Hey there, how are you? I know we just spoke yesterday, but I had my check ride today so I thought I'd quickly update you, and myself.
So here we go, the flight was scheduled for 9:00am, weather conditions were less than favourable with cloudy skies, precipitation to the north and east (which is where the practice areas are), and winds gusting to 22 Knots (about 50 Km/H).
We went up anyway. As stated in previous postings, I was accompanied by a different instructor this time around. Check flights are done to have another set of eyes evaluate my progress, and also evaluate my instructor's progress. Having said that, I think that it's a relatively informal process. Today's instructor didn't go too hard on me. Though, taking into account the bad turbulence, poor visibility at times, and having a new instructor, I felt that I didn't perform as good as I usually do. Our radio quality was poor and I found myself having to ask him to repeat instructions.
If you think you've experienced bad turbulence during a flight on an airliner, then flying in turbulent weather in a small Cessna is a whole different story. The effects of the turbulence can cause the airplane to yaw, roll, descend, and ascend, all without control inputs from the pilot. There were times today where I felt like the airplane just did it's own thing for about a half a second.
We also experienced precipitation during the flight, which reduced visibility, and generally just made me a bit nervous. For no good reason though. Cessnas are built to take this kind of weather. It's just a matter of me getting used to the effects the weather has on the airplane.
I tried to search Youtube for a video that would show the kind of turbulence I experienced today, but I could only find this video below, which does show some turbulence as well as percipitation, but not as heavy as I experienced today. Take a look if you wish:
Due to the limitations that the weather conditions imposed on us, the instructor only told me to perform a limited amount of exercises. We only did some side slips, and one spiral. If weather conditions would be better, he would get me to do stalls, slow flight, steep turns, etc.
All in all it was important for me to have another instructor for a lesson. Some of the details within procedures are preformed differently, some of the explanations differ from instructor to instructor, and I also got some useful tips.
I'll also mention that I passed my Radio exam. Not sure of the mark because it just says "passed". So that's a good thing. From a bookkeeping point of view I will be authorized to fly solo when my instructor and an evaluator deems me worthy. In the meantime though, I'm going to Cuba! for a week. That's right, I believe that the official name of Cuba should end with an exclamation mark. Cuba!
So no flying for me this week. Oh wait, I guess getting to Cuba! involves me flying there. But I'll be a passenger this time. It will be my first time getting in an airliner since I started my flight training. It will be interesting to see and guess all of the procedures as they are happening.
So that's about it. Other than that, I'll check in with you after next week.
Cuba!
Friday, October 29, 2010
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Crummy
Ok, time for another blog post, even though I haven't had the check flight yet this week. I was supposed to have it Tuesday morning, but that was cancelled due to crummy October weather. I re-booked the flight for today, but it was cancelled yet again due to crummy October weather. I told the story twice because I enjoy using the word 'crummy'. There, I did it again. Crummy.
I'm going to try to cover a couple of points in this blog. I wanted to tell you that I took both the Radio Certificate exam, and the PSTAR (Student Pilot License) exam this week.
I was told that the Radio Certificate exam would be a relatively easy one for me. I think I fell for it. It was harder than I thought. I haven't gotten the results back yet, but I hope I passed. 70% is a passing mark for that exam. I hope common sense prevailed in my answers and that I passed.
As stated above, I also took the PSTAR exam today. It's a 50 multiple choice question exam. The questions are drawn out of a pool of about 200 questions that are given to the student to study. One needs a 90% mark to pass this exam, which is no more than five wrong answers in order to pass. Since the Radio exam caught me by surprise, you can be sure I studied hard for this exam. I ended up getting 100% on it. Fantabulous.
I also wanted to discuss a bit of a wishy-washy subject - the reactions I receive when I tell people that I'm taking flying lessons. As you can imagine, the reactions vary widely. I never know quite what to expect when I tell people that I'm studying to become a pilot - be it old friends, current friends, random people I stop on the streets at night. This fact makes it a wildly entertaining activity. I've gotten anything from "why the hell would you want to do that?" to "I'm jealous of you" to "are you still doing back flips in the air?" - the latter coming from my dear mom.
The responses I enjoy most are the people who come back at me with questions that stem from their own interest in aviation. If you're an aviation enthusiast at any level, chances are that you'll have looked into aviation, read up about it, gone to air shows, looked up to the heavens when you hear a jetliner roar by, gone to the gas station just to sniff the fumes (?). It's something that people gravitate towards naturally if they have an interest in it. The funny thing is that the questions I get from these people, I usually can't answer definitively, since they usually have to do with commercial aviation, airline procedures, etc. I'm not at that level yet, and one day I hope to be. But because my interest is geared towards this subject, I have read a lot about all kinds of aviation, and I do love talking aviation to people who share the same interests.
I don't want to sound vain, but there are also those who look at me as a person who is doing something extraordinary when I tell them that I'm taking flight lessons. Although I agree that aviation is weird and different world, I maintain that I don't look at what I'm doing as an extraordinary thing. Quite the opposite. I'm taking flight lessons because I felt I had to. I was spending hours a day reading up on aviation. It started to eat me up inside, I needed to experience. It was quite blatant and natural for me. Something I had to do. There are hours upon hours of monologues regarding aviation that my girlfriend had to hear, and will never get back.
About 95% of the people I talk to know someone who is a pilot. It's a reoccurring theme in my conversations. Everyone knows someone who flies a plane. And if you don't? Well then, I'm happy to be that person in your life. But if you're going to look at me in high regard, do it because I'm working on fulfilling a life long dream. Not because I'm learning how to fly. I believe that almost anyone can learn how to fly. Chasing a dream, however, is harder.
Every time I go for a lesson, I feel fortunate to be able to do it. With all the constraints one has to deal with - money, time, weather, etc., I consider myself lucky to be able to chase this dream. It's given some new meaning to my life and blah blah blah.
I just realized this post isn't going anywhere. I said what I have to say. I hope that mild enjoyment was experienced by the reader. I have a lesson booked for tomorrow morning. Hopefully the crummy October crummy weather crummy doesn't intervene.
I'm going to try to cover a couple of points in this blog. I wanted to tell you that I took both the Radio Certificate exam, and the PSTAR (Student Pilot License) exam this week.
I was told that the Radio Certificate exam would be a relatively easy one for me. I think I fell for it. It was harder than I thought. I haven't gotten the results back yet, but I hope I passed. 70% is a passing mark for that exam. I hope common sense prevailed in my answers and that I passed.
As stated above, I also took the PSTAR exam today. It's a 50 multiple choice question exam. The questions are drawn out of a pool of about 200 questions that are given to the student to study. One needs a 90% mark to pass this exam, which is no more than five wrong answers in order to pass. Since the Radio exam caught me by surprise, you can be sure I studied hard for this exam. I ended up getting 100% on it. Fantabulous.
I also wanted to discuss a bit of a wishy-washy subject - the reactions I receive when I tell people that I'm taking flying lessons. As you can imagine, the reactions vary widely. I never know quite what to expect when I tell people that I'm studying to become a pilot - be it old friends, current friends, random people I stop on the streets at night. This fact makes it a wildly entertaining activity. I've gotten anything from "why the hell would you want to do that?" to "I'm jealous of you" to "are you still doing back flips in the air?" - the latter coming from my dear mom.
The responses I enjoy most are the people who come back at me with questions that stem from their own interest in aviation. If you're an aviation enthusiast at any level, chances are that you'll have looked into aviation, read up about it, gone to air shows, looked up to the heavens when you hear a jetliner roar by, gone to the gas station just to sniff the fumes (?). It's something that people gravitate towards naturally if they have an interest in it. The funny thing is that the questions I get from these people, I usually can't answer definitively, since they usually have to do with commercial aviation, airline procedures, etc. I'm not at that level yet, and one day I hope to be. But because my interest is geared towards this subject, I have read a lot about all kinds of aviation, and I do love talking aviation to people who share the same interests.
I don't want to sound vain, but there are also those who look at me as a person who is doing something extraordinary when I tell them that I'm taking flight lessons. Although I agree that aviation is weird and different world, I maintain that I don't look at what I'm doing as an extraordinary thing. Quite the opposite. I'm taking flight lessons because I felt I had to. I was spending hours a day reading up on aviation. It started to eat me up inside, I needed to experience. It was quite blatant and natural for me. Something I had to do. There are hours upon hours of monologues regarding aviation that my girlfriend had to hear, and will never get back.
About 95% of the people I talk to know someone who is a pilot. It's a reoccurring theme in my conversations. Everyone knows someone who flies a plane. And if you don't? Well then, I'm happy to be that person in your life. But if you're going to look at me in high regard, do it because I'm working on fulfilling a life long dream. Not because I'm learning how to fly. I believe that almost anyone can learn how to fly. Chasing a dream, however, is harder.
Every time I go for a lesson, I feel fortunate to be able to do it. With all the constraints one has to deal with - money, time, weather, etc., I consider myself lucky to be able to chase this dream. It's given some new meaning to my life and blah blah blah.
I just realized this post isn't going anywhere. I said what I have to say. I hope that mild enjoyment was experienced by the reader. I have a lesson booked for tomorrow morning. Hopefully the crummy October crummy weather crummy doesn't intervene.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Spiral Dives, Side-slip Slides, and Tongue-twisters
Hey thanks for coming back for more of my scribblings. This morning brought another flying lesson with it.
This lesson included spiral dives and an air exercise called 'Slipping'. Spiral Dives can happen in a few different ways, but most of these ways occur because the pilot wasn't paying attention or because the pilot became momentarily disoriented, which can occur when a pilot who's untrained in flying into clouds, flies into a cloud.
Spiral dives aren't as scary looking as spins, but can be more dangerous due to the nose down attitude of the airplane, and rapidly increasing air-speeds. If one isn't careful in gently pulling out of a spiral, or doesn't recognize when a spiral is happening, the airframe of the airplane can become stressed to the point of critical damage due to the high airspeeds and add G forces. You can read more about spiral dives here if you wish. Spiral dives were a fun exercise for me to practice, even though it was probably the most dangerous exercise to attempt.
When it comes to 'slipping', there are a few different types. Slipping is a maneuver in which the pilot uses cross controls (left rudder pedal and right aileron input, or vice versa) in order to accomplish either a fast loss of altitude without threat of damage to the airframe, a turn while needing to lose altitude quickly, or as a technique for landing with a crosswind ( a wind that is not directly aligned with the runway, but is instead approaching the airplane from either side). You can read more about side slips and forward slips here.
It's a good thing we practiced the latter, because during today's approach and landing I did encounter some cross-wind, and I did have to perform a side-slip landing. A side-slip landing looks something like this, except the guy in this video did a heck of a job landing the airplane. My landing was a bit rougher but I was still pretty happy with it, taking into account it was my first slide-slip try, and I was quite surprised by the amount of input you have to apply on the controls. Take a look at the movement of the flight stick in this video:
It really is a fun way to land, but you do have to be on top of your game, as the wind direction and strength change, so do your flight control inputs. As well, during a slide-slip landing, the landing is preformed with only one of the wheels touching down first due to the configuration of the side-slip.
My apologies if this is getting too technical for some. I only speak this way because I don't have much else to talk about. Though there was a couple of other things that are worth mentioning.
I was assigned an airplane this morning with the callsign FFHH (that's Foxtrot Foxtrot Hotel Hotel), quite the tongue twister for a beginner pilot such as myself. I did the walk around checklist, made sure everything is fine, we got in the airplane, turned the engine on, and a weird sound was audible. I mentioned it to my instructor, and he instructed me to turn off the engine as he took a look outside. He came back and said that we're not going to fly that airplane today. He proceeded to show me what was wrong - two pieces of metal that looked like they were harnessing the prop, or maybe just covering it, were lose. I saw two screws missing. and the parts were lose. It was probably nothing, but it was creating the sound we heard, and since we were going to practice some extreme flying, it was probably best to have the engineers take a look at the airplane.
So we got another airplane with the call-sign Echo Yankee Whiskey. I was glad we got another airplane, only because I wouldn't have to repeat Foxtrot Foxtrot Hotel Hotel on the radios again. Whew.
What's up next? Well, I have a check-ride next lesson. That's when another instructor takes me up, and monitors my progress on everything I've learned up to now. It's not a test, more of a progress report. I'm looking forward to hearing someone else's point of view on how I'm progressing.
It's also crunch time for me to take my radio license test and my PSTAR test, as my solo flight is coming up. Yes, my solo flight. I'm 12.5 hours in, and my instructor is talking to me about flying solo. Should be fun times coming up, I'll keep you posted.
This lesson included spiral dives and an air exercise called 'Slipping'. Spiral Dives can happen in a few different ways, but most of these ways occur because the pilot wasn't paying attention or because the pilot became momentarily disoriented, which can occur when a pilot who's untrained in flying into clouds, flies into a cloud.
Spiral dives aren't as scary looking as spins, but can be more dangerous due to the nose down attitude of the airplane, and rapidly increasing air-speeds. If one isn't careful in gently pulling out of a spiral, or doesn't recognize when a spiral is happening, the airframe of the airplane can become stressed to the point of critical damage due to the high airspeeds and add G forces. You can read more about spiral dives here if you wish. Spiral dives were a fun exercise for me to practice, even though it was probably the most dangerous exercise to attempt.
When it comes to 'slipping', there are a few different types. Slipping is a maneuver in which the pilot uses cross controls (left rudder pedal and right aileron input, or vice versa) in order to accomplish either a fast loss of altitude without threat of damage to the airframe, a turn while needing to lose altitude quickly, or as a technique for landing with a crosswind ( a wind that is not directly aligned with the runway, but is instead approaching the airplane from either side). You can read more about side slips and forward slips here.
It's a good thing we practiced the latter, because during today's approach and landing I did encounter some cross-wind, and I did have to perform a side-slip landing. A side-slip landing looks something like this, except the guy in this video did a heck of a job landing the airplane. My landing was a bit rougher but I was still pretty happy with it, taking into account it was my first slide-slip try, and I was quite surprised by the amount of input you have to apply on the controls. Take a look at the movement of the flight stick in this video:
It really is a fun way to land, but you do have to be on top of your game, as the wind direction and strength change, so do your flight control inputs. As well, during a slide-slip landing, the landing is preformed with only one of the wheels touching down first due to the configuration of the side-slip.
My apologies if this is getting too technical for some. I only speak this way because I don't have much else to talk about. Though there was a couple of other things that are worth mentioning.
I was assigned an airplane this morning with the callsign FFHH (that's Foxtrot Foxtrot Hotel Hotel), quite the tongue twister for a beginner pilot such as myself. I did the walk around checklist, made sure everything is fine, we got in the airplane, turned the engine on, and a weird sound was audible. I mentioned it to my instructor, and he instructed me to turn off the engine as he took a look outside. He came back and said that we're not going to fly that airplane today. He proceeded to show me what was wrong - two pieces of metal that looked like they were harnessing the prop, or maybe just covering it, were lose. I saw two screws missing. and the parts were lose. It was probably nothing, but it was creating the sound we heard, and since we were going to practice some extreme flying, it was probably best to have the engineers take a look at the airplane.
So we got another airplane with the call-sign Echo Yankee Whiskey. I was glad we got another airplane, only because I wouldn't have to repeat Foxtrot Foxtrot Hotel Hotel on the radios again. Whew.
What's up next? Well, I have a check-ride next lesson. That's when another instructor takes me up, and monitors my progress on everything I've learned up to now. It's not a test, more of a progress report. I'm looking forward to hearing someone else's point of view on how I'm progressing.
It's also crunch time for me to take my radio license test and my PSTAR test, as my solo flight is coming up. Yes, my solo flight. I'm 12.5 hours in, and my instructor is talking to me about flying solo. Should be fun times coming up, I'll keep you posted.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Brrrrrrr, & I did it!
I did it! Another milestone accomplished. Today I practiced spins.
The day started off with a 5:45am wake-up call, for a lesson start time of 7:00am. However, it's not the way things turned out. I got to the airport at 6:45am. It was still dark outside. I had to wait until sunrise in order to be able to fly legally. Not only that, but temperatures hit zero degrees overnight last night, and that means frost - or in aviation terms - icing.
Icing on an airplane. Image taken from Wikipedia
Icing can occur on any part of the surface of the airplane including the wings, dashboard, and even inside the engine during certain atmospheric conditions. In Canada this usually happens in the winter during freezing conditions. Icing can look like - and sometimes is - frost. There are other types of icing that are an actual accumulation of ice on the wings and body of the airplane. What I experienced this morning was frost. It was about 1/4 inch of frost. If we were to try to take off with that amount of frost on the airplane's surfaces, there's a good chance we would stall on takeoff, and, well, crash. Flying with icing is a big no no as the airplanes we fly are not certified for icing conditions. You can read more about icing here.
How do we get rid of icing? Usually a deicing liquid is sprayed on the whole airplane. It is a sticky orange liquid that removes ice, and also prevents ice from accumulating on the airplane surfaces during flight. You might have experienced a deicing on airliners in flights from Toronto (or any other cold place) during the winter. The airliners have to deice as close to takeoff as possible, and the captain would usually announce this.
Spraying deicing fluid on an airliner. Image taken from Wikipedia
However, since it is still October, the airport flight-line services didn't have their de-icing equipment ready. Eric the instructor and I had to resort to removing frost with a credit card (as scrapers aren't allowed). Then wiping down the water with paper towels. The sun that eventually came up helped melt the frost as well. This took up the best part of an hour.
So, after waiting for the sun to come up, and manually deicing the plane, we were finally up in the air at around 9:00am. I climbed the airplane to 5,000 feet, when Eric told me to perform the checklist for spins.
I've tried to get myself mentally ready for spins for the past few days, but it's hard to convince oneself of the idea of purposefully creating conditions where you're piloting an airplane that's spiraling towards the earth.
Eric performed the first spin. As I wrote in my last post, Eric showed me a couple of spins the last lesson. So at least I was ready for what was going to happen. During the spin that he preformed, I noticed myself paying attention to the way he moved the flight controls, knowing I would have to preform the next spin.
The demo spin came and went. We lost about 600 feet in a matter of seconds. We straightened out as I heard Eric say "Ok, are you ready?" to which I responded "I don't know, am I?" to which Eric responded "Yes."
I took control of the airplane, breathed in deeply, and went for it. I proceeded to first stall the airplane (a requirement in order to enter a spin). Once the stall horn came on, I pushed the rudder pedal all the way to the left, and bam, we're upside down hurling towards the earth, kaleidoscope windshield and all.
I'll pause here to mention that for some reason, my spins we're quicker and more intense than the ones my instructor preformed. By that, I mean that the corkscrewing actions - or spins - were tighter and the rotation got tighter more quickly.
I learned that when you preform a spin, there is a point at which you feel that there is no way you're getting out of this situation - an airplane that is spiraling towards the earth, in which you feel like you have no control over. However, I proceeded to push on the right rudder pedal all the way, and the rotations slowly stopped and the airplane eventually leveled off. It was intense. I did it. It's one of the things I considered a milestone on the road to becoming a pilot. I never got into flying to do this type of thing, but it's a reality - something you have to go through in Canada if you want to become a pilot. I did it, and it was intense and amazing and all of the other words people use to describe something so fulfilling to the soul.
We proceeded to climb back up to 5,000 feet and do another spin.
As I stated above, I considered spins as a milestone for myself. I'm not sure every student pilot does. I think I considered it a milestone because I was somewhat fearful of it. It's that point at which a lot of people decide to not continue their lessons. But knowing that spins are the absolute worst thing that can happen to a pilot (when it's inadvertent), it feels great to know that I now know how to get out of one. And I can't wait for my next lesson.
On a personal note (as if, this whole blogging exercise is nothing but a self-bloating externally propelled internal fart), it's days like these that make me so thankful that I chose to take on learning how to fly. Where last year I felt that I was stuck in certain areas of life, lessons like this make me feel that I'm progressing, liberated, chasing something I want so badly. I have people around me to thank, as I'm not sure I would have had the courage to undertake flying without continued support from my family, girlfriend, and friends.
As for the blog? I hope that it's entertaining for you, at the very least. I started writing it mostly because I know that I will want to remember all of these experiences in detail. I could have written a diary, but that's so Anne Frank. I realize that I get overly emotional on this blog sometimes, but that's just the adrenaline talking. I hope I don't get too personal on this blog for you as to make it awkward. I'm just trying to convey my experiences onto cyber-paper. As always, thank you for reading and for your continued support. ;)
The day started off with a 5:45am wake-up call, for a lesson start time of 7:00am. However, it's not the way things turned out. I got to the airport at 6:45am. It was still dark outside. I had to wait until sunrise in order to be able to fly legally. Not only that, but temperatures hit zero degrees overnight last night, and that means frost - or in aviation terms - icing.
Icing on an airplane. Image taken from WikipediaIcing can occur on any part of the surface of the airplane including the wings, dashboard, and even inside the engine during certain atmospheric conditions. In Canada this usually happens in the winter during freezing conditions. Icing can look like - and sometimes is - frost. There are other types of icing that are an actual accumulation of ice on the wings and body of the airplane. What I experienced this morning was frost. It was about 1/4 inch of frost. If we were to try to take off with that amount of frost on the airplane's surfaces, there's a good chance we would stall on takeoff, and, well, crash. Flying with icing is a big no no as the airplanes we fly are not certified for icing conditions. You can read more about icing here.
How do we get rid of icing? Usually a deicing liquid is sprayed on the whole airplane. It is a sticky orange liquid that removes ice, and also prevents ice from accumulating on the airplane surfaces during flight. You might have experienced a deicing on airliners in flights from Toronto (or any other cold place) during the winter. The airliners have to deice as close to takeoff as possible, and the captain would usually announce this.
Spraying deicing fluid on an airliner. Image taken from WikipediaHowever, since it is still October, the airport flight-line services didn't have their de-icing equipment ready. Eric the instructor and I had to resort to removing frost with a credit card (as scrapers aren't allowed). Then wiping down the water with paper towels. The sun that eventually came up helped melt the frost as well. This took up the best part of an hour.
So, after waiting for the sun to come up, and manually deicing the plane, we were finally up in the air at around 9:00am. I climbed the airplane to 5,000 feet, when Eric told me to perform the checklist for spins.
I've tried to get myself mentally ready for spins for the past few days, but it's hard to convince oneself of the idea of purposefully creating conditions where you're piloting an airplane that's spiraling towards the earth.
Eric performed the first spin. As I wrote in my last post, Eric showed me a couple of spins the last lesson. So at least I was ready for what was going to happen. During the spin that he preformed, I noticed myself paying attention to the way he moved the flight controls, knowing I would have to preform the next spin.
The demo spin came and went. We lost about 600 feet in a matter of seconds. We straightened out as I heard Eric say "Ok, are you ready?" to which I responded "I don't know, am I?" to which Eric responded "Yes."
I took control of the airplane, breathed in deeply, and went for it. I proceeded to first stall the airplane (a requirement in order to enter a spin). Once the stall horn came on, I pushed the rudder pedal all the way to the left, and bam, we're upside down hurling towards the earth, kaleidoscope windshield and all.
I'll pause here to mention that for some reason, my spins we're quicker and more intense than the ones my instructor preformed. By that, I mean that the corkscrewing actions - or spins - were tighter and the rotation got tighter more quickly.
I learned that when you preform a spin, there is a point at which you feel that there is no way you're getting out of this situation - an airplane that is spiraling towards the earth, in which you feel like you have no control over. However, I proceeded to push on the right rudder pedal all the way, and the rotations slowly stopped and the airplane eventually leveled off. It was intense. I did it. It's one of the things I considered a milestone on the road to becoming a pilot. I never got into flying to do this type of thing, but it's a reality - something you have to go through in Canada if you want to become a pilot. I did it, and it was intense and amazing and all of the other words people use to describe something so fulfilling to the soul.
We proceeded to climb back up to 5,000 feet and do another spin.
As I stated above, I considered spins as a milestone for myself. I'm not sure every student pilot does. I think I considered it a milestone because I was somewhat fearful of it. It's that point at which a lot of people decide to not continue their lessons. But knowing that spins are the absolute worst thing that can happen to a pilot (when it's inadvertent), it feels great to know that I now know how to get out of one. And I can't wait for my next lesson.
On a personal note (as if, this whole blogging exercise is nothing but a self-bloating externally propelled internal fart), it's days like these that make me so thankful that I chose to take on learning how to fly. Where last year I felt that I was stuck in certain areas of life, lessons like this make me feel that I'm progressing, liberated, chasing something I want so badly. I have people around me to thank, as I'm not sure I would have had the courage to undertake flying without continued support from my family, girlfriend, and friends.
As for the blog? I hope that it's entertaining for you, at the very least. I started writing it mostly because I know that I will want to remember all of these experiences in detail. I could have written a diary, but that's so Anne Frank. I realize that I get overly emotional on this blog sometimes, but that's just the adrenaline talking. I hope I don't get too personal on this blog for you as to make it awkward. I'm just trying to convey my experiences onto cyber-paper. As always, thank you for reading and for your continued support. ;)
Monday, October 4, 2010
Stalls, Spins, and Animal Cruelty
Saturday afternoon brought another flying lesson. The lessons are starting to become a little bit hard to define, as I am starting to review and practice all kinds of air exercises that I have already been introduced to. However, there's always more new things to learn, and boy did I learn on Saturday.This lesson comprised mostly of different types of advanced stalls. Yes, an airplane can stall in more ways than I ever had nightmares of. Some of the stalls are power-off (idle engine) stalls, power-on (engine at about cruise power) stalls, turning stalls, etc. We practiced those three stalls in particular, but there are numerous more stalls that can occur.
However, the most notable thing for me this lesson was that I got to experience a spin. Two, in fact. A spin can be defined as an aggravated stall, or a stall in which the airplane is not "coordinated". This results in something called an auto-rotation, which is basically the airplane spinning. Here is what Wikipedia has to say about spins.
And here are some of the best examples of spins that I found on Youtube. The first being a video of a spin filmed from another airplane:
The second is a spin experienced from inside the cockpit:
And the third is animal cruelty, plane and simple:
Yes, what you saw above was a floating dog due to zero gravity derived from the nose-dive spin. I won't comment much about that except to say that spin checklists implicitly state that everything must be tied down and secure when practicing a spin.
I will describe experiencing spins as a very humbling experience. The forces I felt on my body and the things I saw with my eyes felt very unnatural as far as being a land mammal. Before I go on, please be aware that practicing spins is considered to be a safe exercise in the Cessna 150. Nonetheless, it does take some getting used to. In this lesson, my instructor just showed me what a spin is like. I was told to sit back and enjoy. So I didn't get myself into any actual spins, but next lesson I will have to.
As you saw in the video, one has to raise the nose of the airplane until it stalls. In order to aggravate the stall, one of the rudder pedals is pushed all the way in in either direction, so that the airplane will enter the spin.
Entering the spin was probably the strangest feeling I've felt. It feels like you're flipping backwards, with your stomach going into your throat, and before you know it, you're in a nose dive, while the colours of the autumn leaves of the Canadian landscape start to create a kaleidoscope effect on the windshield once the airplane begins to corkscrew its way towards the earth.
Sounds dramatic? Well, it was for me. It's not an experience many people think they'd go through in their lifetime, but I asked for it. Not only did I ask for it, but I have to get used to spins, as next lesson I will have to practice them myself.
Have you ever stood on a balcony while it occurred to you that if you had a tiny lapse of reason, you can just jump over the balcony without having the chance to correct your mistake? Me neither, but it did occur to my friend once... Anyway, I compare practicing spins to jumping off the balcony, except getting the chance to apply corrective actions in order to stop yourself from plummeting to the ground. As such, you can now probably understand why doing spins in an airplane would invoke such strong feelings.
My instructor said that this lesson is the point at which some of his students never return for another lesson. Although I'll admit that it was a bit of a frightening experience, I'm determined to go back for more. The way for me to look at it is that it is a safe exercise that's practiced by many pilots each day. You don't hear of very many crashes involving accidents due to students practicing spins. So there. In fact, after my instructor demonstrated the first spin, I asked him to show me another one, since I knew I'd have to get used to it sooner or later.
In other news, we practiced more stalls, steep turns, which i accomplished satisfactorily this time around, and we also practiced a maneuver called a "side-slip", which I will be covered in an upcoming lesson, as well as an upcoming post. I also managed to have quite a violent landing this time. Although it really didn't seem all that big of a deal after experiencing spins. Landing definitely seems like a delicate art which I will have to master. I'll probably have an easier time once I actually go through the lesson about landing.
Anyway, there's more stories to tell from the last lesson, but this post is getting long, and I need to get back to work. But stay tuned for my next post, as I tell tales of my adventures aloft.
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