Touch and Go Circuits

Hey folks!

I had another lesson today, finally. I've gotta tell you, I've never hated winter more than I do this year. That's saying a lot, because I really hate winter as it is. Turns out winter is not conducive to flying in little 125 horse powered airplanes. Who would have thunk it?

To be honest, there's not much news this time around. I practiced some more circuits today. I felt more confident today. We did touch and go circuits. A touch and go is when an airplane touches down on the runway, and takes off again without coming to a full stop. It takes some more co-ordination and focus than coming to a full stop.

The most noteworthy circuit we did was when I was coming in for a landing, my instructor got on the radio and requested a "Foxtrot" from the air traffic control. It was some kind of code I didn't understand until I was forced to find out. As I was on short final, about twenty or thirty feet from the ground, I hear the air traffic control say to me "Sierra Charlie Papa abort landing!"

I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly and thoroughly my learned instincts came through. I quickly determined in my head what needs to be done in order to abort the landing and keep the airplane flying. I pushed the throttle all the way in quickly, verified that I had a positive rate of climb, then retracted the flaps in steps, making sure that the airplane remained in a positive rate of climb. Then, when I determined the airplane was in stable flight, the last step was to contact air traffic control to tell them I followed their instruction.

There are three important steps in situations that call for immediate action: Aviate, Navigate, Communicate. That is to say, fly the airplane first, determine where you are secondly, and thirdly, communicate with whoever you need to communicate with.

I was glad that I followed these steps, and accomplished the procedures almost instinctively. It seemed like I was instantly locked into what I had to do, nothing else mattered at the time.

Ok, up next is yet another check-ride type lesson, where I'll fly circuits with another instructor. If he feels I performed satisfactory, he'll sign off on a solo flight, and the lesson after that should include my first solo. :)

See you soon.

Student Pilot Licence & Sweating the Small Stuff

Hello!
Welcome back to the blog. I've got some good news and some bad news to discuss today. I suppose we might as well begin with the good news. When I got to the airport today, I was greeted by my instructor. He told me that before we go up today, we'll file all the papers and get my Student Pilot Licence. The Chief flight instructor for Toronto Airways, so he put my documents in order, signed the documents he had to, handed over the little slip of paper, and shook my hand to congratulate me. He said "congratulations on your first step. And remember, no flying with other passengers."

And so there you have it, I have my first license to fly. This Student Pilot Licence allows me to fly on my own, without an instructor, in daylight, without any passengers.

So that's the good news. The not as good news is that I still didn't feel comfortable flying circuits today, and flying on my own was the furthest thing from my mind today. As stated in the prior post, I haven't flown in about a month before a couple of lessons ago, and I seem to have lost some of my "groove". The feel isn't there. I felt like I was "behind" the airplane.

Today was a bit of a windy day - perfect for practicing cross-wind landings. Today was also a bit bumpy, and having not flown in a while, the turbulence took me a bit by surprise, but I got used to it quickly. Cross-wind landings are a skill that requires a lot of practice, it seems. One can land an airplane in a cross-wind landing - when not using the exact proper techniques - somewhat unharmed, but to execute the exact techniques, seems like it takes a lot of practice. I don't feel I quite got the hang of it today, but I will eventually.

After landing from performing one of the circuits today, Eric (my instructor) said to me "don't sweat the small stuff, Lavi. Everyone makes mistakes when they fly. It's just a matter of realizing you've made a mistake, and moving on to correct it, and you'll be fine. Don't dwell on your mistakes because that makes you focus on the wrong things. Move on from your mistakes."

It's probably the best advice he's given me to date. It also struck a chord with me, and something I'd like to discuss further on this blog.

I'll be frank with you. If someone were to ask me if I'm a perfectionist, I'd hesitate, and after thinking about my actions, and my personality, I would respond with a "Yes". I tend to be a perfectionist. It bothers me when I do something wrong. The little things too. It bothers me when I forget to check something in a checklist, it even bothers me when I make spelling mistakes and the little red line pops up to tell me that I've made a mistake. Being a perfectionist coupled with being somewhat of an eternal pessimist (who's on a constant struggle to consciously be optimistic) Is not a good recipe for pilots, I believe. There are bumps in the road, mistakes will be made, but if I allow these traits of my personality take over, I will stop myself from achieving my own goals.

I say this, because I speak from experience. The personality traits I listed above have held me back from things I think I could have achieved, historically. Things like not trying out for the high-school basketball team, thinking "what's the point? I won't make the cut", to ceasing to write songs. I used to write songs. When I did, I would compare my work to bands I was listening to, like The Beatles. Well what do you know, my work lacked in comparison to The Beatles. I focused too much on my imperfections, until I had no desire to write anymore, because "What's the point? My stuff will never be as good as theirs".

I realize these are big confessions I'm divulging here, and I'm putting myself out there for all two of you, but I have to be true to myself. It helps writing it down too. It helps me remember to work hard to get over these flaws.

Yes, my landings weren't as smooth today. Yes, I didn't break up my radio communications the way I was supposed to at the beginning. Yes, I didn't feel like I "got ahead" today. But I have to concentrate on the other end of things. I have 18 hours in the air. That's all. By all accounts, I'm somewhat ahead of other people with that many hours. I probably wasn't feeling it today because I haven't flown in a while, and the winds were strong. I just got my Student Pilot Licence. As soon as my flight instructor deems me worthy, I'm flying an airplane by myself. A dream come true. Hell, I have the balls to work towards my dream. I'll be OK.

"What doesn't kill you, will only make your stronger, or at the very worse, heavily injure you". Is that how that saying goes? I think so.

Also, don't call me Frank, or Shirley for that matter.

Winter Time

Hello friends,
Please forgive me for not posting in a while. The main reason for that being that I have only managed to fly once over the last month or so. It's been frustrating, but also a learning experience, I suppose.

Apparently 125 horsepower engines don't like starting up in -15C temperatures. One day last week that was a relatively clear day, I went to the airport with every intention of flying. I did my walk around, check the airplane, etc. I should include here that in winter time, in freezing temperatures, a pre-heater machine has to be used on the airplane's engine before it can be started up. A pre-heater is basically a big blow-dryer with two big hoses that you insert into openings located on the front of the airplane. It should be left on for around twenty minutes. The maine problem with this being that the pre-heater has to be minded at all times of operation. I suppose the reason being for that is fir hazard. Anyway, at below freezing temperatures, it's not a fun experience standing there, waiting for the engine to warm up.

Getting back to my story, after the pre-heater was working for about 20 minutes we finally got into the cockpit, and tried to turn the engine on. Over and over again, the propeller wouldn't catch. We tried for about ten minutes, and called it a day.

Yes, winter flying in these old airplanes can be frustrating. The only time I did get to fly in the last month was this Saturday. We got up and did some circuits. Unfortunately, I felt like everything was new to me. I felt like things were being thrown my way fast, and I had trouble staying on top of things. I liken it most to playing an instrument. It's kind of like when you put your musical instrument down for a prolonged period of time, and then pick it up again. One can still play the instrument fine, but the feel is off, you're worrying more about moving your fingers to the right notes than actually feeling the music, and being "in the groove". Same with flying. I haven't flown in about a month, and my feel was off. Trouble being, when You're paying about $200/hr for lessons, every second counts, and regressing proved to be a frustrating feeling.

It came at an unfortunate time as well. I was relatively close to doing my solo. Right now, I feel further from being able to do my first solo than I did a month ago, when I was flying regularly. Fear not though, I will get there.

I suppose that with the nature of flying, updating this blog will not tell of a positive experience. I suppose the best thing I can do here is be honest to myself and the two readers of this blog. So yes, it's been frustrating, it's been slow, it's been cold. Having said that, every time I get to fly is still a wonder for me, and I won't let anything get in the way of reaching my goals right now.

Keep warm and safe. Thanks for reading.

The weather, and pictures!

The airplane I fly in (Cessna 150), and the type of flying I do (VFR) can be considered relatively dependent on all sorts of conditions. Mainly, the weather. Any combination of precipitation, temperature, cloud coverage, low visibility, winds, and certain types of turbulence, can render the aircraft grounded, and the pilot unable to fly.

That's what has happened over the last couple of weeks. The Canadian fall and winter has left it's mark on my attempts to fly. Thus, I have not found the will to update this blog, but I figured it was time to update it anyway. With something, for someone, anyone. You, myself, them.

I do have another lesson scheduled for Sunday. Hopefully the weather will cooperate. My instructor told me that one winter he had lessons booked every day, but do to the weather conditions, he wasn't able to fly for a month straight. I hope this doesn't happen in my case. I'm dying to get back in there.

Regardless, about a month ago I went to Varadero, Cuba for a vacation. During the entirety of the flight there and back, I was glued to the window, taking all the beauty in that comes with being about 36,000 feet in the air. I did manage to take some pictures and a video, which I thought I'd share with you here. I took pictures of things I found interesting. Though, they might not be interesting to you. But here it goes anyway.

The first couple of pictures are of the left wing overlooking the landscape. I like the pictures, but when I tried to edit colours and levels in 'Preview' on my mac, it saved them with those weird vertical lines. Try to ignore them.


The next shots are a few landscape shots I found interesting.


There are indeed many airports to spot from so high up, if one is on the lookout for them. I took this next shot upon landing in Toronto (CYYZ). Upon touchdown, and sometimes in the air, those wing flaps you see are actually called spoilers. They are used to slow down the airplane in the air and on the ground. Airliners will try to use the least amount of wheel-breaks as possible upon landing because the amount of energy involved in slowing down such a big airplane produces an immense amount of heat. If the breaks overheat, the airplane sometimes has to be inspected by engineers before it goes up again. As well, an airliner's breaks are immensely expensive to maintain and replace. Therefor, pilots of these airplanes use spoilers, other types of air-breaks, as well as reverse-thrust on the engines to help slow the airplane down.

In this picture, you can see what a marvel the modern wing really is. It opens up and exposes its innards. A mechanical wonder.


Lastly, here's a video I shot during take-off from Varadero Airport (VRA). I stopped filming just before it got interesting, showing Cuba's beautiful landscape. The memory card was full, so I had to stop filming. Anyway, enjoy what you can.