dell30rb
Final Approach
If you haven't done a night x/c yet its probably worth the visual experience anyway without the hood! Night flights are really amazing if you have good visibility
KICKED OUT OF THE NEST!
He turned me loose this morning and said to make as many landings as I wanted. I made three and then came in so he didn't have to stay at the airport all day. He made some notes in my logbook with crosswind and distance restrictions and told me to fly four of five hours and then we will finish up my few items of requirements flying including my long cross country and then we'll do check ride prep.
To say it out like that sounds like I'm almost there, but this consists of my long cross country, 1.9 hours under the hood and my night cross country, which was not a requirement when I flew 20 years ago.
As someone in this thread said some weeks ago, there was indeed a day when I looked at the empty right seat and wondered why all that was ever necessary.
After he left, I topped off the tanks and did 3 rounds before having to go to work. It was starting to get a little choppy and the light cross wind seemed to be picking up, so the timing was good.
We're supposed to have the same weather tomorrow, so I hope to knock out a few hours tomorrow morning.
It looks like maybe it wasn't such a huge mistake to buy a taildragger after all.
Thanks for all your help, comments and encouragement in this thread. It helped greatly.
Doc
KICKED OUT OF THE NEST!
Thanks Ghery!
Actually I don't need 3 hours of night flying. I have that much and about 13 landings. What I DON'T have is the 100 mile night cross country. It was not a requirement when I flew before. All I have to do is a flight to and from an airport that I am familiar with which is 51 NM away. I hope to combine the flight with a little time under the hood while I'm doing it.
Doc
I was going to suggest that you consider a simulator for your instrument work, then remembered that you own your own plane, so it may not save any money. It can simulate instrument failures more accurately than slapping a soap dish cover over an instrument, but you aren't learning instrument procedures as a pilot, only trying to keep from killing yourself if you get into the clouds inadvertently. If you both do that and have an instrument, well maybe it wasn't your day.Thanks for the congrats, and thanks Jeanie for the tip on the night hood work. Fitting it in somewhere else is no sweat. He will do a cross country with me before my long one, so we can fit some in there. Even if I have to just pay for two hours of nothing but hood work, no worry except for the extra delay.
BTW, the name of my lovely bride of 37 years is named Jean. I call her Jeanie.
Doc
BTW, this weekend I bought one of the discontinued Flip cameras on the cheap and got a gorilla tripod mount. The mount does me no good in my plane. I will have to try to find what sort of RAM mount there might be for a video camera. Today would have been a good day to chronicle my landings on video. Hopefully some point in the future they will get better to the point that today's landings will really look bush league to me.
Even though today's landings were'nt perfect, they did bolster my confidence even further, in that I know I can land Miss Piggy without ground looping her.
Doc
Thanks for the video. I enjoyed it.
The winds got up this morning, with a quartering cross wind component. I made 10 take offs and landings in exactly one hour even including about three and a half minutes of the hour was warm up and run up.
Without the ballast of the instructor (don't take it the wrong way Wayne) and having the airport all to myself, I was able to climb out fast to an altitude from which I could turn cross wind. I then kept the pattern tight and this included back taxiing about 1,000 feet on each circuit.
I didn't keep the center stripe between my wheels, but all but one landing would have been easily within the confines of a 35' wide runway.
I ballooned up some on one landing, but I had been trying a little different round out and learned from it.
BTW, this weekend I bought one of the discontinued Flip cameras on the cheap and got a gorilla tripod mount. The mount does me no good in my plane. I will have to try to find what sort of RAM mount there might be for a video camera. Today would have been a good day to chronicle my landings on video. Hopefully some point in the future they will get better to the point that today's landings will really look bush league to me.
Even though today's landings were'nt perfect, they did bolster my confidence even further, in that I know I can land Miss Piggy without ground looping her.
Doc
Yeah Captain, Flying on a hot day is a difference all together. We're starting to get a break now, but for a few months of my training, we would go up at Sunrise and it would already be over 90 degrees. It would climb near 100 before we got in an hour and a half or so. Flying in the afternoon or even close to Sunset was near impossible.
Yeah Captain, Flying on a hot day is a difference all together. We're starting to get a break now, but for a few months of my training, we would go up at Sunrise and it would already be over 90 degrees. It would climb near 100 before we got in an hour and a half or so. Flying in the afternoon or even close to Sunset was near impossible.
Kim,
I can't even remember the name of the manufacturer, but they have discontinued the Flip phone. I got one at Best Buys and the accessories are dirt cheap too. There are two models, one was $59 and the other $79. The $79 has a replacable battery. I bought a spare battery and charger for $6. Normally you charge it from a USB port. Comparable phones by other makers are in the $150 plus range.
They had a suction cup mount for less than $40, but that's not what I wanted. I want to mount high center in the baggage compartment in an effort to see instruments.
I had been holding out for one with external audio so I could put a mic in my headset, but you have to get into the expensive ones for that.
Hope this helps,
Doc
I flew over my place this morning and then came back and did 10 stop & go landings. Most of them were good, but one was really bad unless you use the "walk away and can still fly the plane being a great landing" axiom.
I flew over my place at 1,900' AGL and my proposed landing strip looks like a postage stamp. Maybe once they get through with the pipeline and clear things out it will look bigger. Hopefully my flying skills will improve enough that this also makes the strip look bigger.
I rigged up my camera on my gorilla tripod clamped to the top of the co-pilot seat. The camera worked well but was not located high enough. I will work on some other mount for it.
Another noteworthy thing was seeing a small lake in a National Wild Life Refuge being scarily dry. The fish there will have to learn to walk and do it very soon. Really sad because this used to be a premier Crappie lake. The drought is getting REALLY dreadful.
Doc
KICKED OUT OF THE NEST!
He turned me loose this morning and said to make as many landings as I wanted. I made three and then came in so he didn't have to stay at the airport all day. He made some notes in my logbook with crosswind and distance restrictions and told me to fly four of five hours and then we will finish up my few items of requirements flying including my long cross country and then we'll do check ride prep.
To say it out like that sounds like I'm almost there, but this consists of my long cross country, 1.9 hours under the hood and my night cross country, which was not a requirement when I flew 20 years ago.
As someone in this thread said some weeks ago, there was indeed a day when I looked at the empty right seat and wondered why all that was ever necessary.
After he left, I topped off the tanks and did 3 rounds before having to go to work. It was starting to get a little choppy and the light cross wind seemed to be picking up, so the timing was good.
We're supposed to have the same weather tomorrow, so I hope to knock out a few hours tomorrow morning.
It looks like maybe it wasn't such a huge mistake to buy a taildragger after all.
Thanks for all your help, comments and encouragement in this thread. It helped greatly.
Doc
I would recommend getting a long night X-C in the logbook over someplace *really* dark on a night with no moon with a CFI or another pilot who's done it.
I like night flying but early in my logbook I had that experience come suddenly over Eastern Colorado one night (and also had a lot of sim time toward the IR), and I found it a bit unnerving at the time.
It's one of those scenarios that kills pilots, and it's hard to put a rule in that says the night training has to be in those conditions, so it can be a "first time" experience that can end up very poorly.
I kept the shiny side up but it would have been more comfortable to have seen it once before with a second pair of eyeballs and a smarter brain in the right seat.
Other than that, whoooo hoo!
Doc,
I found that mount for you. Works great, and not just in airplanes. It works in cars, boats, etc:
http://www.gforcemount.com/GF170.htm
Kimberly
Thanks Kim! I tried the gorilla tripod clamped to my co pilots seat. It was out of position, but I was amazed at how steady it was. I have one more trick up my sleeve with a different tripod and if that doesn't work I will order the one in your link. The link is now nice and neatly archived in the thread so I can find it easily.
Thanks for going to the trouble.
Doc
Thanks for the information on the moon. That sounds great!
BTW Henning, I've been trying to follow your advice and shoot as many landings as possible in an effort to burn it into my brain and as you said "never doubt my landings again" or something like that.
Thanks for all your great suggestions along this journey.
Doc
I am starting tailwheel next Saturday!!!!
I guess I am itching for the next training step and it seems that he thinks I can do it in less than 10 hours. Here is the Citabria:
http://sonomaflying.com/airplanes/
In addition to stick and rudder, he wants me to read:
http://ehfc.net/Taming.pdf
Yep, been reading it, keep it up. Eventually you'll mess up enough times you won't be afraid of it anymore, and that's when you just start flying the airplane, when you realize that you can mess up and still keep it under control. BTW, if you're ballooning it means you are too fast. You can take at least 5 kts off your speed or just push it into a wheel landing.
The ballooning that Henning talks about will probably be new to you, at least in three point landings. Due to tail low attitude, if you're too fast it will definitely want to go back into the air.
There are lots of things that you learn beyond just rudder control.
Enjoy!
Doc
Yes, this part finally got into my head and I wasn't nervous any more. Of course it was after a few close calls.
Kim,
The above said, don't EVER lose your rudder focus on the ground. If you take it for granted as in a nose dragger, that's when you'll get into trouble.
One good tip I had along the way was to waggle the rudder pedals just a little bit on short final. This sort of gets your feet ready for things to come. It's only something you do until you get the hang of it, not something you do forever.
The balooning that Henning talks about will probably be new to you, at least in three point landings. Due to tail low attitude, if you're too fast it will definitely want to go back into the air. All that said, the Citabria and Champ sit relatively level when on the ground, so they don't have nearly as much balooning tendency as a more tail low airplane like a Cub or a Cessna 140, so this should make that part at least a LITTLE easier for you.
The thing about the Champ, and I assume the Citabria, is that they require LOTS of rudder action. I spent my first 7 hours in a Champ 20 years ago before moving to the 150. I had been SO active on the rudder pedals in the Champ that when I got in the 150 my rudder operation was totally automatic. I don't know how it will be going the other way, from the 150 to the Champ.
There are lots of things that you learn beyond just rudder control.
Enjoy!
Doc
Well, I'm back to flying with the instructor. We did 45 degree 360's, short field, soft field and 50 foot obstacles. I've been spending so much time on my landings that I haven't done much of this in a while, so I'm back in the mode of being challenged.
He gave me some very nice compliments on my landings so I guess I've been gaining ground since flying by myself. We didn't go to the avionics shop this morning, so I didn't have to land on the sidewalk over there.
Weather permitting, we will knock out my night cross country Friday night, and he has given me my route to plan for my long cross country. I also need to come up with a hood since he lost his foggles. It is quite feasible to knock out the cross country next week and maybe the hood time shortly thereafter.
I'm really getting down to the fine points now.
In the last week or so I've gotten well acquainted with the crop duster on the field. I've done some hangar flying with him and climbed around on his Pawnee. What a neat plane. I'm learning alot from him, just hearing about his exploits and his personal rules and limitations that he flies by.
Things are moving along.
Doc
The tinted ones don't work out well at night. If you decide to do your instrument rating you may be doing a lot more hood flying at night.Doc,
These are the foggles I use (get the tinted ones, they double as sunglasses):
http://www.sportys.com/PilotShop/product/9406
These are cheaper and better than most I've seen out there.
Doc,
I think I have a pair of Foggles that I don't use anymore; my DPE prefers a hood. PM me your address and I'll mail them to you.
Personally I would recommend the Francis hood, or something similar that doesn't interfere with whatever other eyewear you require. Besides, real hoods do a better job of cutting off peripheral vision than do foggles.