Long Time No See, and An Aborted Takeoff

"I know, I know. It's been a long time, but I don't want you to blame yourself for this. It's not you, it's me. Please don't feel bad. It's not that I think we should part ways, I just felt that we needed some time apart, baby. You know... sometimes I need time to myself. I get busy... and you... you get needy, we get boring together baby, and I just have to leave for a while. But I'm back now, baby. I'm back for good. And I'm ready to treat you right baby. I'm a new man. Please baby, give me another chance. Please?"

Ever heard that before? I know, me neither. But I felt like injecting some good ol' humor into this blog. It went missing for a while.

By the way, don't you hate it when people apologize on their blog for not updating their blog often enough? I do too! So... the above paragraph was not an apology, it was consolation. I hope everyone feels better now. Can we move on?

So, I've been flying a good amount for the past few weeks. I'd say an average of a couple of times a week. I've been flying by myself, and with my instructor, continuing to learn new exercises. When I fly by myself, I'm still only allowed to fly circuits with normal, soft field and and short field landings and take-offs, with obstructions. But, I'm not yet allowed to venture away from the airport. That privilege comes after I'm efficient at doing precautionary and forced landings.

It's a lot of information I wrote in the paragraph above, but I'll break it down a bit.

To start off, I have a good story from today. I was booked to fly solo today, just to practice circuits. I did as I do every time, walk around, got into the airplane, turned things on, checklists, etc. Everything went smoothly, and after I got permission, I began taxiing to the active runway.

During my taxi, the communications radio was giving me trouble. There was an intermittent loud, squelching noise, but I figured it would go away, and it eventually did. It did keep on coming back and forth as I was taxiing and waiting to be cleared to take off. The takeoff clearance eventually came, and as I lined up the airplane on the runway and pushed the throttle in, the noise came back in full force.

I was then faced with a decision: Do I continue the takeoff knowing that I'll be in the air with the possibility of not being able to (or having great difficulty) communicate with the tower, or do I cut the throttle and abort the takeoff while I can?

Well, before you can say (insert whatever word it is someone would say that people say when they say this phrase), I cut the throttle, put on the breaks, made sure that I still had total control of the airplane, and that the airplane was safe, and then, over the squelching noise, I told tower that I'm "aborting takeoff due to radio failure". As I said that, The nice air traffic control lady at the tower was patient and understanding, and calm.

Aborting this takeoff was not not as bad as it sounds. I realized that I wasn't comfortable to get in the air right away, and there was still plenty of runway left to stop the airplane. Aborting takeoffs can become dangerous under certain circumstances. The longer you wait, the more dangerous it becomes to abort a takeoff, due to runway length, breaking distance, and being close to the airplane's rotation speed.

An interesting thing to note is that aborting takeoffs is much less common than aborting landings. Takeoffs are considered a more critical time than landings. This is because when landing, an airplane is already in the state it wants to be in - flying. The most stable state for an airplane to be in is flying high and fast. While landing does require the airplane to fly low and slow, it is still in a less critical state than the transition of an airplane on the ground, close to it's rotation (takeoff) speed. The airplane is not as stable at this time, and is actually close to a state of stalling.

Whoa, I went off on a tangent there. Anyway, I didn't get to fly today, but I did learn a valuable lesson - my own personal limits and comfort, while being faced with split-second decision making situations. These kinds of situations are hard to find, for me at least, in normal day to day life. It is why I love flying... It's like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna etc. And you better role with the punches.

I still have to talk to you about precautionary landings and forced landings - two procedure-heavy exercises with lots of big words and interesting maneuvers. We will cover these exercises in the next post, which I promise won't be too far off from now.

Thanks for reading.

Post-publication note: I've just been rudely informed that I have been accused of ripping off my girlfriends' blog in my first paragraph. To this, I can only respond by rejecting this false accusation and stating that I have never once actually read my girlfriends' blog. I just tell her I do, because she's so needy that way. Read her blog though, it's a good one.

On Deciding When to Remain Grounded

At this point of my flight training, it's hard for me to describe the kind of focus that I need to attain in order to feel comfortable flying an airplane by myself.

(Isn't that quite the opening sentence for a blog post? Poignant, to the point, with a bit of melodrama thrown in. Not to be confused with Melo-drama...)

That is why today, as I held the keys to the airplane I would be flying, I decided to give them back.

I've had a lot of things on my mind. Things that don't relate to flying. Things that everyone goes through at one time or another. But I suppose it's my time to go through them. Things that are potentially lifestyle-changing, finances and living situations. Some people don't let those things get in the way. But in my own experiences, situations such as these do affect my clarity of mind.

And so today was a very important lesson learned for me. Not that I learned it through a mistake, for second chances in the air are hard to come by.

I got to the airport about a half hour earlier than my booking. I knew I needed to do performance calculations, weight and balance calculations, as well as be grilled on emergency procedures by a duty-pilot, which is part of flying solo for students.

I'm not going to go into great detail, for I fear I may lose your interest, but through doing the calculations, trying to remember emergency procedures, and trying to get myself psyched up for flying, I could tell something was off with me. I had to re-do a few of my calculations, I had to brush up on my emergency procedures because I answered wrong when I was questioned about a procedure. I was at the airport for about an hour and a half before I was finally given the go-ahead to fly. As I stated above, once I got the keys, I decided that I better stay grounded today.

I've read some about the importance of not flying if you're lacking sleep, if you are sick, or if there are other big worries in your life. It's a common topic that comes up in the industry. Fatigue has been documented to cause many accidents in the air, as has an unfocused mind. I think having that knowledge influenced my decision of not to fly today.

I was given the choice of whether to fly or not. In the end I decided not to, but it was a close call. I contemplated it for a while, but looking back, the decision should have been easier and quicker. I think that as jumbled as my brain was, because of other worries, I had a hard time even getting my head wrapped around a decisions as small as flying or not. In the end though, sound judgement pulled through.

Funny enough, this feels as important a lesson as I have learned since I began my training. Thought it was a bit embarrassing to give the keys back and tell the duty-pilot that I'm probably not fit to fly, I'm still glad I did it. Who knows? Chances are it would all be fine, really. Chances are that I'd realize I'm sitting in a tin can with wings and it's up to me to fly it, and I'd focus right there and then. But there are no second chances in the sky.

In the past I've stated that flying keeps me grounded - almost like meditation. In the past, flying has made me forget about small worries, and made me focus on an exhilarating experience. But how about this for change? Sometimes staying grounded, will keep me flying.

This is one weird blog post. Sorry you had to go through that.

Shout-out to Adam! Thanks for your support, on AND off the court!

Another First... should have thought about it that way

A picture I snapped after my first solo "lesson". Can you see the total bewilderment in my eyes? Look deep. Look hard.

Hello Person!

I had another lesson today. I use the word "lesson" loosely, as it was just me and the airplane this time. Though, I'm sure that in the future, referring to renting an airplane and flying it on my own as a "lesson", will come in handy, as it will remind me that what I should be doing is practicing, getting better at the art of flying, instead of just flying around.

Regardless, today was the first time I rented an airplane on my own, and was responsible for it from the time I ignited the engine to the time I turned it off.

It caught me by surprise, as I took off for the first time today, that I felt quite anxious. It was that feeling that I talk about in prior posts, of not feeling comfortable in the airplane, not being one with it. Kind of wishing that the lesson would be over. It shouldn't have surprised me though. I should know by now that these feelings will happen from time to time. Taking into account that it was a "first" for me, and that I hadn't flown in almost two weeks, and that it was only my second time flying an airplane on my own... I should have seen it coming.

On to the lesson though. Before Dispatch gave me the keys to the plane, they tested me thoroughly, making sure all my paperwork is in order and that I have all my performance calculations and weight & balance calculations in order. They also asked me some questions about emergency procedures and normal procedures, that in all honesty, I didn't answer as well as I thought I knew them. It's ok. It's part of the process I suppose, but it's something that I'll have to study and improve on for next time. Regardless, I answered the questions, or maybe corrected my answers, well enough that they gave me the keys to the airplane in the end.

For the flight itself, I decided I would just work on normal circuits today, just to acquaint myself and get used to flying on my own. I ended up only doing three circuits before I called it quits. This was due mainly to heavy traffic. After every circuit, I needed to wait in a line-up of airplanes waiting to take off, which cut into my flying time a whole bunch today. That fact, coupled with the fact that after three circuits, I felt like I had enough for today, resulted in me only being in the air for a half hour (0.5 hrs) today. Figuring that it was my first "lesson" alone today, I think it was the right call. I have another booking for Thursday, where I can hopefully fly some more, but for the first time doing this, I learned enough in that half hour.

In the second circuit that I flew, there was lots of traffic ahead of me in-line to land. When I got to the place where I usually turn for the base leg, I called the tower to tell them I'm turning base. The tower informed me that I will have to extend my down-wind, due to traffic ahead of me (on final approach). What they meant, was that I have to wait before my turn to base, in order to keep the right spacing. And so, I extended the down-wind far beyond the point where I usually turn to base. After about 30 seconds of extending the down-wind leg, I got permission to turn to base, and I did so. But when I tried to look out the window for the airport, I couldn't find it. Funny what a 30 second difference will do in an airplane.

I made sure not to panic at this point. I did know the relative direction the airport would be at, but I just couldn't spot it at the moment, and so I flew that direction. At the point the tower told me that I'm cleared to land, I decided to make the relatively embarrassing call to the tower. Paraphrasing, it went something like this:
Me: "Buttonville Tower, this is Romeo Foxtrot India, I'm a student pilot, and I can't find the airport."

At the moment I said that, I found the airport. It was to my right. I wasn't that far off the approach path of the runway, but I did need to adjust my heading, and make a slight right turn. This happened because I didn't fly the base-leg long enough. In other-words, I kind of cut a corner too short there.

By the time I realized all of this, the tower responded to me "Romeo Fox India, no worries, I see you there to the East of the airport, just make a slight right turn."

I responded that I found my bearings.

While the feeling of being "lost" was not a fun one to experience, it was still an experience. It would happen at some point. Better to happen sooner than later, I think. And it might still happen again, as I believe my weakest suite of piloting, is navigation. Just another thing to work on.

I'll mention that I also forgot to do my pre-landing check list because of the whole commotion. Not to worry though, I did it on final, and everything went smoothly. As stated above, all of my landings today were very smooth. I also made sure to thank the all-mighty tower person for his help, before I left his frequency.

Hopefully I get back to myself on Thursday. See you then.

Short & Soft field Take-offs & Landings... and a Flooded Eingine

Another lesson learned, another step taken.

The next lesson after my big "First Solo" day, was learning how to take off and land in different situations. I learned how to take-off and land in a short-field situation, which means a short runway. I also learned how to take-off and land in a soft field situation, which, one might guess, is a runway made out of grass!

Different techniques are involved in each situation. Without getting too technical, the take-offs in these situations are made with 10 degrees of flaps, and with back pressure on the controls, as well as a few other technical details. This causes the airplane to become airborne at a slower speed - just before 50 knots, while the normal speed for the airplane to become airborne is around 60knots.

Because 50 knots is close to a stalling speed, we use a technique of floating across the runway in order to gain more speed once the airplane is airborne. So, basically, once the airplane becomes airborne, we glide across the runway at about 10 feet height in order to gain sufficient speed in order to go into a safe climb. Once we reach about 68 knots, I can then put some more back-pressure on the controls to get into a normal climb.

While one needs to remain extremely focused in this situation, these types of take-offs are loads of fun to preform.

The landings are a bit different as well. They are preformed with 40 degrees of flaps, and an approach speed of 52 knots. This is also near the stalling speed, and one must remain very diligent not to go below 52 knots in this situation. The normal approach speed of the airplane I fly is around 60 knots... depending on how many degrees of flaps I have extended.

I didn't get to land at 52 knots this lesson yet, because I just began practicing these types of landings, but the more I practice them, the more I'll feel comfortable going at a slower speed on the approach.

You can find more information about short-field and soft-field techniques HERE.

Speaking of practice, yesterday I took another big step in my training, but not before making a bit of a fool of myself.

After a few Short & Soft field take-offs and landings, Eric, my instructor, told me to go park the airplane. Once I did, he explained to me that from now on I can schedule an airplane when I want, and, weather permitting, go up by myself and practice circuits to my hearts content - and to my wallet's discontent...

We walked into the airport dispatch desk to fill out some paper-work relating to me being able to rent an airplane on my own. Once we filled everything out, and he explained everything to me, I was off to fly my first practice flight on my own!

I got to the airplane we just flew, and here's where things get a little embarrassing for me. But I will have to preface this with an explanation.

Modern cars have something called an "automatic fuel injection system". As far as I understand, this system injects fuel into the engine when one starts up a car. In the old days, one had to pump the gas pedal in order to inject fuel into the engine while starting it up. Well, the Cessna 150 is from the old days. It has a manual pump called a "prime", that one has to pump a couple of times before attempting to start the engine.

Since we just flew the airplane, and the airplane was still warm, it's safe to assume that the engine needed very little priming. I, instead, gave it the usual number of pumps. The engine wouldn't start. I tried a couple of times, but no dice.

Well, it was the walk of shame back to the dispatch desk. I told them what happened, and they explained to me that I probably flooded the engine. It's not that much of a big deal, it does happen. There are different techniques to try to start the engine when it's flooded, which I did not attempt, because I knew well that there's a chance of starting an engine fire when the engine's flooded. Now, I could live with a flooded engine, but starting an engine fire is not something anyone wants to do, let alone do the first time they are laden with the responsibility of flying an airplane on their own for the first time.

I'll give it a go on my next booking. It should be a lot of fun to practice circuits on my own!

Next lesson I have with Eric, I will learn how to take-off and land with obstacles on the approach and take-off paths!

See you back here soon!

My First Solo!

My first solo flight - February 11, 2011 - Cessna 150 C-GSCP

Finally!

Yesterday was, as they said it would be, a day I'll never forget. I got a message from Eric, my instructor at about 6am confirming the lesson for 10am. I couldn't fall back asleep, predicting that this was probably the day I would get to fly solo.

I got to the airport, got the airplane ready, and we were off to fly some more touch-and-go circuits. After two or three circuits, Eric told me to land the airplane, and go back to the main apron (the part of the airport where airplanes are parked). I did so, and when we shut down, Eric asked me a few emergency questions.

When he felt I answered the satisfactorily, he reassured me that I've been flying the airplane all along, making most of the decisions, and to trust myself to make the right decisions, and with that, he stepped out of the airplane. He instructed me to fly one circuit and come back to park the plane.

It was a weird, but invigorating feeling to go through the start-up checklists by myself. I took my time to make sure I didn't miss anything on the checklist. As I turned the ignition on, and the propeller began to move, a smile came over my ugly face. This was it. I was going to fly an airplane on my own.

I got on the radios to ask for permission to taxi to the active runway for a circuit. Hearing my own voice in my headset actually comforted me. I think I was expecting to sound nervous, but instead my voice sounded calm and collected.

I got permission to taxi, and started taxiing down to the active runway.

When I got to the active runway, there must have been the heaviest traffic that I've encountered yet. there were two airplanes ahead of me waiting to take off, as well as about five airplanes lined up to land. This made for a lot of "holding" time, but it was good for me. It gave me a chance to double check everything and settle into the moment.

"Buttonville Tower, Sierra Charlie Papa ready for take-off Runway 33" I said.

"Sierra Charlie Papa, negative, hold for landing traffic" said ATC. Right, yet another airplane approaching to land. Some more time to think.

And then finally I heard "Sierra Charlie Papa cleared for take-off Runway 33".

I taxied onto the runway, and slowly pushed the throttle. I got to 60 Knots, pushed up, and there I was, in the air.

About 100 feet up, the reality of the situation hit me. I remember thinking to myself "Ok, I'm up in the air in an airplane. It's all up to me to get this thing down to the ground safely". And so I said to myself, out loud: "focus at the task at hand". And from there on, I was locked in and focused.

The flight itself was relatively smooth. I didn't have to follow any traffic on the approach. That would have made things a bit more nerve-wrecking, but I would have managed it as well. The approach and landing was very smooth - probably the best landing I had done that day.

I did it - and I managed to do it without injuring anyone or anything, and it felt incredible. Great success! Taxiing back to the main apron, I had a permanent smile on myself. All I could think to myself was "Wow, finally, I did it".

Eric came over to the airplane, and asked me how it was. I hugged him and said "It was a dream come true". It's not what he wanted to hear. It's not what anyone who asked me how my first solo flight was expects to hear. He wanted to hear how the flight went - technically. But the flight itself was good, smooth, uneventful - just the way I expected it to be. But what it really was, was a dream come true. It's the first thing I've said to anyone who's asked me the question since yesterday, because it's simply the truth.

This solo flight has been a long time coming. A really long time. This winter has been a write-off for flying so far. Had everything gone smoothly, I could have flown this solo flight a couple of months ago. But I'm starting to realize that things hardly ever go smoothly when you deal with airplanes, and flight. Still, being up in the air makes up for all the troubles you go through on the ground.

I have gotten lots of congratulatory messages on Facebook and what not over the past 24 hours. My parents were ecstatic to hear about my accomplishment. It's felt really good. The road is still long and difficult from hear on. I've realized a dream, but I have bigger dreams for myself regarding aviation that will be harder to realize. But the support I've gotten from my friends and family, and my girlfriend, has been amazing so far. I have a lot to be thankful for.

So thank you! See you back here soon.

Back at it!

Hey there! did you miss me?

Well, after more than a month of not flying due to the weather and a rather brutal flu that I caught, I managed to catch a lesson yesterday, finally.

Since I haven't flown so long, this lesson consisted of circuits reviews. Yesterday was probably the windiest day that I had flown yet. I had some major crosswinds on the landings, so much so that I ended up no flaps on my landings.

Using no flaps on landings makes for some interesting approaches and landings. Since the airplane tends to glide much more when no flaps are retracted, the whole angle of descend is a much less steeper angle than if I would be landing with flaps. This means that I have to plan my approaches differently compared to when I land with flaps. The profile of the runway also looks different since you're approaching at a shallower angle.

After not flying an airplane for so long, I expected myself to feel uncomfortable in the airplane. It's happened to me before, where there's a few weeks where I don't fly because of weather, and when I get into the airplane, It's almost like I have to learn everything from scratch again.

While I did shoot some blanks the first time I spoke on the radios, I quickly got over it and focused on what I had to do. Even with the winds being as strong as they were, I handled the airplane well. I had no anxiety about it, I just made sure to focus at the task at hand and be sure of myself. When it comes time for my first solo flight (and I know I've been mentioning it for months - outside circumstances have prevented me from soloing, but I think it's coming up sooner rather than later), I know that staying focused and being sure of myself are the things I'll need to do when I'm in the airplane alone for the first time.

I apologies for not keeping you up to date, but on the other hand it really didn't seem like anyone cared. I did promise to myself that I'll keep this blog thing going, so I'm sticking to my promise - whether you like it or not!!

Please come visit me again.

Cheers

Supervisory Flight: 2nd Edition

Hello!
It's time for another update!

I hope Y'all had a great New Years holiday. I also wish all of the two followers who read this blog a happy and successful year ahead!

Onto business. I've actually had a couple of lessons since my last update. Today I had a supervisory flight. A lesson that is essential before I get the go ahead for my first solo flight. I was accompanied by another instructor, another eye into my progress, and I was more or less tested on my knowledge and abilities in performing circuits, which is what I'll be doing in my first solo flight.

I think it went well. The instructor threw some things at me that I wasn't expecting, in flight, and on the ground. There were some theoretical/technical questions that I had to answer about certain airspeed required for certain operations, as well as some questions about the mechanics of the plane.

In the air, the instructor conducted two emergency landing procedures which I have not practiced before. One of them was a landing with a flaps failure. When flaps are extended from the wings, they change the aerodynamics of the wing, thereby helping it slow down, change it's angle of attack, and produce more drag, which helps for landing. You can read more about flaps HERE.

With the flaps not retracted, the airplane tends to glide longer, and is harder to bring down to the ground. I learned this quickly my first time around. I didn't judge the rate of decent well enough, as this was my first time experiencing a landing in this configuration. I decided to abort the landing in the last second as I noticed I was running out of runway. We went around again, and this time I had a much better result. I managed to put the airplane on the ground nicely.

Another emergency procedure we practiced was a failed air-speed indicator. Air-speed is one very important consideration for a landing, as well as many parts of flight. Pilots, especially beginner pilots, tend to rely on their airspeed indicator heavily. During landing, if you go too slow, you may stall the airplane, if you go too fast, you'll have a hard time putting the airplane on the ground.

The instructor put a piece of paper on the airspeed indicator in order to block it from my view. I was left with only my senses available to judge the speed I was going at. I'll admit that it was relatively scary. Formerly, I've depended heavily on the air-speed indicator. Maybe a little too much. This exercise taught me to rely on my senses when landing. To feel when the airplane is going too fast or too slow by looking outside and by feeling the tendencies of the airplane. I managed to get the airplane on the ground, though my speed was faster than the 60 knots needed to land, my instructor commented that it's better to be faster than slower. It was a very important exercise for me to do, for if I am ever faced with such a situation, I'll know what to do.

Overall, I think the flight went well. The instructor and I had a talk after the flight. He had some comments about certain things, as well as some very useful tips. After asking me how many hours I had flown, he said that I'm ahead of the game and that there's definite potential for me at the commercial pilot level. All nice things to hear, of course.

Next up is another lesson back with my usual instructor. It's all up to him, but there's a good chance, depending on my abilities, and the weather and such, that I may go solo.

Solo'ng :)