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

I'm a lot like a relief pitcher in baseball. You have a bad game, you want to get out there the next day and show you've still got it. That's how I am with my landings. My last landing on Saturday was pathetic. So today I wanted to get back out there and show them (me) that I can still pilot this airship.

I picked up my plane from the avionics shop (transponder check) and the clouds were breaking up enough that I had time to get out and do some maneuvers. Unfortunately now that I'm down to a part time instructor, I'm biding my time until he can sign me off for the long XC. Was hoping for this weekend but weather isn't looking good. I watched a USNG Chinook take off and then called for my VFR to the southwest. Runway 22 was both convenient to my location on the field and the direction of flight I wanted. Headed on my way and departure cleared me on my own nav. Plane felt a bit slow. Dope, you forgot to raise your flaps. Ugh. Did some slow flight. Was amazed at how slow I got it (around 40 kts) before the plane would even think of chirping. Not full on fuel and only me in the plane. Went ahead and stalled it and recovered. Did some steep turns because I hate them. Then headed back in. Got a long base for 31. Approach was good and stable. Worked on my roundout better this time. I'm still getting used to the wide runways at my new airport. Put the mains down softly and taxiied my 10 miles (ok, maybe only 1.5 miles) to my hangar. Air was fairly smooth and the cloud dodging wasn't too bad. Weather hasn't been too great lately here in Illinois. Hoping my instructor can find an after work time soon so he can sign me off on the long XC. Until then....just doodle around the sky locally on my own.
 
After almost a year and over 80 hrs of flight time I finally took my check ride yesterday. DPE was very easy going, a lot of the oral was seemed more like a conversation about GA than an exam, so that ended up going pretty well. The flying went well too, not my best and some things I can certainly work on but overall he was pleased with my flying. He shook my hand after we'd parked and shut down and said "congratulations, you passed". That's all I needed to hear!

After that we went in and debriefed the exam, went over some "procedural" things he thought I could work on, that's good because the learning has just begun now.

Now I can finally start enjoying all this hard work!
 
What I have left:
2.0xc solo
4.0xc solo
4.0 dual mastering everything for the checkride.

Starting to get excited about finishing and nervous because I have to get my written done soon.
 
Yay checkride!

I had my first flight in two years today. It was awful, I was flying like I did at 10 hours. I should feel good that I kept +/- 500' altitude, 20 kts speed and 30 degrees course. But Yuck!

Flying is a very perishable skill and we are always students.
 
bflynn said:
Yay checkride!

I had my first flight in two years today. It was awful, I was flying like I did at 10 hours. I should feel good that I kept +/- 500' altitude, 20 kts speed and 30 degrees course. But Yuck!

Flying is a very perishable skill and we are always students.
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Heh. It'll tighten up. Go fly more. ;)
 
scott barlow said:
What I have left:
2.0xc solo
4.0xc solo
4.0 dual mastering everything for the checkride.

Starting to get excited about finishing and nervous because I have to get my written done soon.
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I did the written a couple weeks ago. If you've used any of the test prep from the PTS era then you'll do fine... The ACS test was really no different. You couldn't memorize answers as they changed numbers or airports or routes but the types of questions were identical.

So if you can actually answer questions on practice tests you'll pass with flying colors.
 
Currently I am only taking the sporty's tests online. My 141 school made me enroll in the jeppesen online last year and they have not changed anything on it since the FAA changes in June but neither has sportys that I can tell. I feel like I know most everything but just not enough confidence yet.
 
Did my prep flight yesterday for my long XC. KPIA to KPNT and back. Convective Sigmet outlook was blanketing all of Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana (and then some) but the possibility of central Illinois being affected wasn't very big. So we launched and headed East. Used the online functions for opening flight plans for the first time. A little buggy and the text thing didn't work. Had to use a browser. Clouds were high enough to get us to 5,500. This was the first time I've taken my plane up to any significant altitude to lean. Thought I had peaked my EGT but ended up peaking it higher on the way back. Wish I had an engine analyzer. Got handed off to Chicago center and that poor guy was hopping. Field in sight, moved to CTAF. Made my calls, nobody around. First approach I was way too tight on my downwind so went around and redid it. Still a little tight but made the approach fine. This was also my first airport with no taxiway. Went to the ramp, closed my flight plan and opened the return trip plan. Did my taxi back on the runway and headed back out. Just did 4,500 on the way back and called Peoria approach about 30 out. Had to deal with some conflicting traffic that neither of us could see each other. Ended up being no big deal. Got a long straight in for 22 and put her down.

Weather is looking good for this next weekend to do my long XC. Plan is KPIA-KLAF-KCMI-KPIA. About 270 miles in total. Pretty excited. After this all I need is one hour of hood work and all the boxes are checked. :happydance:
 
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Still working on landings. Lessons cancelled today due to winds. Back at it next weekend, I hope.
 
I got some solo landing practice in on Sunday, working on short and soft field landings. The 172 doesn't seem to want to settle with 1200 to 1400 rpm's. I got 10 landings in an hour, not too bad at a class D with some light traffic I suppose. I think I only got extended twice. I feel like I'm going for the record longest calendar time student pilot.
 
Soloed last week, got 3 landings in then. Today another lesson- simulated power failure, a couple crosswind landings, then 3 more solo laps. I had to go around on the second landing attempt - was just not set up good on final and it didn't feel right. At least I got to practice my go-arounds, which is something I really wanted to do anyway.

So far my solo experience: I am finding it a bit difficult to "dial it in" on final. I tend to be too fast (used to dual) even when I conciously slow it down. Instructor said that from what he sees I'm letting the nose drop when I add that last notch of flaps, and that is speeding me up and screwing me up. So far of my big fat six solo landings I'd say 2 were very good, 2 good, and 2 where I was fast and floated - and landed too hard (not slammed down, but too hard). I guess practice makes perfect...

At least I got to work on xwind landings today too, I think on the last one I really had finally gotten the "wing low" method down. I wanted to do more but instructor had to come back for next lesson...
 
Made a short fuel run in my plane today and had a little adventure in the pattern. Just biding time until my instructor has availability to knock out the last 1 hour of hood work. Anywho, left my Class C for a local airport that has much cheaper fuel. Got freq change with a traffic advisory someone a mile to my north and headed my direction. Also had heard another call to approach going to the same field. Switched to CTAF and made my call. Other traffic asked if I saw him. Not at first, but quickly did right behind me. He turn upwind as I turned downwind so we could do spacing. Decided to do a touch and go and then stop for fuel. As I called crosswind after the TNG, someone called turning downwind. Uhhhh. Where are you? I couldn't see anyone near me. Turned downwind and included altitude in my calls. Other guy couldn't find me either. He decided to turn out of the pattern to avoid anything. As he did, I see him off the approach end of the runway. He was backwards on his calls. He thought he was downwind for 27 when he really had been downwind for 9. I went ahead and landed. He came in behind me. Came over to me at the pumps and apologized for his mixup. That's probably my first time where I was that nervous on the radio because I had no idea where he was for a minute. Turned out ok.
 
2 hour lesson today, dual pattern work, power off emergencies, and then 6 solo full stop landings. Of the solo landings 2 were excellent, 2 very good, 1 good and one not too great. I have learned that controlling that speed on final is key, it just feels so different solo (weight). Finally getting used to the lower speed approach. No truly bad landings today and no go-arounds needed. Next week one more lesson like today and he said he would sign me off to solo from Syracuse to Oswego and back. So maybe next week or the week after. I gotta admit I'm a little amazed at how fast things are moving now. I actually felt comfortable today flying solo.
 
El Reverendo said:
Took my PPSEL checkride today. The first our school has had under the new ACS.



The downside is that the oral portion took 7 HOURS to complete. This was with me nailing every section and not having to take too much time to look stuff up at all. I only missed 4 questions total on the knowledge test so its not like we had to cover a lot of that remedial stuff either.

?
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Ridiculous. Guess the DPE is trying to prove something to the FAA. :rolleyes:
 
Well I missed one week due to a family vacation but it was a great time.

The lesson was to solo from another airport so we departed from KTPF (Peter O Knight) and went over to KPCM (Plant City) and did two landings. They were good enough for my instructor to hop out and tell me to go to the practice area and do: S turns, turns around a point, and steep turns. I hit my own wake in the steep turns which was pretty cool.

Came back and picked the instructor back up and went back to KTPF.

Longer flight than normal at 1.4 hours for a total of 17.1
 
Also did another short lesson to do more short and soft field practice. I serious struggle with the short field landings. I think it's because it's a little slower and steeper approach and just wants to come down firmer than I like.

After a number of tries I did better, still quite firm but I think that's probably a good thing. My soft field landings and both takeoff techniques are fine. Soft field takeoffs are a lot of fun.

1.0 hours for a total of 18.1


Next up is some more sim IFR work with unusual attitudes, lost procedures, etc.

Then a short solo practice flight, I might work on those short field landings some more too.

Third flight from now will be my first cross country. Fun!
 
hockeyrcks9901 said:
My lesson today was definitely unconventional:

My wife wanted to go up with my instructor and I to see what it was all about. She has been in small planes before but wanted to meet my instructor. So we went out to preflight and as we're walking up I see a puddle under the right wheel. I asked my instructor if it was brake fluid or water as I was walking over to the left door to open and drop the flaps for preflight. "Brake fluid!". DAMN.

Luckily it was a very slow day and the other C172 is sitting right next to us is available. So I walk over to start preflight while the instructor runs in to get the book and keys. The doors were locked so I started with the prop, cowl, and oil. Then climb the wing to visually check fuel and find that it's so full that it spills out from my weight on the strut lowering that wing. Check the right wing and find it's full too. Crap. Are we going to be over gross? We run inside to check W&B and find we're 10lbs under gross. WOOHOO! Let's go flying.

Everything else goes normally. I decide that I'm not going to do any maneuvers with my wife on-board. So we went to visit the 727 parked in the field, look in my post history for an image, and do a turn around a point to view it (good situational practice right?). Head back to the airport and do one touch and go and a full stop and taxi to the FBO. Go inside, instructor signs my logbook solo endorsement and into the plane I go.

The instructor grabs a golf cart, my wife, and one of the maintenance guys while I'm starting up and they ride over to the grass to take pics and video.

First takeoff: HOLY CLIMB RATE BATMAN! Pattern altitude reached during the upwind to base turn nearly.
First landing: Get a "NICE ONE!" from my instructor on the radio.
Second takeoff: Still surprised by the climb rate.
Second "landing": Have to dodge a bird on final, winds shifted to a stronger crosswind, and I ballooned from a gust. Go Around. "Good job" on the radio.
Second real landing: A little rough.
Third landing: Much better than second but not as good as the first.

Overall: 1.2 hours for a total of 15.7

Some other thoughts. Winds were a little stronger than I was hoping for: 11kts from 070 when we first went up. Runways 04-22 and 18-36 so 04 is the best choice but it was a decent crosswind. It changed to 11kts from 080 while in the pattern for my second landing. That change plus the bird plus the balloon lead to the go around. Fun!
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PIE?
 
Baldy said:
PIE?
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Close. KTPF.

I've flown over PIE when we went through TPA's Bravo on our way to the beach in an earlier lesson.

Was really cool how accommodating the Bravo ATC guys were. They even offered to give us traffic advisories outside of their airspace while we went up and down the beach.
 
Finally did some decent landings on the last few lessons. Still need a lot more practice, but Sunday's were all acceptable and several were pretty good, including a x-wind landing at X04. Greased one at KLEE and my CFI was shocked. CFI: "Are we on the ground?! Holy $^&!, we're on the ground! I didn't even feel us touch!" Sheer luck of course, but I'll take 'em any way they come.

I have a lot more work to go, but it feels good to finally be making some progress.
 
Today we did mostly hood work and unusual attitudes with some basic navigation using the GPS to get out of an issue when accidentally IFR.

After that we went to KSPG (Albert Whitted), a beautiful airport and one of the few where the public voted to keep it open rather than close it. Not only was the vote successful to keep it open but it was overwhelmingly a victory for the airport. Looked it up and the residents voted 3 to 1 to keep it open forever.

Did two full stop taxi backs on the runway and then left and went back through Tampa's Class Bravo to get back to TPA. Kind of funny when we called TPA Approach the controller replied to us with "Was that N33873?" and we said "No, it was N3552C." She replied with "Wow, I wasn't even close." And gave a good chuckle over the air.

The Tampa Controllers seem to be pretty damn awesome and have always been super accommodating and helpful when we've talked to them.

Finished with a landing back at KTPF (Peter O Knight).

1.2 hours for a total of 19.3

Next I have a solo practice flight then we start cross countries.
 
Well, back in the IR saddle again today. (Everybody in central Florida must have been up!)

After 2 months to the day off, we did 3 ILS 9R into KSFB (Sanford) and 1 ILS 25 into Orlando Exec (KORL). The first one into Sanford was rough. Probably not bust-the-ride rough but still. The second was perfect. Kept both needles centered all the way down. Then the third was OK. CFI surprised me with "Hey, I can see the runway, land!" when I was expecting missed. I did fine. Back over to Orlando and in the process forgot to change the nav radio to the LOC frequency. Even after being asked "What did you forget?". Sigh.

1.6 hours, 1.4 simulated instrument. Currently sitting at 30.5 simulate, 1.1 actual and 249.9 total time.

CFI says I should easily be ready by the 40 hour mark and encouraged me to go fly with a safety pilot. Still to come: partial panel and cross country flight. (Although I have enough XC hours.)

John
 
Another lesson today, 2.0h 1.0 of that solo. Emergency landing procedures, simulated emergencies (one into a farmers field, didn't go around until about 20' AGL!) and then some solo pattern work. Instructor told me to "take off and go sight seeing for a half hour, then come back and do 2 or 3 landings". So I did. Funny thing is once I was out of the immediate area, I was kinda bored - but didn't want to go too far either. So I just flew up to the shore of lake Ontario and flew down the shore for a while, did some turns around a point (water tower) and then came back and joined in the pattern with another student flying a Cessna and a few others.

Next week he said he's signing me off to solo from KSYR to KFZY, and back. I'm a little nervous about the flight back from KFZY to KSYR and not sounding like an idiot to ATC. When I make my initial call to them I plan to say "Student Pilot" in there, and hope they understand.

I guess it's a lot like my first solo - I know I can do it, and have already done it dozens of times, but doing it all on my own really puts the old brain in overdrive.
 
jbrinker said:
When I make my initial call to them I plan to say "Student Pilot" in there, and hope they understand.

I guess it's a lot like my first solo - I know I can do it, and have already done it dozens of times, but doing it all on my own really puts the old brain in overdrive.
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Wise to do that. As a former controller myself, they will be patient and helpful to you by stating that you are a student pilot. Except that Timbeck dood out in AZ somewhere. :D
 
Knocked out my remaining 0.9 of simulated instrument. 1.9 total with some ground reference maneuvers thrown in and a really long extended downwind to follow a regional jet. All of my technical requirements for taking the practical test have been met. Need 2 or so mock checkrides with my instructor and then it's time to do this thing. (For some that would take a week. With my part time instructor it could take a month)
 
Checkride done and passed! Much easier (easier isn't the right word here but my brain is fried...) than I anticipated. Oral portion was just over an hour. As others have said it was really just a conversation about aviation. Once I got going I was very comfortable and the answers kept coming. Never needed to reference the far/aim. Just a quick takeoff distance calculation from the POH.

Before flying he walked me through the order of maneuvers he wanted to see. Did pretty good on most. Under the hood was the most challenging to me. Had 1 go around on a soft field landing. On go around the windsock was straight out even though ASOS was only reporting a 8kt wind.

On return to home base I was fidgeting with the GPS and he reached over and pulled power. A quick transition to best glide, identify a field and how I would make the field and he said add power and get me home. Let me know then if I didn't kill him on landing, we'd go upstairs and print my certificate.

Now to relax the rest of the day. :)
 
Check ride canceled, and then, canceled again, one day the sky will clear when I need it. I'm gonna erase holes in my flight plan worksheet if this keeps up.
 
exncsurfer said:
Check ride canceled, and then, canceled again, one day the sky will clear when I need it. I'm gonna erase holes in my flight plan worksheet if this keeps up.
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There's some old saying about the "best laid plans," or was that the "best planned lays....?"
 
exncsurfer said:
Check ride canceled, and then, canceled again, one day the sky will clear when I need it. I'm gonna erase holes in my flight plan worksheet if this keeps up.
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"The plan never survives first contact with the enemy." Haha. Hang in there man, BTDT!
 
Doing my first "small" XC solo today. KSYR to KFZY (which is the same flight we do dual every single lesson), do some pattern work at KFZY and some maneuvers practice in the practice area, then back to KSYR. Slightly nervous about the flight back to KSYR, ATC, and all that. Hoping that the airspace around KSYR is quiet when I head back, I dread being a couple miles out when ATC says "No delay, make close traffic" - I want to fly my pattern predictably at least the first few times alone. Definitely using "student pilot" in my initial call to approach and tower.

(EDIT) - Instructor called at noon and canceled me. Winds at KSYR had picked up to 16G20, and that's too much for my freshly solo'ed butt. Maybe we will get a window Friday morning.
 
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