Starting PPL Training

livitup

livitup

Pre-takeoff checklist
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livitup
Well, I thought I'd share... it's official. On Tuesday I met with Steve, the guy who will become my CFI for the next fourty-something (hopefully!) hours.

I'm training with an independent CFI, an older guy who has the flexibility to teach when he wants, how much he wants, and at a very reasonable price. I stopped by his hangar at the local airport (only 10 minutes from my house) on Tuesday to fill out some paperwork. He wanted to get my basic information (address and phone numbers and such) and give me a list of homework assignments: start home based ground school, go get my medical done, that kind of stuff. When we finished, he showed me around the plane and showed me how to do a preflight. As things were wrapping up, he looked at his watch and said, "I've got about 40 minutes until my next student shows up, and I need to pull the plane out anyway... want to go up for a few loops in the pattern?" Music to my ears.

We took off and headed South-West from the airport. The weather was spectacular (both of my two earlier discovery-type flights were on days with high cloud cover or haze) and flying over land that I'm 100% familiar with, and seeing it so clearly from the sky... yeah, I'm hooked. :)

We spent most of the lesson going over the function of each control surface, and familiarizing me with the plane. It's a 1964 C172, so a few things are a little different, like the toggle switch for the flaps (instead of the lever with detents) and push/pull buttons for the master, lights, and such (rather than flip switches). Once we were out of the traffic pattern, Steve had me enter some turns, and try to hold a heading and altitude. We didn't have much time though, so before long he had me point it back towards the airport. He took over when we entered the pattern, but every step of the way he explained what he was doing and why. At the end of the lesson, he said "I hope you were paying attention, tomorrow we will do the same thing all over again, but you'll be doing it all!"

That was Tuesday, and the high is just starting to wear off. My Wednesday lesson was scrubbed due to weather, but we're supposed to be going up tomorrow if the winds cooperate.

If there's interest, I'll try to keep this thread going as a chronicle of my lessons. I'm going to ask Steve if he minds if I bring my GoPro camera on our lessons - I'll post some videos if I can...

Better than crack, this flying thing we do...
 
Congrats on starting! Keep us posted I am also only at a few hours. Got a nice voyage ahead.
 
Congrats on the new venture! I know you did a ton of research so I'm sure your experience will be rich. Keep us posted on your progress!
 
Keep it going. We like these threads. I hope you are under 30. We really need some young folks in GA
 
Great start!!

Regarding the medical, go review the form on https://medxpress.faa.gov and look at question 18 and the explanations closely. Intent is to ensure there are no show stoppers and/or determine if there are items that need a bit more documentation. And to discover this before you're too money deep into your training.

If something comes out of this exercise, PoA has some great threads discussing the conditions. Plus the wonderful help Dr. Bruce provides.
 
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AggieMike88 said:
If something comes out of this exercise, PoA has some great threads discussing the conditions. Plus the wonderful help Dr. Bruce provides.
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I'm *cough, cough* "familiar" with that section of PoA and have been quite well reassured that I have nothing even remotely close to a show stopper.

But thanks for the advice, and it's 1000% valid for anyone just getting started.
 
I highly recommend Rod Machado's Private Pilot Handbook. It'll teach you everything you need to know for your written exam. I read the whole book and got a 100 on my test. Good luck, have fun, and please, stay out of the trees.
 
If you use the GoPro, get the cable to tie it into the intercom. I found the videos most useful for listening to my CFI's coaching, and getting more familiar with radio procedures. I
 
Your spirit comes through on your post for sure! Flying is an amazing experience, take it all in. The best part of this whole experience is the journey to getting your license is just as good as when you have your license!
 
livitup said:
Better than crack, this flying thing we do...
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:yeahthat: although I have no first-hand experience with crack.

Sounds like you have an awesome instructor (and a cool name to boot! :D). Keep us posted on your progress.
 
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Blue Skies and Tailwinds!!! I first saw this on POA somewhere...I like the saying!
 
Funkeruski said:
I highly recommend Rod Machado's Private Pilot Handbook. It'll teach you everything you need to know for your written exam. I read the whole book and got a 100 on my test. Good luck, have fun, and please, stay out of the trees.
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I used to recommend this, then I realized if you yank out all the tired old dry humor about the only thing you're left with is an exact copy of the excellent free flight manuals that the FAA provides. :D

Now, there is some good stuff in those Rob Machado books, but I found my mind wandering off as if I was in some retirement home bingo game or some cheesy las vegas timeshare conference.
 
I agree with this post. The Machado books contain almost too much humor. I also find my mind wandering when I read it. I also have the Jeppesen book, which is as boring as Ben Stein reading excerpts from the "Glengarry Glen Ross" script. I'm more of a visual/auditory person so I use a combination of these books, A ASA Private Pilot test prep book as well as the ASA virtual Test prep and aviation ground school DVD set.

supernovae said:
I used to recommend this, then I realized if you yank out all the tired old dry humor about the only thing you're left with is an exact copy of the excellent free flight manuals that the FAA provides. :D

Now, there is some good stuff in those Rob Machado books, but I found my mind wandering off as if I was in some retirement home bingo game or some cheesy las vegas timeshare conference.
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KeithASanford said:
I agree with this post. The Machado books contain almost too much humor. I also find my mind wandering when I read it. I also have the Jeppesen book, which is as boring as Ben Stein reading excerpts from the "Glengarry Glen Ross" script. I'm more of a visual/auditory person so I use a combination of these books, A ASA Private Pilot test prep book as well as the ASA virtual Test prep and aviation ground school DVD set.
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Haha, I'm cracking myself up at work over this.
 
KeithASanford said:
I agree with this post. The Machado books contain almost too much humor. I also find my mind wandering when I read it. I also have the Jeppesen book, which is as boring as Ben Stein reading excerpts from the "Glengarry Glen Ross" script. I'm more of a visual/auditory person so I use a combination of these books, A ASA Private Pilot test prep book as well as the ASA virtual Test prep and aviation ground school DVD set.
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It depends on your style. I personally liked the Machado PPL book. He gave you everything you needed to know and was entertaining about it. But he does put enough silly humor in there to make you want to strangle him from time to time :).
 
Livitup, please keep us posted. Congratulations to you for diving in!
 
Congrats, Livitup. Enjoy the learning experience. Don't let the joy go away.
 
livitup said:
Today's lesson was scrubbed due to high (15 KT) crosswinds. :mad:
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Bummer. But after getting the PPL, look for the same conditions, grab your CFI, and sharpen your crosswind skills.
 
AggieMike88 said:
Bummer. But after getting the PPL, look for the same conditions, grab your CFI, and sharpen your crosswind skills.
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Definitely definitely do this. I'm still trying to find a time to do this with an instructor. Because of brilliant timing I haven't been able to hit the strong crosswinds in over a year. It's weird...and I'm rusty. I could feel it even in the roughly five knots of crosswind I had last time I flew.
 
Here's my writeup of Monday's lesson. I had another 1.2 hours today, but I haven't written it up yet...

2/4/2012
Weather grounded us for both of my scheduled lessons last week, so it's been a week since I've flown. Today was scheduled to be a full lesson, but last night Steve called and asked if I could tolerate a reshuffling. He had 2 real estate closings to do, and the stars aligned, and the closing agents wanted to do them back to back, starting about 2 hours before my scheduled lesson time. I know how impossible these things are to schedule, so I quickly agreed, but my calendar was already pretty full. We ended up deciding that I'd show up at the hangar at the scheduled start time, preflight the plane, and spend some time in the plane on the ground, familiarizing myself with the panel, and running mock checklists. Steve would get there as quickly as he could, and we could run up to 30 minutes past the scheduled finish time. So I knew it wasn't going to be a full lesson, but we'd try for whatever we could squeeze in.

Well, the closing karma was not with Steve, and he ended up arriving at the airport about 40 minutes before my drop-dead, gotta leave the airport time. But we weren't giving up easy, and we agreed to fire her up and milk those 40 minutes. Steve really felt guilty, and so he said that he wouldn't charge me for the lesson today. The only thing better than flying, is free flying!

He reviewed the preflight and then we mounted up. The flight ended up being not much more than another intro flight - we just didn't have time to start learning manuvers, but we took off, and flew to the practice area. Steve was really controlling the aircraft, at least the yoke and pedals, though I did do a few things here and there, like adjusting trim, adjusting power, setting flaps, and such, and I kept my hands and feet on the yoke and pedals, basically shadowing Steve's control inputs and getting a feel for things. I did get to try my hand at straight and level flight for a few minutes, though unfortunatley my flight was neither very straight or level. Steve noted two things we would work on correcting on our next flight: keeping my eyes outside and using the horizon and wing position as cues for what the plane is doing, versus my tendancy to try to fly on instruments, and he said that I was over-correcting, and ended up chasing the heading or altitude I was aiming for.

As we headed back, one of his partners called Steve on Unicom while we were turning base to final. I think Steve was a little preoccupied talking with his partner, rather than focusing on the landing, and it got a little bit away from him. We ended up coming in a little high, and a little fast, and combined with some gusty weather, we ended up landing a little hard (it was Steve's landing, not mine). I think he realized he had goofed up, as he said as we taxied back, that it was really not a good landing, by his standards. But I'll give him credit, on every previous landing he's really kissed the ground; they are what I would consider perfect landings. This one was maybe a 5 or 6 on a scale of ten... enough to make you go "oops," but nowhere near hard enough to hurt the plane or its occupants. Steve's a little bit of a perfectionist. :)

As we parked the plane on the line, Steve asked if I had any questions, and if I had been paying attention. I said "no, and yes," and he said "Good, because Wednesday you'll be doing that all yourself, except maybe the landing." Umm, whoops... I guess it's time to put my money where my mouth is.

I can't wait for Wednesday!

---
Today's Hours: 0.5
Total Hours: 1.0
 
Maybe I'm in the minority, but I would expect that any training flight I do, I operate the controls all the time, except for following new maneuvers. That's what I did when learning fixed wing, except for the first few landings and rudder on take off.
 
Looks like Jeanie's "ranch towel" trick might be of use.
 
docmirror said:
Maybe I'm in the minority, but I would expect that any training flight I do, I operate the controls all the time, except for following new maneuvers. That's what I did when learning fixed wing, except for the first few landings and rudder on take off.
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Same for me. I was operating the controls on the discovery flight (except for take-off and landing) and have been doing so ever since. On my first real flight I did turns and slow flight, the second real lesson was slow flights only, and on the third lesson I landed the plane with little input from the CFI. Yes, it was a little rough and the front tire somehow lost its air pressure... :dunno: But in my defense it was a bona fide night landing, as we were up doing maneuvers until well after sunset.

I must say that there are few things more spectacular than a night flight over SoCal...
 
KeithASanford said:
...which is as boring as Ben Stein reading excerpts from the "Glengarry Glen Ross" script.
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Ben reading the "Coffee is for Closers" speech written for Baldwin to give in the movie version, would be quite entertaining, actually.
 
Ateaist said:
Same for me. I was operating the controls on the discovery flight (except for take-off and landing) and have been doing so ever since. On my first real flight I did turns and slow flight, the second real lesson was slow flights only, and on the third lesson I landed the plane with little input from the CFI. Yes, it was a little rough and the front tire somehow lost its air pressure... :dunno: But in my defense it was a bona fide night landing, as we were up doing maneuvers until well after sunset.

I must say that there are few things more spectacular than a night flight over SoCal...
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I agree with you both, and I probably would have made an issue of it if 1) it was a real training flight and 2) I was paying for it. Steve told me from the onset that we didn't really have enough time to do a training flight, and if I wanted to go up, he'd take me up for free.

In my first full "real" lesson, which I'll write up ASAP, the situation was exactly as you described.
 
livitup said:
I agree with you both, and I probably would have made an issue of it if 1) it was a real training flight and 2) I was paying for it. Steve told me from the onset that we didn't really have enough time to do a training flight, and if I wanted to go up, he'd take me up for free.
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Every flight for me is a training flight in some way.

IMO, Steve did a bit of a disservice. Even with the "free" aspect, he should have allowed you to do as much as you were prepared to handle. Handing the aircraft to you after taking off, and then coaching you through departing the airport, doing some simple manuevers (climbs, turns, etc), and then returning to the airport, all would have been a good use of the time aloft.

While you said he didn't charge you, who paid for the use of the aircraft?
 
He teaches in his personal aircraft, so there was absolutely no cost to me. Normally, lessons are billed at a flat rate per hobbs hour... I have another thread from a month or so back asking if his pricing model (which is unique in the area, but not unique among CFIs in general) made sense. Basically I pay the same rate if he is in the plane, or if I'm doing solo. Pre- and post-flight review is included in that rate, so unless I need him to do a specific ground school class on something I'm just not learning from the Sporty's videos, I just pay the hobbs rate, which is slightly less than the going rate for a similarly equipped plane at the nearest towered airport.

I agree it could have been better, but under the circumstances, I was satisfied. I did get some hands on time, mostly trying to keep straight and level, and he learned some things about me that will make the next lesson more useful. If he had taken the time to explain/show/do teach to me how to do things in the runup and take off, that whole process would have taken longer, and we wouldn't have had time to get to the practice area. Basically, we were in a time crunch, and I don't fault his decision that this was the most effective use of the time.

On the other hand, I do appreciate the feedback from everyone. If the next lesson had continued along this path, then I would have gotten concerned. But it didn't. At all.
 
The next installment. I'm sorry if these are too long or too narrative... I'm really keeping these in a personal journal, since a very effective method of learning for me is to write. I'm just pasting them in this thread after I write them, as I figure someone might enjoy reading them.


2/6/2012
I arrived at the hangar exactly on time, so I didn't have time to set up the GoPro to record the lesson. Steve told me to preflight the plane, which I did with a minimum of trouble, following the checklist. As we pulled the plane out of the hangar, Steve lobbed a ground school test question at me. "If you lose your electrical system, what happens?" I knew the radios, lights, and flaps would be gone, but that the engine would keep running. "What instruments will you lose," Steve asked. And I blanked. I knew which instruments had gyros, which needed pitot or static air, but I couldn't think of which ones needed electrical. I started to go through the 6 pack: "Not the airspeed indicator, not the altimiter. The gyros are vacuum driven, so not the attitude indicator, directional gyro, or the turn coordinator..." About this time I realized I had run out of instruments, and "Bzzzzt," said Steve, "the turn coordinator is an electric gyro. Nice try." Thankfully we had the plane out of the hangar by then, so I could disconnect the tow bar and scurry back to the hangar. We grabbed our gear and climbed in. "Start her up," Steve said, and went back into silent mode. I continued to follow through the checklist, and I got the plane started without making any mistakes. The wind was going the opposite direction than it was during my previous flights, so we had a LONG taxi to the run up area - Steve's hangar is close to the end of the runway that's usually used, so it's nearly a mile to the other end... "OK, we're headed to runway 4, which is alllllll the way down there," Steve said, pointing off in the distance. "Remember to steer with your feet and don't go in the ditch."

It was hard to believe that I was the one controlling the plane. For some reason, this time the plane taxied WAY easier than it ever did on any of my previous flights. We just went. I wandered a little bit on the taxiway, but I was pretty straight. I only made two mistakes before run-up. First, we pull into the run-up area, and then turn about 45 degrees before stopping, so we have a good view of the approach end of the runway. I still had the left rudder pedal floored to make the turn, but when I went to brake, I took my foot off the pedal, and then applied the brakes - and my braking was neither smooth nor equal. So this whole brake to a stop thing had two problems... I went straight more than we would have liked when I was trying to brake, and then I slammed the left rudder pedal to get back in line, and stopped with the wheel turned full left. Steve explained this wasn't optimal, because it would require more engine power to get moving again when we were ready to leave, which could throw up debris on anyone who pulled into the runup area behind us. So, I need to practice breaking.

He handed the checklist back and said "run-up," which I managed to do without issue, and then he told me how to make the CTAF call for our departure, which I did. We swung out on to the runway and he said "apply full power, and don't forget some rudder to keep on the center line. Try to stay straight after you take off," and we were off. So up to this point I can honestly say, I've done everything myself.

About 45 seconds after we took off, Steve said "I've got the plane for a second, turn around and look behind you." I did, and he asked what I saw. "Nothing, really." "Well, what's about 15 degrees off the left side of the tail?" "The runway." In what's a really effective method for getting me to learn, Steve let me screw up, and try to learn from it. I had been pointing straight down the runway heading, and not correcting the ground track for wind. We wanted to stay on the centerline through 500 feet of altitute, and I didn't manage to stay on the centerline for 50 feet. Lesson 2.

We made kind of a sloppy turn to downwind, since the wind had basically blown us down the length of a crosswind leg by the time I got my stuff together. We exited the pattern and I flew us to the practice area. What followed was... ugly. First he had me try to hold straight and level flight. I wasn't. "My plane for a second," Steve said, without moving his hands to the controls. "Notice how I'm not touching ANYTHING" and we are still headed where we want to go? You don't need to correct for every little bump and attitude change. Correct the big ones, but the little ones will even themselves out. You need to make small, incremental adujstments. You're pulling the yoke all the way back to correct a five foot drop from turbulence. You're constantly chasing an altitude or heading, and you're never landing on it. Your plane, but if you touch the controls, I'll throw you out." Aha. After that, my straight and level became much more straight and level. The lesson here was that I was over-senstitive. What I considered a major deviation was really a minor deviation. Accept that the plane will get tossed around a litle bit. Correct the bigger ones.

We started with 30 degree turns, and I was having a lot of trouble maintaining altitude, maintaining bank angle, pretty much just maintaining anything. It was a little bumpy, so Steve gave me partial credit, but said it should be possible to do a lot better than I was. After I screwed up a few of them, he called me out. "You're spending 10% of the time looking outside the plane, and 90% inside. I don't care if your turn is 29 degrees or 31 degrees, what I care is that it's consistent and that you stay on altitude. Use the attitude indicator for the first 5 seconds of the turn, and the turn indicator for 2 seconds to get the rudder right. Then look outside. Pick something on the plane - a rivet on the cowl, a bug on the window, whatever - and line it up with the horizon. As long as you keep that point on the horizon, you'll be consistent, both in bank and in altitude." Well, that was like a lightbulb going off. As an engineer, I tend to look for measurable results - the needle on the third hash mark, not bug guts on a windsheild. But I'll be darned, it worked. I managed 2 decently consistent, coordinated 30 degree turns. "Not bad," Steve said. I'm sure they have a long way to go, but they were 1000% better than the first few I tried. "Let's do something else," Steve said.

Slow flight, and power-off stalls. Even though I know intellectually that they are nothing to fear, I fear my own inability to properly correct them, and even more so, that I'll do something wrong while I'm trying to correct them that gets us both killed. But in the end, they were nothing to worry about, just as Steve promised they would be. Power down, nose up, trim, trim, trim, holy gosh we are pointed up... and there's some shaking, there's the stall horn, and boom, power on, nose down. Not so bad. We did a couple more of those and then moved on.

Providence (or Steve's equisite flight planning, I don't know which) had us directly over a nice straight road and some silos, so I'm sure you can guess what was next. Steve demonstrated an S-turn around the road, which I then managed to do a reasonable job at through the first half of the S and the early part of the second half. I ended up over-banking the latter part of the second half of the S, so I straightened out a little before the road. "Moving on," Steve said. "See that silo over there? We're going to turn around it in a circle - with a constant radius around the whole circle. It sounds easy, but the wind is going to be pushing differently, depending on where you are, so you have to keep correcting it. Find your pitch cue and check on it every once in a while, but you should be able to judge pitch by watching the angle of the wingtip, too."

I looped around the silo twice, which I actually managed to do fairly well. By then it was time to head back to the airport, which we did. Steve wanted to fly the pattern today, because it was different than what I was used to since we were using the other end of the runway. I was happy to give up the controls, because honestly at this point, after about 1 hour of flight, I was getting fatigued. He handled the yoke, I was tasked with flaps and power. On our downwind I was supposed to cut power to 1500 and add a notch of flaps when we were abeam the numbers, but I screwed that up too... I pushed the throttle in, instead of pulling out, and then when I pulled out the throttle, I did so rather meekly, and I didn't hold the flaps button long enough (the 1965 172 has a flaps in/out toggle, not the stepper switch with detents in later planes). "See what all your screwing around did," Steve asked, grinning. We were now past where we should have turned base. He was needling me a bit, but that's our style. "We can do a long final, but it's not proper pattern." We swung it around and did a touch and go, and on the next circuit he had me handle the turns, and he took over for the final and landing. Throughout the final and touchdown, he was explaining everything: how to judge if you're on the right glidepath, how and when to flare, etc. On our second landing he turned it off the runway and gave me back the plane. "If you can get us back to the hangar without killing us, I might declare you trainable," he said.

After we had the plane in the hangar, he told me to keep going with my ground school, to do a quick review of what I've already done, and then press on to the next section. "Next time you'll be doing the landing too. I'll be there to help you if you need it, but it's yours to do." Wow. I still have to work on the landing sight picture. I always feel like we are dangerously low during the last 100 feet or so. If it were up to me, I'd land half way down the 5000 foot runway... I'm just so afraid of putting it in the grass. But I guess it's not up to me.
---
Today's Hours: 1.2
Total Hours: 2.2
 
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2nd lesson reminds me of my CFI teasing me about "taxi-ing by braille".

I was so focused on staying on the yellow line I managed to 'drive' the nose wheel over every reflector mounted next to the line.
 
AggieMike88 said:
2nd lesson reminds me of my CFI teasing me about "taxi-ing by braille".

I was so focused on staying on the yellow line I managed to 'drive' the nose wheel over every reflector mounted next to the line.
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That yellow line can get damn near hypnotic when you have about 4000 feet to drive down it. It's a bit odd at the very beginning when you've been conditioned for 20 years to keep the yellow line off the left side of the car...
 
About 45 seconds after we took off, Steve said "I've got the plane for a second, turn around and look behind you." I did, and he asked what I saw. "Nothing, really." "Well, what's about 15 degrees off the left side of the tail?" "The runway." In what's a really effective method for getting me to learn, Steve let me screw up, and try to learn from it. I had been pointing straight down the runway heading, and not correcting the ground track for wind. We wanted to stay on the centerline through 500 feet of altitute, and I didn't manage to stay on the centerline for 50 feet.
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A few tips for this:
  • If there is a heading bug on the DG, set this to the runway heading before you take the runway. Keep the bug centered as you climb out.
  • If no heading bug, select something far in the distance that is inline with the runway heading. A hill, tree, cloud, something. Fly toward that.
  • Look for features alongside the runway (hangars, taxiways, roads, etc). As you climbout, don't cross over those where they disappear underneath you, nor let them 'get too far away from you'.
 
livitup said:
That yellow line can get damn near hypnotic when you have about 4000 feet to drive down it. It's a bit odd at the very beginning when you've been conditioned for 20 years to keep the yellow line off the left side of the car...
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An easy tip is to put the line under your right foot. And don't watch the line, be looking up ahead where you want to be and "drive" to there. If you look too close, you'll wander a bit too much.

The rest of the lesson sounds like it went well. It's normal for you to be approaching an information saturation point at this stage. With more repetitions and practice, the nearly overwhelmed feeling dissappates pretty quickly.
 
jpower said:
It depends on your style. I personally liked the Machado PPL book. He gave you everything you needed to know and was entertaining about it. But he does put enough silly humor in there to make you want to strangle him from time to time :).
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I found when working on my IR that Rod had some good stuff in his book. His treatment of figuring hold entries is the best I've seen.

livitup said:
Today's lesson was scrubbed due to high (15 KT) crosswinds. :mad:
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AggieMike88 said:
Bummer. But after getting the PPL, look for the same conditions, grab your CFI, and sharpen your crosswind skills.
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Don't wait until you have your certificate. Later in your training you'll want to get some crosswind landing training and practice. The funny thing it, once you get halfway good at it, it becomes fun. Maybe not for my passengers (wife), but it is for me. And it has been handy, too.
 
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