Almost done...

It has been nearly two months since I last updated this. In October the plane was out of commission for a few weeks while it had Garmin 430 installed. Once it got back I have been busy studying and finishing up the last few requirements that I had to fulfill. This mostly consisted of refining my skills, and finishing the last couple hours of night flight, cross country and simulated instrument time. I have also been busy studying to make sure I know all of the information that I need to for the practical. Today I did my last prep for my private pilot practical check ride that I will do this Friday afternoon. If all goes well in six days I will hold a Private Pilot Certificate! If you remember back in in September I passed my written test. The other two "tests" are an oral exam and a check ride with an FAA pilot examiner. The oral part consists of him asking me questions about rules, laws, limitations, what is required of me as a private pilot as well as showing him flight plan that he has told me to make. For the flight portion I will have to do steep turns (360 degree turns at 45 degrees of bank while not losing or gaining more than 100 feet of altitude), both power on and power off stalls, slow flight (nose high attitude while holding the plane on the edge of a stall to prove you can maneuver and recover from that condition of flight), turns around a point (360 degree turn around a fixed point keeping equidistant from the center while adjusting for the wind), rectangular pattern (flying a rectangle or square pattern around a field keeping the same distance from the square or rectangle...used to prove you can fly a traffic pattern at an airport and adjust for the wind so you don't get blown all over). I will also have to do normal, soft field (used for operating on grass airfields) and over a 50 foot obstacle (used for landing and taking off over a 50 foot obstacle at the end of the runway). Today I did great with everything except the landings for a couple reasons. A little rusty, an at least 10 knot straight cross wind and it was only 10 degrees fahrenheit (colder air is more dense and increase the performance of planes...in this case it was hard to get it to slow down and descend). Everything I did today would have passed for the conditions but the landings need to be better on the check ride so I am hoping to get up at least once between now and then just to get a couple more in. I don't have much else to say but I do have a couple of blog topics in mind that I will write in the coming weeks so check back for those as well as to find out how I did. I just realized that for some reason this is not showing the paragraphs I have so until I figure that out I apologize for the run-ons. Oh and GO CYCLONES BEAT IOWA!!!!

Up and Down...

A couple of weeks ago I completed one of the biggest (if not the biggest) part of flight training other than actually completing and passing...the solo long cross country. This entails obviously flying solo but also a full flight plan. I did mine from my home airport of Augusta (3AU) to Emporia (KEMP) down to Independence KS (KIDP) and back to 3AU. The total course was just shy of 200 miles and allowed me to use dead reckoning (using your flight planning, previously known positions, and ground clues to figure out where you are) as well as the Emporia VOR (EMP) going to and from Emporia. A VOR a VHF omni directional range which allows you to tune a navigation radio to that VOR's frequency and find your radial to or from that VOR. I also had the Wichita VOR as reference going back to 3AU from KIDP but used mostly dead reckoning and GPS on this leg since the VOR it is not really a good line from KIDP to 3AU and the VOR (however I could have flown to a point where I would have intercepted a radial from the VOR that would take me to 3AU). Overall the flight went quite well, in fact the flight planning was the hardest part. The second hardest part was waiting for the weather to improve. The plan was to meet with my instructor at 8AM on a Sunday morning and hopefully be "wheels up" by 9:30. We were doing great until good until we got to the whole flying part. Due to some rain the day before and cooler temperatures there was some fog and low ceilings at KIDP that I had to wait for. Just before 10AM it finally started to improve so he let me go and to check it on my way and wait and KEMP if it was not good enough. Sadly I had to do this as well and waited another 20-30 minutes there. When the weather was finally good enough I launched out of KEMP for the last two legs which went very smoothly except for a Southwest Airlines crew that got confused and took one of my hand off's from Kansas City Center, after that got straightened out it was smooth sailing. It felt great to finally be done with a big part of learning to fly. The down part of this post is with mixed feelings. I am very excited and can't wait to finish my license and use it, however my aunt and uncle who own the plan decided to put a Garmin 430 (GPS and communication system) in it. As a member of my generation any "new" technology is cool and I can't wait to use that as well. Hopefully later this week it will get back and I will get back in the air. By my count I have one hour of night flight, two hours of simulated IFR and three hours of prep for the practical and oral test. I have continued to study for that part, check back in a couple of weeks for hopefully a very exciting post!

Checklists

When it comes to knowing and making sure everything is how it should be checklists are very important. Especially in aviation, while extremely safe if something is out of place or not how it should be you could be in for a very bad day. This is why having a following checklists and procedures is very important to hopefully catch any abnormalities and to make sure everything is done the right way. Getting your pilots license can also seem like another checklist, in a way it is. There are many requirements that go into getting your license and proving that you are a capable pilot. Recently I have checked off several of those items. This past Friday I passed the private pilot written exam. Although this is just one of many requirements it was a huge relief to have completed. The test is a 60 question multiple choice test that you have 2.5 hours to complete. You need to have at least 70% to pass (I had above 80) oh and it costs $150 (one big reason I was happy to have passed on my first try). I took the test at Stearmen Field (Identifier 1k1) which is a small airpark just to the north west of Wichita and only about 10 minutes from our house. Stearmen has a some really interesting planes (and houses) and a great restaurant on the field. One of the great things about Wichita is that you never know what you are going to get see. As I was leaving Stearmen a B-24 made a low pass down the runway. Later in the day on Friday I solo'd up to Hutchinson, Kansas (KHUT) which is a class D airspace about 45 north west of my home airport on the east side of Wichita. The main purpose of that flight was to take care off the requirement of having three solo landings at a towered airport. Just to be sure I did five. Several of which were some of the best landings I have ever done. The main thing that I have been needing to work on is letting the plane come down more before flaring and having more airspeed. On my way back to Augusta I was reminded of just how busy the airspace around Wichita can be. The ceiling of the Wichita class C airspace is 5,300 feet and I was cruising at 5,500 . Technically I would have been fine to fly right along above it but that would have made for an interesting decent into Augusta just outside of the airspace and well that is just a little too close to a congested airspace with no radio communication with them for my comfort. Every time I went to key the mic and call Wichita Approach someone else started talking. So to avoid the airspace I decided to divert around the north side of Wichita. I was finally able to get in contact with the controller which allowed me to proceed through the airspace. Since they were departing out of Wichita Mid-Continent to the north he also had me decent to 3,500 to stay out of the way of the jets departing and going over me. That controller eventually handed me off to an equally busy controller who after finally responded and just cleared me direct to Augusta and terminated my radar service. Sunday morning I got up early and enjoyed flying with my instructor on a perfect morning and did some "hood time" simulating using only the instruments for navigation and operation and not looking outside. After flying around for awhile east and north east of Wichita we headed direct to the Wichita VOR on the west side of town. From there we "shot" an ILS approach into Mid-Continent. Although it was difficult at first I thought that I was staring to get the hang of everything the more I did. I still have two more hours of the three required to complete but hopefully at least another hour if not all of it will get done this coming weekend. This coming week and weekend will be full of more items getting checked off. If the weather cooperates I plan to do some night flight with my instructor Friday night (3 hours required) and then Saturday I hope to do my solo cross country. Still need to figure all of that out. Depending on my instructors availability I hope to get pretty much done if not done next weekend. We will see. Sometime this week I will update about a trip to a small grass trip my instructor and I went to for a burger last weekend...my main point of that. Get out and fly there are countless cool places you can visit while flying that are just a lot cooler when you fly there then drive.

Step By Step

The last two weeks have kept me busy flying and studying. While flying I have been focusing on soft field operations, steep turns and ground reference maneuvers. Studying for my written exam has been going fairly well and I hope to take that in two weeks. Planning cross country flights to Ponca City, Oklahoma (PNC) and Newton, Kansas (EWK) has greatly helped in bring everything together. The toughest part of the practice tests is the chart questions, the computer screen makes it hard to draw lines and what not. Thankfully on the actual test I will get paper copies. This past Saturday my instructor and I flew to PNC and EWK. Before the flight we went over the flight plans that I had made. The flight plan consists of several things. There are obvious aspects such as your flight route but even that is not as simple as just pointing the plane in the general direction of your destination and going. You have to account for wind direction and speed, magnetic variation and magnetic deviation. Once you figure all of that you will be able to figure out you just need your distance and speed to figure out the time and fuel you will need. Fuel needed and fuel burned is also highly necessary aspect. For flights under visual flight rule (VFR) conditions you have to have a half hour of fuel on board when you land during the day and 45 minutes at night. Studying what potential obstacles you will have, airspaces you will go through and if and or when you have to talk to ATC are also highly advised. Doing this also gives you a good chance to look at your route and know what landmarks you can use on the ground to make sure you are on the right track and to find potential alternate airports. The flights went great and I handled all aspects of flying. I don't like to boast too much since I know I have a lot of learning to do (there is a great saying that a pilots license is just a license to learn) but I those flights gave me a lot of confidence that I can do this whole piloting thing. Most of the landings went good and I thought that my communications with ATC were very good. The real test will come later this week when I do those flights on my own. Next Saturday we are tentatively planning on flying to a couple of airports with control towers which is a requirement of getting the license. Look for an update after those, as always questions and comments are encouraged. Oh one last thing... GO CYCLONES!!! BEAT IOWA!!!

Living, Working, Flying

It has been a few weeks since I updated this and to tell you the truth I have not had much to update about. I have flown a few time with my instructor to a few airports (Newton (EWK), Jabarra (AAO), ElDorado (EQA), and Stearman (1K1) field). During this fight we have used ATC to get radar service (essentially just them telling us if there is any traffic to be aware of). I am slowly getting better at talking to ATC so that is a plus. I am also now checked off to go on solo flight between our home base of Augusta (3AU) and ElDorado. Last Monday we also worked on short and soft field takeoffs and landings. Soft field takeoffs are designed to get you off of the ground as quickly and smoothly as possible, from there you hold it in ground effect until you are at your normal climbing speed. Soft field landings are done with some power to help smooth landing and allow you to "feel" the runway for a good spot to put it down. Short field takeoff's are similar to soft field except you climb quickly to get over a certain size (say 50 foot high) obstacle near the end of the runway or if you just have a short runway, however these two usually go together. To do this you lift off as soon as possible and climb at your best angle until you clear the object before resume best rate of climb. Short field landings use full flaps just like soft field landings but you again are trying to get down as quickly as possible and you may have to clear an object. Once you clear the object you nose down and cut power. Since these procedures is done so low and slow proper execution is key since you will have little time and altitude to recover. I think doing this has also helped me improve my landings and landing where I am aiming instead of just floating until I get down. I was hoping to do a fair amount of flying this past weekend but well airplanes are mechanical and they break. On Friday I went out to fly and my aunt had just gotten down and the carburetor heat handle thing came completely out of the panel and then the vacuum pump went out. Thankfully it didn't take long to fix and I was able to fly for an hour this morning. This morning was truly the reason why you fly especially in the morning. It was 80 on the ground but a couple thousand feet up was right about 70 and smooth as can be. I worked on steep turns which I have not done in awhile and was a little rusty...certainly something to keep working on. Hopefully the wind will cooperate a few nights this week and I will be able to get up a few nights. College football also starts later this week and will be going strong next weekend...I cannot contain my exCYtment (see what I did there). Leave some comments and I will be sure to respond. GO CYCLONES!!! BEAT THE PANTHERS!!!

Cross Country

This past Tuesday night I was able to do my first cross country flight. The FAA defines a cross country flight as any flight that the arrival is somewhere other than the departure airport. I made a flight plan to leave our home field of Augusta, Kansas (3AU) down to Ponca City, Oklahoma (PNC) where we did a touch and go and back to Augusta. In my opinion this was a good first cross country because it is 1. almost straight south of Augusta 2. only 57 miles and 3. there are numerous towns, airports and other landmarks along the way to help you keep track of where you are and adjust your flight path accordingly. After going through my flight plan (this entails figuring out what your heading will be mainly adjusting for wind correction and magnetic variation and checking the weather we talked through who we would talk to on ATC (although this is not required I believe it should be taken advantage of and is valuable experience). We were able to take off on runway 18 (heading 180 degrees or straight south) and were on our heading to Ponca City immediately. Our cruising altitude for the trip down was 5,500 feet above sea level (ASL). For visual flight rule (VFR) flights if your heading is between 0 and 179 (straight north to one degree west of straight south) you have to fly an odd number altitude plus 500 feet (3,500 5,500 7,500 etc.). Between 180 and 359 you have to fly an even number altitude plus 500 feet (2,500 4,500 6,500 etc.). Remember these are all altitudes above sea level. We contacted Wichita approach for flight following and after they got done dealing people that were bigger, faster, and actually in their airspace we were able to get a squawk code (a four digit number you put into your transponder so they can identify you on their radar scope). The hand off to Kansas City Center went smooth (mostly because my instructor handled the radio communications for the way down) and I felt I did a good job of identifying the towns and landmarks along the way. It was a blessing in disguise that there was haze that limited our visibility to 8-10 miles because it forced me to pick out more places to cross check our path, on a clear day I am told you can almost see Ponca City from a few thousand feet right after take off. The arrival at Ponca City went very well as I crossed over midfield and entered a right downwind for runway 17. The runway at PNC is almost twice as long and much wider than 3AU. These differences if you are not careful can be dangerous as they change your perception of your attitude. The touch-n-go went well and we headed back to 3AU. I handled the radio communications on the way back, I was not good at all but it was my first time right? The haze also caused it to get darker a little earlier and we got back to 3AU at what was essentially sundown at that point. While approaching 3AU we had a small issue with a plane taking off on runway 36 while we were entering the pattern for 18 (same runway just different ends going opposing directions...not good). Even though I had made several radio calls he did not say a thing until he pulled onto the runway and went to take off. Thankfully I had enough time to adjust and make a quick base turn to land on runway 36 (overshot final but was able to recover and land pretty well!). I was hoping to do some more flying today since it is my bi-weekly three day weekend but the weather is not cooperating. Hopefully the wind calms down the ceiling goes up and it stops raining sometime soon! Let me know if you have any questions about aviation!

AIRVENTURE

Well I have had a busy few weeks of flying, work and well life. My flying is going pretty well in the last week I have logged about 2 hours of solo time in which I have done about 20 landings. Everything is going great and I am looking forward to expanding what I can do as well as checking off more requirements. The real reason why I wanted to update this is because this is the week that Oshkosh, Wisconsin becomes the center of the aviation world. Airventure is the annual air show, celebration and trade show held by the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA). There are many things that Airventure such a great event. You can do everything from look at all the newest and greatest general aviation aircraft from every manufacturer, to seeing some of the oldest and rarest aircraft in the world in the warbird and vintage areas. You can literally find every type of airplane single engine piston (SEP), turbine, jet, home built, and rotorcraft. There is almost something for everyone Kidventure does a great job of educating and giving kids something interesting to do. You need something for your plane or are looking for a plane you can find it. Looking for a job in aviation? For the first time Airventure had a career fair this year. My favorite parts are the cool new planes, the old vintage planes and what is arguably the best air show in the world. Airventure features the best civilian performers in the world. The usual headliners are Mike Goulian, Matt Younkin, Sean D. Tucker, Gene Soucy and my personal favorite the Aeroshell team! For those of you up in Iowa the presenting sponsor for the daily air show is Rockwell Collins. On Monday night after the air show there is always a concert which featured Chicago this year. There are also forums and "lectures" lectures covering any topic in aviation. This is no small get together either. The show normally has over 50,000 attendees during the week and thousands of airplanes fly-in to Oshkosh and camp on the grounds. During this week it becomes the busies airport in the world. On Thursday of this week the air traffic controllers (ATC) at Oshkosh handled 2,805 flights in 10 hours, Chicago's O'Hare International Airport averages 2,750 in 24 hours. The thing to remember is these are all general aviation aircraft coming and going, not one bit is commercial. Due to this amount of traffic there are special flight rules for this week which allow them to handle this many planes. It can get so busy that as a pilot you are instructed not to verbally respond to instructions from ATC, instead you simply rock your wings. You are also told to land in big painted dots on the runway to allow for multiple planes to land on the same runway at the same time (not to mention the makeshift runway right next to you that has multiple planes landing or taking off on it as well). This is also just the traffic at Oshkosh, nearby airports in Fon Du Lac, Appleton and Greenbay also act as reliever airports if you don't want to or can't get into Oshkosh. I encourage you to check out Airventure.org to check it out. They have videos, pictures and live cams from areas around the field as well as showing the daily air show from 2-6pm daily and from 8-10 on Wednesday and Saturday nights. Sadly we couldn't make it since someone has to stay back in the air capital and keep the industry going. If you want to go let me know and you can join my wife and I next year as we again plan to make the yearly pilgrimage.