TexasAviation's Training Journal

TexasAviation

TexasAviation

Pre-takeoff checklist
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TexasAviation
I'm starting this new thread to post my training journal. Notes on the first flight were posted here.

May 15, 2014: Flight No. 2
Flight time: 1.3 hours
Cumulative time: 2.7 hours

Flight Notes:
First of all, hallelujah, I didn't lose a meal this time. Motion sickness was still a problem for me — especially toward the end of the flight — but the calmer air on this Thursday evening made a big difference.

We practiced the basics of flight — straight-and-level, climbs, descents and turns — and I felt pretty comfortable with preflight and checklists. I'm confident that I could take off and fly around on my own if I had to. Landing and navigating are a different matter.

I tend to have tunnel-vision with each task. When I focus on holding altitude, I can do that. When I focus on turning to a heading, I can do that. When I focus on maintaining a constant airspeed, I can do that. But it was difficult for me to do more than one of those things at once, at least with any level of precision. I'm looking forward to all those skills starting to gel as I get more experience.

I'm starting to get a better feel for how much input the plane needs in different situations. On my first takeoff last week, I didn't pull back on the yoke hard enough at rotation speed. I was too timid with it. This week, I overcompensated and initially climbed steeply enough that the cowling blocked the horizon. I could see nothing but sky in front of me, so I just had to guess whether I was staying straight over the runway. My instructor said I should do a shallower initial climb next time so I can keep the end of the runway just barely in sight for a bit.

I also did a better job looking out the window. Checking for traffic before starting a turn is becoming instinctive, just like it is in a car. But I have a tendancy to manhandle the plane, using a "death grip" on the yoke and too much aileron input. I'm going to try to finesse it more next time using a lighter touch. I think I was getting the hang of that by the end of the flight, but then it was time to land ... and hold my lunch in.

Things to Remember Next Time:
1. Don't do a "death grip" on the yoke.
2. On takeoff, keep my right hand on the throttle until I've cleared the runway.
3. Practice radio calls.
 
This is awesome and I am looking forward to reading your journey.
Be careful not to pick on yourself for things that you struggle with.
All that stuff you mentioned will come in time.

You are going to do a lot of self critiquing in the early hours.
You are learning something very complicated with lots of moving parts.

Things that bothered me initially

  • Tunnel Vision: Check
  • Can't multi-task well: Check
  • Death Grip: Check (mid afternoon in West Texas, Still do it)

Add to the list
Thermals scaring me, Wind Gusts, Pulling G's in steep turns, Never going to figure out how to flare right.

The list goes on and probably every pilot shares a large number of these issues early on.

Point is, try not to get hung up on them or beat yourself up over them. Especially this early on.

Have fun flying now. Get used to being in the air. Learn as it comes to you and if you mess up, its ok. I was bad about letting a crappy landing ruin my perception of the whole flight. Try not to do that if you can.

Have fun and keep posting.
 
You're a student pilot (so am I, with only a teensy tiny bit more time than you) so not having those skills down pat is totally normal. At the point that I'm at, I do "okay" with many of the techniques and maneuvers until something "just little bit more" gets thrown in and then I get all flustered ....but I'm getting better and you will too.

Even if a lesson doesn't go so well in your mind because you didn't quite master the objective understand that you're still going to be improving in other ways. I was doing landing practice the other day and I was just having an off day where nothing seemed to be going right and I decided to call it quits early, but my CFI made sure to mention that my radio calls were spot-on.
 
May 20, 2014: Flight No. 3
Flight time: 1.0 hours
Cumulative time: 3.7 hours

Flight Notes:
This flight was almost as windy and turbulent as my first. I think without the turbulence it would have been more productive. When we got up above a broken layer of clouds, where the air was smooth, I felt comfortable and clear-headed, but I had a hard time concentrating when I was getting bounced around at the beginning and end of the flight.

We mainly worked on instrument maneuvers — including constant-speed climbs and descents — which felt pretty natural to me because I have a tendency to stare at the instruments anyway. It all made sense, and I think I'll enjoy working on my IR someday.

On takeoff, I was focusing so much on using the elevator that I didn't provide good aileron control in the gusty wind. Like so much else, I know this is something that will come with time. At least I didn't point the nose straight up at the sky like last time :)

We worked on doing coordinated turns — going left, then right, over and over — and I'm still not getting a good feel for it. I can tell how smooth and clean my instructor's turns are when he demonstrates it and how sloppy mine seem in comparison, so I'm looking forward to getting a better "feel" for the plane with more practice. The whole aileron/rudder balance thing is just going to take some time.

Landings are another matter. Since I'm struggling with motion sickness at the end of every flight, my instructor hasn't had the chance to demonstrate as many landings as he'd like ... much less turn the controls over to me. These last two flights I've felt relieved that I made it to the ground without losing a meal (barely), so they felt like a blur. I just can't learn much when my sick stomach is screaming at me to "GET ON THE GROUND NOW!"

The good news is that my motion sickness is getting better and I'm guessing will be a lot more manageable after a few more flights. The bad news is that my schedule/plane availability/instructor schedule aren't all lining up like I'd hoped. I was originally aiming for three times a week but have been averaging just one per week.

Next lesson: stalls. Can't wait!

Things to Remember Next Time:
1. Ask my CFI if we can do a few touch-and-goes before we head to the practice area. I'd like to get a better sense for landings before motion sickness turns my brain to mush.
2. Look out the window. After my instrument time in this last lesson, I want to make sure I get back in the habit of looking out the window all the time, more like I did in Lesson 2.
 
When we got up above a broken layer of clouds, where the air was smooth
Click to expand...
Remember this.... And then read up in your weather texts about why this is :) It will make cruising to your destination much more comfortable in the future.
 
For the motion sickness, try keeping your eyes outside of the aircraft during all of the manuevers. Resist looking at the instruments for any longer than a second or two.

Also, go check out the Whole Foods or Asian groceries for candied ginger. Ginger has the properties of settling your stomach and might help you out.
 
Dont worry about the motion sickness, you will get used to it automatically soon, then you can start to actually start enjoying it more.

I took my brother on his first GA flight once years ago, and made the mistake of eating Sonic before we flew Addison to College Station...yikes
 
June 3, 2014: Flight No. 4
Flight time: 1.2 hours
Cumulative time: 4.9 hours

Flight Notes:
We worked on slow flight and stalls, which were an absolute blast! Stalls seemed pretty simple to feel, enter and recover from (although this YouTube video helped show me what not to do).

Power-off stalls were very mild in the Archer. The first power-on stall startled me a bit, but nothing major. I just said, "Woah!" and then recovered.

Doing stalls in different configurations reminds me a bit of testing the limits of a car on the racetrack. You find out just how far you can push it and what to expect when you exceed those limits. Nothing scary if you know what's going to happen.

Motion sickness is getting better. I went to the health-food store to buy every kind of ginger I could find, and I think it helped (or at least had a psychosomatic effect.)

For the first time ever, I actually felt completely mentally aware during the landing. Every other landing before this I'd been totally distracted by motion sickness, so it was nice being able to actually pay attention and, for the most part, control the airplane all the way to the ground. My stomach stayed pretty settled even through the stalls in turns.

Unfortunately, I still ended up losing my lunch. I felt perfectly fine after the first landing, but as soon as I started to climb following the stop-and-go it hit me. In an instant, I went from feeling perfectly normal to "I NEED A BAG NOW!"

I'm guessing the hot temperature on the ground contributed to it, along with the quick transition from flying, to stopped on the runway, to flying again. I'm disappointed that I threw up again (for the first time since Lesson No. 1) ... but I'm still pleased that it seems to be getting better. I'm trusting my instructor and the pilots who say it should be just a couple more flights before it goes away.

I'm still looking forward to getting a better feel for flight. I'd love to feel at one with the plane, like when I'm driving a great sports car, but I'm nowhere near that point yet. I have to consciously think about everything I'm doing: fumbling with checklists, stumbling over my words on the radio, and of course, flying the airplane. It's still very overwhelming and not natural feeling at all.

I'm curious, when did flying "click" for you: Ten hours? Twenty hours? Forty hours? I'm guessing it's different for every person, but I'd love to hear your answer.

Next lesson: Emergency operations, scheduled for tomorrow evening.
 
Nice write-up! I enjoy reading them!

Haha yeah, the first power-on stall does get your attention! :)

Like you said, at least your motion sickness is getting better, yeah? Even though you had to redo a meal, its great that - for the most part - it didn't get in your way.

I don't know if I'd say it's "clicked" for me yet, but I only have 13 hours so far. I do feel comfortable flying the plane, but there are still times where I feel like the plane's a little bit ahead of me. Nothing out of control or anything, but I guess it's not all instinctive yet.
 
June 5, 2014: Flight No. 5
Flight time: 1.1 hours
Cumulative time: 6.0 hours

Flight Notes:
We worked on emergency operations this flight, including a simulated engine fire and what felt like "dive-bombing" down to a nearby field — well over 2,000 fpm descent, but nowhere near VNE. Fun stuff!

Motion sickness is still kicking me. We only did one landing again because I was getting so sick at the end, although I was able to hold my lunch this time ... just barely. It's not a problem in the air, but every time we descend near the ground in the Texas heat my stomach sees it as a big problem. I guess my body doesn't like that transition from up in the air to down on the ground.

My biggest concern now is that I have so few landings under my belt (six landings from five flights, when my instructor would normally like me to be doing a lot more). We only have a couple more lessons before we get heavy into landing practice in the syllabus, so that should help, assuming motion sickness eventually goes away.

Next lesson: Steep turns and ground reference maneuvers.
 
These are great! Keep em comin. It's great to read this stuff as, I assure you, we've all gone through it. You're doing great, and it sounds like you're just having difficulty with the motion sickness.
Once you get that under control, you'll be great. Sounds like other than needing some more landings (i.e. don't worry, you'll get plenty of practice, I promise) you'll be well on your way. I think I had something like 110 landings, or there a bouts, at 36 hours TT. So don't sweat it.

It didn't really start clicking for me until after my first solo XC. Then things started to really gain traction in my brain. It's a lot to take in, but once you start to understand how all those little tasks go together, you'll make it second nature and be doing PTS maneuvers like a real pro.
 
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June 16, 2014: Flight No. 6a
Flight time: 1.3 hours
Cumulative time: 6.2 hours

June 19, 2014: Flight No. 6b
Flight time: 1.6 hours
Cumulative time: 7.8 hours

Flight Notes:
I had two lessons this week, the first of which was terrible (motion sickness) and the second of which was my best yet (drastically reduced motion sickness).

I'm finally getting some serious time practicing landings, which is a pleasant change of pace. We stayed in the pattern early on both flights to practice some landings before my tummy goes haywire, with four landings on Monday and a whopping seven today.

In the Monday lesson, I was worthless after the pattern work. I got sick right away and ended up losing my lunch, and we didn't get the ground reference maneuvers in.

Today was just the opposite: my most productive lesson to date with virtually no motion sickness. Woo hoo!

Landings are just starting to click for me, even though my instructor has to provide some input occasionally to keep us from dying :) At least I don't feel totally overwhelmed and lost anymore in the pattern. I can kinda sorta know what to do, kinda sorta hit the right airspeed and altitudes in the pattern, kinda sorta make the right radio calls, and kinda sorta get us on the ground safely. I definitely feel more in control when landing now, which is a huge difference.

Weirdly enough, I feel like I'm struggling more with takeoffs ... or at least don't feel as "in control" as I do on landing, more like the plane is flying me instead of me flying the plane.

On almost every takeoff, I have the tendency to let the right wing dip as soon as we rotate. I *think* it's because I'm staring at the cowling and can't see much of anything at that point, so I'm going to need to find some kind of reference to help me keep the wings level right after rotation. That's a critical point where I'm not sensing what's happening to the plane very well, and I need to fix that.

Ground reference maneuvers seem intuitive, for the most part. It makes a lot more sense in the plane than it does in the book, and I know I'll be able to nail them with some practice.

Unfortunately, I would have killed us if today's engine-out simulation was real ... but at least I had a plan for where I wanted to go this time! This was my second one, and I misjudged the gliding distance and ended up too low and having to turn too sharply to land in my intended spot. Still, it was a big improvement over Monday's engine-out practice, so it's encouraging.

All in all, it was a great week with lots of progress. Can't wait til next Monday's lesson!
 
Keep the updates coming! I enjoy reading them. It's great to see you pushing through your motion sickness. I've only experienced it once, on a boat, and it was NOT fun. :frown2: I can't imagine trying to learn to fly in that condition, so much respect to you! :thumbsup:
 
This is a very interesting journal, please keep them coming, and congratulations on all you've accomplished so far.

You have a great resource here in that you can ask questions and get ideas from so many others that have gone through the same things. Us older pilots never had anything like this years ago, we were pretty much on our own.
Sounds like you're progressing pretty much like many other students. There'll be high points and low points along the way as you learn, it's all part of the learning process. Some will have problems with maneuvers, take offs, landings or cross country work, everyone's different, don't let it get you down.

I would recommend trying to fly in the mornings or evenings if possible, when the air is smoother and the temps are cooler. Heat and bumps will make many people lose it. Then you can concentrate on flying, not on your stomach. By doing that you may get more used to the sensations of flying and build more of a tolerance before you start the cross country work when you'll be in the plane longer hours.
Flying on summer days with the heat and bumpiness is pretty common, so it's hard to get away from it though.

As for the right wing drop on take offs, don't look right at the top of the cowling, you can't see through it, so why look right at it. Look slightly to the side of it, then you can see the relationship of the cowling and the horizon, that's your pitch information.
You should see the wing tips in your peripheral vision too, if not, a quick glance to either side will give you lateral guidance if the wings are level.
What you're looking for is where the horizon cuts through the cowling. When taking off your pitching to that angle for your climb out, then glancing inside to the instruments for fine tuning information from the ASI and VSI, all the while holding that pitch angle.
This works when flying straight and level and maneuvers too. If you have cruise power and are holding the correct pitch on the horizon, then you are flying level, no climbing or descending. Look at the HSI and VSI to fine tune that pitch angle for straight and level.
If you add full power and pitch up to the proper climb angle then you'll be climbing, use the ASI for fine tuning for Vy or Vx if necessary. Pitch and wings level are done by looking outside, the instruments are back ups.
What I'm trying to say is pitch + power = performance. If you have the climb pitch and are making full power, then you are climbing, no need to look at the instruments to tell you that.
Try this while doing steep turns, set it up at 45 degrees of bank and holding level flight, now look at the exact angle and point where the horizon cuts through the cowling, now freeze that pitch and angle, hold that all the way around the turn and you'll have the same performance all the way around. You won't stray off altitude much, if any. Yes, you need to glance inside from time to time to make sure the 45 bank is there and also to the VSI for altitude info, that's the hard part, dividing your attention both inside and outside.

You're still very early in your flight training, like you said before, I can do this, and I can do that, but I have trouble doing both at the same time. It's kind of like tunnel vision, you concentrate so hard on one thing, you lose sight of the others. As you get more experience, you'll get better at doing multiple things. The basics will become second nature and you'll be concentrating on radio work or cross country exercises.

Keep up the journal and don't give up on your training.
Jim
 
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June 26, 2014: Flight No. 7a
Flight time: 1.0 hours
Cumulative time: 8.8 hours

Flight Notes:
One week after last week's lesson, and motion sickness was back with a vengeance. We stayed in the pattern and did four landings. That's all I could handle, sadly. We scratched the rest of the lesson (a review covering what we've learned so far in the Gleim syllabus). This was an "off" day for me, big-time.

June 30, 2014: Flight No. 7b
Flight time: 1.4 hours
Cumulative time: 10.2 hours

Flight Notes:
This was a great day to practice landings — with wind gusting from 14-24 knots and varying in direction a lot.

Takeoffs were MUCH better (thanks for the advice!) and overall it was a very productive flight. We reviewed some ground reference maneuvers and did a simulated engine failure while overflying a rural airport. If it were real, there's a slight chance I wouldn't have died ... which is a huge improvement over my previous two, highly-confused attempts at it.

The bad news: I lost my breakfast at the end of the flight. The good news: My stomach is getting stronger, I think. It was my windiest, gustiest flight to date, and the fact that I held my meal until the end of the 1.4-hour flight was a sign of improvement.

At least, I hope so.

This motion sickness has been such a struggle for me, but I keep trusting my instructor and you guys who say it's eventually going to get better. I can't seem to find any particular diet that affects it (including several forms of ginger, taking off on an empty stomach, taking off on a full stomach, etc.) My dad says to try pinching my wrists, so I may give that a shot. Couldn't hurt at this point! :)

And the more time between flights, the worse it seems to be.

For those of you who struggled this much with airsickness ... how long did it take you to kick it? I thought it would be gone by now. It's still an issue on every flight ... some days more than others.
 
Great updates and, like the others said, keep 'em coming. I do the same thing, but more for me and my son so we can have a journal of my training. He wants to be a pilot, so I'm hoping that having him be able to read about his dad's struggles might help (or at least make him smile) years down the road when he starts.

I've had unusual attitudes combined with some turbulence make my stomach churn a few times now. My CFI tells me it's because he's putting me through the wringer and making me sweat. Whatever the case, I haven't completely solved the issue but it's gotten much better with flying time.

Best of luck to you, keep the practice time going and the updates coming. Plenty of great support on this forum (and a few that just like to disagree with anything and argue for fun, I think. LOL)
 
This motion sickness has been such a struggle for me.... My dad says to try pinching my wrists
Click to expand...

Your dad's comment comes from hearing about an acupressure point at the wrists that can relieve nausea.

"Sea Bands" is a product that some have tried and had some success. This is a wrist band with a hard plastic node that presses on this point. http://www.sea-band.com/

The product is available at major retailers and drugstores as well as online. And low cost. Might be worth a try.
 
July 3, 2014: Flight No. 7c
Flight time: 1.4 hours
Cumulative time: 11.6 hours

Flight Notes:
With virtually no wind, this was an awesome flight for me and, for once, I didn't have a hint of motion sickness — not even after slow flight, stalls and S turns. Woo hoo!

While it wasn't nearly as much of a challenge as the last flight in strong and gusty winds, it was still highly productive. My instructor wrote "Good Progress!" in the lesson notes, and he's right. I'm getting better at situational awareness and simply flying the airplane. This flight was a confidence booster.

NEXT UP: Go-arounds and forward slip to a landing. I did my first forward slip already on one of my landings Thursday night, so this should be a pretty simple lesson ... I hope :)

AFTER THAT: Nothing but pre-solo reviews. If I can keep improving on landings, I'll be soloing in just a few weeks. Can't wait!
 
July 7, 2014: Flight No. 8a
Flight time: 1.4 hours
Cumulative time: 13.0 hours

July 10, 2014: Flight No. 8b
Flight time: 1.3 hours
Cumulative time: 14.3 hours

July 25, 2014: Flight No. 8c
Flight time: 1.4 hours
Cumulative time: 15.7 hours

My last three flights have basically been landing practice with lots of pattern work: normal landings, crosswind landings, engine-out landings, extended-downwind landings, etc.

I'm getting better at them, but landings still haven't "clicked" with me. Most of them feel like controlled crashes. I had one very smooth, perfect landing last night, but I feel like that one was more luck than skill on my part.

Basically, I just need more practice.

I'm up to 54 landings (including nine last night) and 15.7 hours of flight time now. That's well past the point that some folks solo, I know, but I'm learning that my instructor is very conservative — and that's fine by me.

Lessons 9 and 10 are "pre-solo reviews" in the Gleim syllabus, so I'll just be repeating all the maneuvers and, hopefully, be getting better at them. And doing lots of landing practice, of course!

Covering those two lessons, and getting my landings proficient enough to solo, could take another six flights — maybe more, maybe less, depending on how quickly things gel with me, my instructor says. We'll just have to see. I'll be ready to solo when I'm ready to solo ... and I'm clearly not there quite yet.

But with any luck, I'll be all alone controlling a machine in the sky sometime in August. Woo hoo!
 
Stryker1112 said:
Dont worry about the motion sickness, you will get used to it automatically soon, then you can start to actually start enjoying it more.

I took my brother on his first GA flight once years ago, and made the mistake of eating Sonic before we flew Addison to College Station...yikes
Click to expand...

That's why you always take first timers TO the $100 hamburger...not eat first then fly. :)

Good luck man!! If you ever get down to KGTU (Georgetown...just north of Austin) lemme know!
 
I got my CFI in to doing 2 hour lessons. Saved me time and money...and got more work done. On those marathon landing sessions (in 2 hours I could do about 22 landings) I felt like I had just run a marathon when I was driving home...but it was worth it.

When you calculate in the drive times to the airport, pre-flighting, waiting on your CFI, run-ups, taxi, etc... you save a lot of $ but accelerate the training a bit doing 2 hours vs a bunch of 1 hours.
 
Steve Krog has an excellent article in EAAs vintage aircraft magazine, July- August edition. It deals with basic flying. He explains how today's instructors often times " describe" things like spins, deep stalls rather than teaching them for real. He always has an informative article. Good reading if your starting out, or if you never trained this way.
 
August 18, 2014: Flight No. 10C
Flight time: 1.1 hours
Cumulative time: 25 hours
Total landings in the logbook: 92

Well, I’m ready to solo.

After several lessons that were basically landing practice (with a few extra maneuvers thrown in), my first solo flight should happen this Thursday. Can’t wait!

Landings really felt like they clicked at tonight’s lesson. A couple of weeks ago, I felt like the plane was flying me. Tonight, flying and landing the plane felt natural. Out of eight landings tonight, six were pretty good and two were so perfect they almost made my eyes well up with happy tears. :)

My instructor says my pattern work is good enough to pass the check ride. I can keep the plane pegged at TPA through the whole pattern, and I’m very confident and comfortable with radio calls … at least the ones at my home airport.

I still struggle with overcontroling on final. One thing my instructor said that really helped me was this: “Try to land using just the rudder.” It was an exaggeration, but boy it helped me realize how much tweaking the rudder could help with keeping the plane stable on the glide path. It really cuts back on the wallowing back and forth I tend to do with the aileron on final.

Anyway, my landings aren’t perfect, but at least I’m consistently safe and recognizing what to do. It’s a great feeling … and makes me feel like a pilot.

Can’t wait for the solo.
 
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