So, student pilots.. Who are we and where do we stand?

orange said:
I soloed on Saturday. Now, we moved to cross-country ground work. We did flight planning last night and we are going on a dual x-country on Saturday.

Tip to newer students: Study up (read the textbooks, watch youtube vids, google for aviation websites) on material you're supposed to be doing in your upcoming lessons. It will make your training go more efficient and save you some time and money.
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Gratz on the solo. I can't wait
 
Texted the CFI this morning, asking if the winds this afternoon would be too much. He said nope, and we need to practice in high wind situations anyway, so today is as good a day as any! Yipes!
 
onezuludelta said:
Texted the CFI this morning, asking if the winds this afternoon would be too much. He said nope, and we need to practice in high wind situations anyway, so today is as good a day as any! Yipes!
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Yeah, I had to cancel mine yesterday, as I am just not ready for high winds. Have fun!
 
Got stalled a little 9.0 hours. Work is killing me. I miss flying
 
Been busy with work and haven't flown in 2 weeks. Scheduled to do hood work Saturday, and have my first two night lessons scheduled next week.
 
C'mon you slackers! Let's get flying!!! Seriously, weather happens and you have to be realistic about your ability and set your minimums and stick to them.
 
Progress report. Im a student no more! Passed the checkride on the 12th. Now I have my license to learn! I did a checkride write up in my other post.
 
Congratulations! I'll go check out your other post.

I solo'd yesterday!!!!!! 5/15/15 it was amazing. What a rush!!!
 
Since my first solo on 5/2, we did my first dual cross-country FRG-HFD (Farmingdale, NY-Hartford, CT) about 70 miles. It was much more fun that flying in rectangles around the airport, and the practice area.

And yesterday morning, I scheduled to solo for the second time for 8am at FRG. But it didn't go as planned and could've been bad if I had paniced. I got the weather from home and then again as I was arriving at the airport.

6:53am 16004KT 10SM SCT040
7:53am 22005KT 10SM OVC039

The sky looked ok, not sunny but not threatening. I preflighted and started taxing about 8:15. I taxied to 19 and I did the run-up. Got cleared (left traffic) and took off, probably around 8:25. I turned cross-wind at 800 and I notice clouds moving fast from left to right at eye level. WTF? :confused:

TPA is 1100 but I leveled off at 900 because I knew that at 1100 would be in the clouds. I turned downwind and I'm in a f'ing cloud. The whole windshield goes white. :hairraise: I immediately killed the power to start descending, keeping an eye on the attitude indicator and altimeter to make sure that I was under control since I was only at 900. I descended to 800. It only lasted about 4-5 seconds but I can see how it can rattle you not being able to see a thing besides clouds. That was the only full whiteout cloud that I flew through, there were a couple small clearer ones.

I called the tower to report downwind and requested full stop instead of T&G. There were 3 or 4 other planes in the pattern and I heard them one by one requesting full stop. Hearing all those planes changing to full stops, the tower asked about the clouds and somebody said 1000. They were really as low as about 900-850, but I didn't say anything.

I flew a normal base and final and made a nice landing. Taxied back and as I entered the ramp, the skies opened up. It started to pour hard!

The coulds went from 3900 to 900 in a matter of 25-30 minutes. In retrospect, I probably should've stayed on the ground to begin with. There's always another day. The MOS on Foreflight had VFR the whole morning until later afternoon so I didn't expect it to deteriorate that quickly. And the ATIS 15 minutes before I started taxiing was ok.

Lesson learned. Any tips/suggestions/criticism? All is welcomed.
 
orange said:
Since my first solo on 5/2, we did my first dual cross-country FRG-HFD (Farmingdale, NY-Hartford, CT) about 70 miles. It was much more fun that flying in rectangles around the airport, and the practice area.

And yesterday morning, I scheduled to solo for the second time for 8am at FRG. But it didn't go as planned and could've been bad if I had paniced. I got the weather from home and then again as I was arriving at the airport.

6:53am 16004KT 10SM SCT040
7:53am 22005KT 10SM OVC039

The sky looked ok, not sunny but not threatening. I preflighted and started taxing about 8:15. I taxied to 19 and I did the run-up. Got cleared (left traffic) and took off, probably around 8:25. I turned cross-wind at 800 and I notice clouds moving fast from left to right at eye level. WTF? :confused:

TPA is 1100 but I leveled off at 900 because I knew that at 1100 would be in the clouds. I turned downwind and I'm in a f'ing cloud. The whole windshield goes white. :hairraise: I immediately killed the power to start descending, keeping an eye on the attitude indicator and altimeter to make sure that I was under control since I was only at 900. I descended to 800. It only lasted about 4-5 seconds but I can see how it can rattle you not being able to see a thing besides clouds. That was the only full whiteout cloud that I flew through, there were a couple small clearer ones.

I called the tower to report downwind and requested full stop instead of T&G. There were 3 or 4 other planes in the pattern and I heard them one by one requesting full stop. Hearing all those planes changing to full stops, the tower asked about the clouds and somebody said 1000. They were really as low as about 900-850, but I didn't say anything.

I flew a normal base and final and made a nice landing. Taxied back and as I entered the ramp, the skies opened up. It started to pour hard!

The coulds went from 3900 to 900 in a matter of 25-30 minutes. In retrospect, I probably should've stayed on the ground to begin with. There's always another day. The MOS on Foreflight had VFR the whole morning until later afternoon so I didn't expect it to deteriorate that quickly. And the ATIS 15 minutes before I started taxiing was ok.

Lesson learned. Any tips/suggestions/criticism? All is welcomed.
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Sounds like you did fine.
 
Thanks ya'll! At 50 hours and if I plan to fly 2-3 x a week when should I expect to take my check ride?
 
orange said:
The MOS on Foreflight had VFR the whole morning until later afternoon so I didn't expect it to deteriorate that quickly. And the ATIS 15 minutes before I started taxiing was ok.

Lesson learned. Any tips/suggestions/criticism? All is welcomed.
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Someone needs to slap your hand, so I will be that guy. You really should have known better than to enter into any clouds. Aside from that, you did the right thing by getting out of the sky. Remember, there are guys flying IFR that could pop out of those clouds without seeing you.

Use the TAF forecast on ForeFlight. Do not trust the MOS on ForeFlight. That is computer generated estimated guess for the area. I think of the MOS as a second opinion to other weather data. In your situation flying out of KFRG, I would have looked at the TAF for KISP and the TAF for KJFK. TAF's are a forecast within a small area (I believe within 6 miles) from the airport that issues it. I would say the worst of them both would be a good representation of what kind of weather you will get.

ATIS/AWOS etc, is great to know what is currently happening, but it will not tell you what will be happening in 15 minutes. The TAF's are your friend right now.

Weather can be very complicating to understand. I am still learning new ways to evaluate the weather. Put some emphasis on this with your instructor and to start with, learn to grasp the data on http://aviationweather.gov/
 
Dang this thread is great. Other KFRG students, and someone from Louisiana (my original home state). That sucks about the clouds moving in; summer weather here is so odd. My CFI and I were dodging a broken layer a week or two ago, and he took me through the edge of a cloud just so I could see what it was like and how quickly it happens. I really thought we were going to miss it them WHOOMP, couldn't see anything. It was a great little lesson about how fast it can happen.

I really wish there was a TAF at KFRG, because it seems like the weather at KISP can be so much different even though it is only 15 miles away or so. I like the idea of comparing the KISP and KJFK TAFs though.

Anywhoo, I'm at 9.8 in the logbook thanks to 4 flights last week (woohoo!) and he said I'll be ready to solo 2 lessons from now. I'm scheduled for today and Wednesday, but the weather is looking weird today, and I think there MIGHT be a Presidential TFR for Wednesday? Foreflight has a Stamford, CT "POTUS Draft" TFR listed for that day, but I don't know how to find more info about it, besides the mighty Google which hasn't offered anything up.

EDIT: Today (Monday) cancelled due to weather. ARGH!

DOUBLE EDIT: AAAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHH and there's a TFR for Wednesday!!!!
 
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That's awesome - you must be kicking a$$ to solo so soon. Hope you get to do it soon. I'm still on a rush from soloing Friday ! Headed to the beach this weekend. Instead of an 8 hour drive, I asked my CFI if we could do some dual Xcountry training, so now I get to miss all the Mem Day traffic while training ! Score !
 
I've got my mock check ride scheduled for Sat, if that goes well I should have the real deal early next week.
 
First night flight last night in the pattern. Between nearly 3 weeks off and direct crosswind 8G15 it was a rough night. Should be able to get in the night XC tonight. Hard to believe I'm at 29.5 hours now.
 
I have my official pilot plastic, and I have started transition training, as well as complex and HP for a PA32.
 
JasonM said:
Someone needs to slap your hand, so I will be that guy. You really should have known better than to enter into any clouds. Aside from that, you did the right thing by getting out of the sky. Remember, there are guys flying IFR that could pop out of those clouds without seeing you.

Use the TAF forecast on ForeFlight. Do not trust the MOS on ForeFlight. That is computer generated estimated guess for the area. I think of the MOS as a second opinion to other weather data. In your situation flying out of KFRG, I would have looked at the TAF for KISP and the TAF for KJFK. TAF's are a forecast within a small area (I believe within 6 miles) from the airport that issues it. I would say the worst of them both would be a good representation of what kind of weather you will get.

ATIS/AWOS etc, is great to know what is currently happening, but it will not tell you what will be happening in 15 minutes. The TAF's are your friend right now.

Weather can be very complicating to understand. I am still learning new ways to evaluate the weather. Put some emphasis on this with your instructor and to start with, learn to grasp the data on http://aviationweather.gov/
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Don't forget that many TAFs are nothing but recoded model outputs now. I've seen some that appear to be nothing but the RUC or latest GFS MOS run straight up.
 
krock918316 said:
First night flight last night in the pattern. Between nearly 3 weeks off and direct crosswind 8G15 it was a rough night. Should be able to get in the night XC tonight. Hard to believe I'm at 29.5 hours now.
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I hear you... I am just starting out with 4.9 hours. But had a week off, and then went up (in a Light Sport) with moderate turbulence and trying to do slow flight training. I can empathize on your rough time in flight... I had pretty damp palms by the end of my lesson!
 
Starting class on Wednesday. I can't wait to fly over water.
 
I did my 1st lesson yesterday! One hour on the ground learning about the aircraft and the per-fight check list,then an hour in flight "What A Blast". I was a bit overwhelmed by all the information being presented to me but in all came together at the end. Just 40+ hours to go.
 
D.M.D said:
I did my 1st lesson yesterday! One hour on the ground learning about the aircraft and the per-fight check list,then an hour in flight "What A Blast". I was a bit overwhelmed by all the information being presented to me but in all came together at the end. Just 40+ hours to go.
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Welcome to the board and to the world of flying! Enjoy (and don't count the hours) :)
 
D.M.D said:
I did my 1st lesson yesterday! One hour on the ground learning about the aircraft and the per-fight check list,then an hour in flight "What A Blast". I was a bit overwhelmed by all the information being presented to me but in all came together at the end. Just 40+ hours to go.
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Welcome to the wonderful world of crazy people. It is a bit like drinking from a fire hose, but it will start making sense. If I could give you one little piece of advice it would be, you plan on flying for years and training is flying. Don't forget to enjoy your training, it really is a blast. Don't be too anxious to finish, relax and have fun.
 
jordane93 said:
That's awesome. My parents were in PR a few months ago and IIRC correctly Cape Air has some 402s down there.
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You are correct. I am hoping to end up in Montana but if I have to fly in PR for the winter it will still be amazing. My mother lived on the island of St Croix so I know what to expect on the islands. Now all I need to do is get proficient on syncing the props on a 402 and I'll be set.
 
NJP_MAN said:
You are correct. I am hoping to end up in Montana but if I have to fly in PR for the winter it will still be amazing. My mother lived on the island of St Croix so I know what to expect on the islands. Now all I need to do is get proficient on syncing the props on a 402 and I'll be set.
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Why Montana? Good luck on the new job!
 
jordane93 said:
Why Montana? Good luck on the new job!
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Because I've lived in the west (born in Wy) my whole life. Commuting to visit family and friends would be easier if I'm only one state away. A quick flight from Billings to Denver puts me in a real familiar place. Furthermore, AZ is where I want to be so Montana is closer to AZ than Rutland VT is.
 
*sigh* saving for my lessons (expected in early spring 2016). Using the rest of this year to build up capital and get my medical in order.
 
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