Fenway Franks

So I had a big fat post about my last flying experience doing short take off and landings...
It's on another computer though so I wanted to throw up a single picture from my latest trip to Boston. (which is the best city ever by the way)

This was taken while spending a beautiful Saturday afternoon at Fenway. Talk about a baseball experience!
One lady was taken away on a stretcher, the people behind us were the rowdiest bunch ever..
And the sound of the stadium singing "Sweet Caroline" was amazing.
Oh and then a vendor ran up the stairs and dumped his whole tub of franks right next to me.

I had to snap a picture, it makes me laugh every time I see it. Shortly after that he put the franks on one side of his little hotbox and kept selling them. I wish I had a picture of his face because he did not look happy. I've never such a clear likeliness to this:(

Tonight I'm studying for my FAA written exam. The days to getting my license are numbered!!

Why I fly

I forgot my Houston Sectional map at the airport and went to pick it up today. I stood there for maybe 15 minutes watching the planes come and go.
I swear, when I'm at the airport I feel like a lottery winner on acid.

My instructor said one question the FAA asks when you take your checkride is "why are you learning to fly?" Some people's reasons are for freedom to come and go without lines or hassle, others do it for the adventure and some just for the unique personal challenge. Sadly I even know many people who earned thier licsence and then never flew again.

As for me it is something I've wanted to do since I was maybe 4. Literally around the dawn of my own personality was when I started looking up and saying hey, those machines in the air aren't normal. They are little miracles. It's something more than a whirring clockwork of pistons and pushrods. It's a symbol.. a living and breathing symbol.

It was love at first sight but sadly I could never afford to learn. My only ticket to a halfway decent income was college and naturally I majored in aerospace engineering. The degree was easy.. it turns out when you are genuinely interested in something, it doesn't feel like work.
Even then I scraped by while in college and could only take a few introductory flights.

And now finally it is real. Being in the cockpit is real... landing in a crosswind with your heart in your throat is real... turning away with that storm in my face is real.

It reminds me of the Langston Hughes poem Dreams Deffered

What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
Like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore--
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over--
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?

-L. Hughes

Cross Country Hazards

Today was my first cross country flight and it definitley made an impression. I had planned a flight between my home airport and a place called Eagle Lake. It's a little airport smack in the middle of nowhere. I wonder if it was made solely as a destination for student pilots making their first cross country trips. My instructor tells me it was base for cropdusters at one time.
The airport is 50 miles or so away due west. I made up a flight plan counting up the mileage to various checkpoints along the away... It had distances to ground cues like road crossings and lakes or rivers in the area. I carefully planned everything taking into account winds that day, and resulting course corrections, resulting ground speeds and fuel burn. I say all this because I've done the whole flight planning exercise 3 times now. For reason or another I've had to cancel it resulting with replan. I can fly that route with my eyes closed now.

I showed up this morning and was called off due to weather. Dark clouds at 1400 feet and darker areas out to the west.

I came back later today (with a whole new set of calculations for the flight plan) and we called the weather briefer. He said there were storms to the south east of Eagle lake but they were moving slowly to the east and that we should be ok. We decided to go knowing that we might have to turn around due to that storm. I felt a little uneasy but I knew we had an out. There were substantial buildups of cumulus clouds out to the north of east and the ceiling was only at 4500 feet. It would be a fateful decision.

I got into the plane for the first time in a little less than a month and it felt good. It fits like a glove and I started it up ran through all the procedures like it was second nature. We got up into the air and I turned and set the course I had planned for. We called to activate our flight plan and started the egg timer. Our little adventure was about to begin.

As we flew along, the view was amazing. The visibility was only 7 miles and there was a haze making the horizon hard to make out so that made the whole thing a little unusual. The cloud buildups seemed to be all around us but they were well out of way. Except of course for the dark clouds out off to our left.

We proceeded to Eagle Lake and the checkpoints came into almost like clockwork according to my calculations... 7 minutes and there are those towers off to the right, 4 minutes and there is the lake off to the right. I was surprised at how well those predictions held out.

As all this happened that dark lines of clouds loomed ever closer. The clouds seemed to be at an altitude lower than ours and it looked VERY dark under them. I drank in the view. It was amazing to be up there around all that weather. Haze, towering clouds, and dark cloud fronts... beautiful but dangerous.

At 15 miles or so to Eagle Lake we decide to turn back. The storm is moving in our direction and although we probably could have made it in, the way back would have hairy. Ok, no big deal, I just initiate a 180 degree turn to the north and transition to the return flight plan. I felt pretty good about turning back. As we looked over our shoulder we could see lightning in the storm and we quickly decided we had made the right decision. As we came back our ground speed zoomed up to 102 knots. It was as if the storm was pushing us away.. I wasn't complaining.

We come back and we zip over my checkpoints like clockwork. I love it! My return plan had taken into acount a tailwind as well and so everything was fine despite the decision to return early. As we travel back to the airport the storms are chasing us. We find that at our home airport the weather advisory is reporting lightning distant in ALL quandrants! We hit a bit of rain and the cloud buildups were huge and EVERYWHERE. I circle into the pattern and set up for landing... and bit nervous about it. It has a good 10 cross wind and 45 degrees and this is the first landing I've done in a while. I turn a little early on final while still a little low but manage to save it by shallowing out my turn and bringing in some power. I land while kicking the rudder in a bit and though it was a little fast and my flare was a little late it worked pretty well.
We taxied quickly back to the hanger to talk about the whole thing.

First of all the storm had changed direction and speed within maybe 45 minutes. Not only that but a whole NEW set of much worse storms had popped up over our home airport. As we debriefed we heard the regular rumble of thunder to the west... the direction we came from. I could have spent the rest of my day at Eagle Lake if we hadn't have turned back. I then drove home in the heaviest storm I've been in down here. There was lighting bolts everywhere and I could barely see the car in front of me! A shiver went down my spine realizing how close we had cut it. With the information we had at take off we were go and IN ROUTE that all changed. In fact when we checked in told them our flight plan was closed due to turning back they said "wheew, thanks for checking back in, we were starting to get worried."

You were worried!!

Well this was all great learning experience and I'm glad I got to do it with an instructor and not just out there by myself. Besides, the view was tremendous. That is why I put myself through all this anway.

Here is a picture of the weather radar when I got home. We left from the area with all the red and were destined for that area with all the yellow. CRAZY.

Air Traffic

Last night was my first solo outing since April 19th. It was excited to say the least. I got to the airport at around 7.pm. and I could here engines buzzing all around me. I looked up and even saw a little helicopter flying low in the pattern. Everybody had the same idea I did and decided to go out the airport as the summer sun was beginning to set. I was nervous because I didn’t like the idea of flying around in the pattern with so many planes. As I preflighted the plane I could hear plane after plane take-off from the runway. I decided to go up at least once to see if I can handle it.
I taxied up and in the pattern to find one plane in a left hand pattern and a helicopter in the right hand pattern. Ok, no biggie I can work with this. I waited for the plane to touch and go in front of me and radioed for the helicopter position. He was holding for me ( I forget helicopters can just hold) and I was off. Right after I took off an idiot in a Grumman that I hope I never meet again pulled onto the runway. He could barely speak English and was making all kinds of weird calls that night. Furthermore I don’t think he knew where I was in the pattern the whole time. I knew that Grumman was faster than me and apparently he didn’t. Anyway I take off and make my first left hand turn. I hear him radio he was “leaving the runway” which I thought was some kind of abort to the taxiway but no, he meant he was taking off. Ok no biggie… he doesn’t even really know english.
Now it gets hairy.
He makes his call that he is turning base while I was about to turn base. I radio, “did you say base?!”
No Answer. I turn and look around… Fuck, where is he?
Now I’m at final and call final. A little while later I hear him say, “did you say you were on final? Where are you?”
OK, that is not something you want to hear when you are controlling the plane at low speed, low to the ground about to land. I radio back quickly. “yeah I’m about to cross the threshold”
No answer back.
My landing flare then proceeds to suck and I know I can’t spend too long trying to save this landing much less pull off the runway with this RETARD right on my ass.
I initiate a go-around and start a climbout.
As I’m climbing out he radios “ Cessna do you see me?”
This is too much, I don’t know how this guy flies a plane legally. I radio “Cessna 59 Julia is leaving the pattern to the southwest”.
Right after that I hear, “Grumman Alpha turning crosswind”
CROSSWIND!!!! He must have been right behind me, retard.
I climbout out and away from that madman. I go out 5 miles to clear my head.
I fly around and try to relax a bit. My heart was pounding but I looked outside I started to relax. The view was beautiful as always. This is the reason I put up with the headache of pattern traffic.
Then I hear a plane say he is departing and going to be orbiting the runway at 1400 feet. Oh well, he’ll be over my head when I get there.
He will be long gone out of the pattern airspace by the time I get there though.
Then I hear the Grumman retard say he has landed. Alright, I’m going back for some pattern work. I do a 180 and come back in to land. As I am positioning myself to enter on the downwind leg I hear he is taking off again.
SHIT, why does this guy haunt me so?
Ok, I’ll just get behind him. I do a turn for spacing and I hear another call.
“Be advised I’ll be using the grass below you cessna 59”.
I radio back “Copy at what altitude?”
“oh about 800 feet”
Ok, I see the guy above the horizon orbiting doing tricks at 1400 feet. I see the cub tacking off under me and I hear the retard making his base call. I’m at 1000 feet and radio I’m entering the downwind leg.
I hear the retard’s final call and I am comfortably midfield in the downwind leg.
The retard exits the runway as I am on turn from base and I land.
I came down like a ton of shit.
I pulled up way to hard and ballooned up. I gave it a little power which was the wrong thing to do. I cut power and come down again.
Wheels touch but I have too much speed and hop up again.
I’m flying a little and a second touchdown. This one is better and I’m down. I taxi off the runway.
No more touch and go’s. I’m burnt out for the day.
Grand total, 1 go around and 1 landing.
I worked hard for them though.

Trust the Dials

So the plane has been back up. I haven't updated because there was a crack in one of the nose struts that grounded the planed for a few weeks. I've had two awesome lessons since then.

The first lesson was crosswind landing practice. I definately could have done better but it wasn't so bad. Landing the plane safely is a good landing to me. I did progressively better until I just totally hosed one of them. It was to the point where Jeff crumpled his face and said "ooo, that's not good for the plane". Thank God for prevailing winds.

The next lesson was instrument flying... a whole hour of it! It was a beautiful Saturday morning and once I had lifted off and set a course for due South, Jeff handed me a pair of blinders. It's a set of opaque glass with lenses cut out of the bottom half so you can only see the panel. I was tasked to do a series of maneuvers only by watching the dials and gauges! It is challenging at first but rapidly becomes maneagable.The only thing is you can't get lazy, you have to continually scan everything from the airspeed to the altimeter to the attitude indicator and heading indicator. It's not so bad at all when you are leveled off because you can trim the aircraft to that speed. In fact you can let the yoke go for a while and you will maintain alititude and heading reasonably well. These GA planes are designed beautifully stable. In fact most of the pilots inputs are OVER-controlling the plane. It practically flies itself... more of a reason for anyone reading this to take lessons!
A pilot's licence requires 3 hours of instrument training. Why? you might say, can't only instrument rated pilots fly up through clouds? The answer is yes, federal flight rules maintain that non-instrument rated pilots must be clear of clouds by 500 feet vertically and 2000 feet horizontally. The idea behind the training is that if one were to inadvertantly fly into a cloud, one that could intiate a turn of 180 degrees and fly out of it. No arguments here.
So the maneuvers are trickier. We did constant turn rate turns while mainting altitude. A constant turn rate is designed to get the turned in a full 360 degree circle in 2 minutes. It feels very slow in the cockpit and has very shallow bank angle, only maybe 10 degrees. It is amazing how little you feel while turning. In fact the only indication I had I was turning was by seeing the heading indicator turning. Our ears can only sense angular accelerations. We can only feel the intial thrust of getting into a turn but once we are happily turning our inner ear decides we must have stopped by now. I wish we had evolved a turn RATE indicator, that would have been nice.
So then came the constant speed climbs and decents. These are fun and more challenging. To climb give the engine full power and pitch up to about 10 degees, wings level. Once the higher pitch angle is in there, the alitmeter will begin to spin up.. the climb has started. Meanwhile using the pitch input you can control the speed of the climb. Pull back and you can do a steeper slow climb, even at around 60 knots. Push forward on the stick and you will do a faster shallower climb at around 70 knots are so. During all of this heading must be maintained and alititude scanned so as not to overshoot the target altitude. Once that altitude is reached nose the plane over and reduce engine power. You've climbed in a cloud for all you know. Decents are kind of the opposite, reduce engine power and slightly nose over.
The final exercise was to do a climbing turn and decent. This requires almost everything to be monitored and controlled simultaneously. Once the climb is started the wing is dropped a little to get into a turn and then presto. The heading indicator is turning and the altimeter is spinning up. After airspeed looks good just wait until each dial gets where you want it too. The creepy thing is that I FELT like I was flying straight and level with not climb. In truth I was climbing AND turning! I know everyone has read this effect but the point wasn't really driven home until that lesson. Trust the Dials.

First Steps

I've flown alone twice this week. I was a little hesitant Monday because the ceiling was 1500 feet and it was hazy. They were calling it as 6 mi visibility and since 3 mi is the legal limit, I went up. Well, once I was airborn I knew it was a mistake. The ceiling may have been 1500 but there was thick haze gradually fading down towards the ground. I couldn't make out the true horizon and at 600 feet on the climbout I knew I was not venturing far. I simply turned back torward the downwind leg and headed back. As I did my decending turns toward the runway but I felt like they were all off because of the lack of a true horizon. I landed and that was the end of that lesson.
Today however was my first TRULY solo lesson. For the first time, Jeff didn't even show up to the airport. I showed up, unlocked the hanger and pulled back the doors to reveal that beautiful flying machine. Today was different, today Jeff had entrusted her to me and my mission was to fly her out to the practice area and bring her back safely. This would be the first time I left the pattern alone.
I pulled her out and did the longest most thorough pre-flight I've ever done. I took my time checking every bolt, even stopping to hear the small creakings as the frame seemed to settle on the wheels. Had I ever heard that before? I must have, it stopped after a few minutes.
I got in and took two deep breathes... Only one month ago, TO THE DAY I had soloed. Now I was pulling it out and flying out to the practice area on my own!
I started up the engine and configured the cabin. The wind was almost direct crosswind at 6 knots. It should veer around to down the runway when I get back and crosswind takeoffs are easy, I decide it is acceptable. I took off with nobody in the pattern... the airport was quiet except for me. Then instead of turning into the downwind leg, I depart. I set a course for heading 21 and keep climbing. I look out the window and the view from 1500 feet has never been sweeter.
As I flew away from the airport. I started to hear people on the radio. There was somebody in the pattern and someone 11 miles out in the southwest. Hey I'm going to the southwest, where is he? It's tricky because people are never where you think they are and sometimes not even where they called out to be. A little while later I saw a small white plane about 4 miles away off my left wing zoom by. How did I see that? Thankfully I've been pretty good at spotting planes. I hear more traffic at the airport so I decide to just fly around. can you believe it? I had the plane all to myself and just flew around, it was an amazing feeling of freedom. I pulled a sharp turn and soaked in the view. For all the grief I give southeast texas, it is gorgeous from above.
I flew around for a while and when it quieted down at the airport I turned back. I had a little moment of panic when I didn't immediately see the airport. Eventually though at about 6 miles I picked it out. I called my position and headed in. I joined the downwind leg pretty close to the runway though. As I was correcting I noticed I had lost 200 feet as well. I was coming to the landing steps and was not at my prescribed hieght... what to do. I proceed to base leg and when I turn to final I find I have overshot by alot and am closer than I thought. With the crosswind I decide not to try and save it, I radio I am going around and give full power and push in carb heat. Flaps go up and I am climbing above the runway. I rejoin the pattern and its all nominal from there.
As I pull off the runway after landing I still think I have it in me to get in one more landing. I take off again and run through the pattern. Everything was right on down to about 20 feet. Then wheels hit and a bounce.. a big bounce. SHIT! I was high again but she was coming down. Then a gust from the left and I'm yawed now, with my nose off to the left. I remeber applying controls but they were sloppy, they always are when I'm slow like this. Especially the rudder and ailerons.
I manage to save it with the rudder and pull back again for the second big landing hop. I land a little sideways and use up so much runway I have to taxi to the far end. UGH, it was bad. I wish I had a video of it, it was my worst landing in a while. I was bummed but still on a huge high from all this. It's a good day when you tell yourself, I can't believe I did that!

Ode to the Airplane

Blogging about flying doesn't do flying any justice. All I can really do is share my enthusiasm for it. I can't think of anything else that brings together so many of my interests. It feeds the engineer in me, the adventurer... the poet. It polarizes and motivates me in a way few things ever have.
This weekend I can say nearly all of my activities somehow related to flying. I even built an AM radio receiver to pick up aircraft communications in the area. It was a labor of love... I don't think I've soldered that much since college. I had my windows open the entire weekend to get the smell out of my apartment. Anyway, I'm amazed it worked the first time I applied power! I played with it at the airport today.
I also taught myself how to use the circular slide rule flight calculator... that thing is such an amazingly clever device. It is so fiendishly clever! With just the turn of a dial almost any quantity related to flight and flight planning can be "dialed" up. I love it.
Today was beautiful. I flew with Jeff to the practice area and did some ground reference maneuvers at 1000 feet. I can't decide what I like best, the view from high altitude or low. Oh who cares they are equally awesome. Ground ref maneuvers are fun because I'm always peering out the window flying to cues located on the ground. I never realized how many cows there are laying around this place. I even did one of my turns around a cow.
Then we brought it back and I did 4 touch and gos with him in the plane. I nailed them all. I was on today. My hour lesson however was up and we went to the gas tank to fill up. After that Jeff asked if I had a wanted to do a few solo runs. I couldn't resist. I was off and got in two solo landings.
He even told me what I have been waiting to hear. The time has come for me to make my first solo ventures to the practice area and back. I can't stray too far, 25 nautical miles is the legal limit. Still though, this is a great time.