxi back to the runway and the process repeats two more times for a total of three takeoff's and landings. In case anyone is wondering what the 'pattern' is, I'll explain. After departing you fly until you're about 500 feet above the ground then turn left or right 90 degrees depending on what the control tower tells you. So let's say the tower told you to do a left pattern...500 feet above ground I turn left and continue climbing until I'm about 1000 feet above the ground and half a mile to a mile away from the airport. At this point another 90 degree turn to the left and the plane is now parallel to the runway. It's on this leg of the flight that the descent begins. Power comes back, carb heat comes on, flaps begin coming in 10 degrees at a time, and next thing you know you're slowly descending. Eventually when you've passed the beginning of the runway you turn left again and get ready to line yourself up with the runway. At this point the runway is at a 90 degree angle to you and off to the left slightly. The final left turn should line you up with the center of the runway and now it's time to test those skills and land that baby. So basically the pattern is like flying a box formation.

To sum it up, I found it much easier to fly the plane without the instructor. While one of my landings was just a wee bit rough, the other two were so smooth that I didn't even feel the wheels touch the ground. I couldn't imagine the day when I'd be sitting at the controls of an airplane with no one else around, but that was the day. I picked up my instructor and we headed back to Palwaukee. As part of flying tradition it's customary for students to give the shirt they're wearing to the instructor and the instructor cuts it up and decorates it, then returns it to you when you get your pilots license. Good thing I knew this and wore a shirt that didn't really matter much to me :)

Introduction:

I'll take the opportunity in this first blog to introduce the idea of what drove me to begin blogging in the first place. One of my goals after college was to become a pilot. And after one and a half years and just under $10,000 I got a piece of paper that gave me permission to fly any single engine airplane that I desire and go anywhere as well. Of course I have both a paper and electronic pilot's logbook, but there's more words that describe any flight than would fit in the "Remarks" section of the pilot's logbook. So here we are! Hope everyone enjoys this and anyone who flies with me is more than welcome to submit their log for me to post. Email your general comments to me as well!

BIGGY@CYCLEFORUMS.COM

Mike (aka BIGGY)