Jaybird180
Final Approach
Get really good at #1 first, then PM me and I'll tell.
Worst Flight I've Ever Flown - Many Mistakes
- Thread starter kimberlyanne546
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danhagan
En-Route
Don't they have any clubs in your area? There's got be a way for you to get he air time you want with a little less pain $$ wise.
We have so many old farts out here (I'm almost there age wise, but not yet) that don't fly the line guys were racking up time exercising equipment. One of the kids here started at 15, got PPL at 17 and IR before 18 then commercial and is now CFI at 19. He was flying everything available here, and even had some up the road in Las Cruces (37 miles away). He would fly one to get to the other to "exercise" them. Some were pay fuel only deals though. He also washed some for flight time I believe.
Friend of mine became buddies with a Col. at White Sands Missle Range who is also CFII. He was offered free Cessna 210 turbo time and IR lessons. My friend is also an animal vet and helped the Col. with some of his critters.
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kimberlyanne546
Final Approach
Clubs require monthly payments. Some months, due to other expenses (dog, car, etc) I can barely afford to fly. I prefer to rent, I belong to a "club" at my school which didn't make me join or pay monthly dues as long as you start with $1000 on account and never go below $500.
danhagan
En-Route
That sounds good ... keep talking/hanging out and picking up rides like you're doing. Got a Pitts ride this way, did spins and rolls and light acro as a BFR with 2 hours ground time thrown in ... paid $200 total, but we burned at least $140 in fuel.
A lot of times I go up and am solo as no one was available to go (usually do at least a 50 XC each time especially if the plane didn't fly the previous week). Went a few weeks ago to Ruidoso NM (done it several times) and took the vet buddy to fire up the car he leaves at that airport for transportation. Now I have access to it and it's a nice area for fishing, skiing, gambling, etc. (no courtesy cars, high taxi fees type area).
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kimberlyanne546
Final Approach
Have not gotten a ride yet based on hanging out. Mine have been from direct effort. (PMs sent via POA, phone calls sent via 99s husbands, etc) I'm at the airport a lot and have never gotten rides that way. Go figure, huh. I guess things have changed in 2012.
danhagan
En-Route
Find the owners when they're fueling or off loading ... NOT students. I had so many guys (students) wanting to split time for XC towards IR, but several had bad reps as far as flying habits/mistakes.
A lot of flights now are me at hangar, guy down hangar row says, "where you going?". I say no where particular, he offers ride in his AC, I return favor a week or so later in mine. Get to see other AC, flying styles this way (some good - some not so much, but still safe).
Also, where do you base at? Seems there are a bazillion southern cal pilots on these boards. You ought to be able to get a few experience flights to Avalon, Big Bear, Oceanside, etc.
kimberlyanne546
Final Approach
Petaluma, CA. Girls just don't walk up to airplane owners at gas pumps. Gives a REALLY bad impression. I think you need to remember it is different for women.
Only because you allow and make it so. The difference is in your mind and you project that inferiority therefore the responses you see.
kimberlyanne546
Final Approach
Or because I've had more than one bad experience. Let's just say I'm not gonna walk up to a guy at a gas pump and leave it at that.
kimberlyanne546
Final Approach
Update: Along the lines of a "gas station" - time permitting - I'm going tomorrow to the meeting (Petaluma has a pilot's association but I pay so many dues already I haven't been able to join). They have a dinner, once per month, in their hangar and I've been invited every month by my friend (one of the guys who helps manage the airport, currently he is an airplane owner but only a student pilot).
Perhaps while I am there I could find someone to ride with. A guy at an EAA meeting in Santa Rosa also invited me up in his RV, I need to do that. Another guy (a CFI) said he would fly with me but a lot of guys say that and then you never hear from them. Another guy from Angel Flight owes me a flight (long story). And then I still plan to be Mission Assistant on Angel Flights with other people. I could continue but you get the idea. I guess I feel I have "enough" flying friends even though, in reality, I don't fly with them that often.
Perhaps while I am there I could find someone to ride with. A guy at an EAA meeting in Santa Rosa also invited me up in his RV, I need to do that. Another guy (a CFI) said he would fly with me but a lot of guys say that and then you never hear from them. Another guy from Angel Flight owes me a flight (long story). And then I still plan to be Mission Assistant on Angel Flights with other people. I could continue but you get the idea. I guess I feel I have "enough" flying friends even though, in reality, I don't fly with them that often.
cavmedic
Line Up and Wait
Other than Anthony offering me rides ( schedules have not matches up yet ) I only ever had one offer so far. Last week I was hanging out at the local ( not the one I train at) , as I like to stop in and say hello , watch the aircraft, talk to the people and absorb info , I was offered a ride in a gentlemans 152 . He had just come back , was fueling up , so we went up for about half an hour until the weather started to get to minimums.
I thought it was pretty cool and he even told me to take the controls. He had to control the pedals as my seat wasn't adjusted to reach but still .
When we landed , he went outside to burn one , I snuck over to the counter and had them put 40 bucks on his account towards the fuel he had just put in prior . I didn't have to , and if he knew , he wouldn't have allowed me , but he didn't know me from jack , and @ 6 something a gallon , I think it was only fair.
I thought it was pretty cool and he even told me to take the controls. He had to control the pedals as my seat wasn't adjusted to reach but still .
When we landed , he went outside to burn one , I snuck over to the counter and had them put 40 bucks on his account towards the fuel he had just put in prior . I didn't have to , and if he knew , he wouldn't have allowed me , but he didn't know me from jack , and @ 6 something a gallon , I think it was only fair.
kimberlyanne546
Final Approach
That is a really cute story. Like you, I've mostly been responsible for getting my own rides. Never had a ride be offered out of the blue, with the exception of the guy at the EAA meeting, but I found out later he had cards / photos made up and is actually giving people rides because he wants business (hopes one day they will buy an RV - he puts them together for a living).
cavmedic
Line Up and Wait
But he was like sure anyway
Threefingeredjack
En-Route
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Threefingeredjack
So here is a new PoA policy: Any member passing through the Bay area is required to give Kimberly a ride. In exchange she can point out the best places to eat.
kimberlyanne546
Final Approach
LOL almost every member passing through here (and there have been many) has PM'd me. I could make a list but it is too long.
I take them up in my plane, since all of them are here via car or 747, for business reasons.
Nice try, thank you, but I actually like being PIC with them as my passengers. All have said they would go again, so I haven't scared any off, yet.
My last POA member was on Sunday. He and another POA member went with me in the 172. We did a Bay Tour, coastal flight, and "surprise landing" (cuz he asked me to, wanting to expand my comfort zone) at a nearby airport. Asked him to use my iPad to give me the CTAF, AWOS, TPA, and runway directions (L vs R) and runway numbers, and landed. Was happy to be able to do something on the fly. And happy he asked. The old me might have said "but . . . but . . . I didn't plan for that." The new me realizes a pilot needs to be ready for anything.
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Threefingeredjack
En-Route
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Threefingeredjack
OK...I hope they chipped in for the fuel. When you get your HP and retract I wouldn't have any qualms at letting you fly us around on the Bay Tour in my Comanche 250.
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kimberlyanne546
Final Approach
Sorry, not going to get either of those endorsements if I'm trying to find someone to split the cost of a rental 150 LOL. If it helps, I have 2-3 hours in a Comanche (last year, POA fly-in).
Jaybird180
Final Approach
Next time you dress in drag, let me know how that works out for you.
....and whatever you do, please don't share the pics.
The first thing you have to understand about quantum physics is that information is what is ordered into our universe, and our thought goes into that information. Since the information 'cloud' exists outside the universe and order of space time, any additions to information have to potential to have an effect at any time in history, present, or future. It comes down to the whole altering the outcome by measuring the effect deal.
Your thought, your frame of mind projects to and effects not only yourself but those you meet and who knows what else. We create the universe we live in not only through action but through thought as well.
Same reason I don't carry, I found I don't have to. A smile and a nod while you look someone in the eye pretty much defuses things before they start.
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Jaybird180
Final Approach
While agreed with the above, I still agree with Kim's lessons learned about soliciting guys at the gas pump.
As much as 90's sitcoms want us to believe otherwise, men and women are different and I praise the wisdom of the difference.
As much as 90's sitcoms want us to believe otherwise, men and women are different and I praise the wisdom of the difference.
kimberlyanne546
Final Approach
I don't want anyone soliciting me at the gas pump. Male or Female.
Exactly. When people are on the way to leaving, they might be in a hurry, so I don't want to waste their time and annoy them.
danhagan
En-Route
I don't want anyone soliciting me at the gas pump. Male or Female.
I agree about at the pump or if they're trying to pre-flight. I guess I should have been more specific ... if they're at the FBO desk paying (we don't have SS here). Our area has guys chewing the fat for at least 30-45 minutes in the FBO.
kimberlyanne546
Final Approach
Agreed. But the renters I've seen in there have never lingered (and they don't rent "my" planes). Oh well.
Rigged4Flight
Cleared for Takeoff
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Rigged4Flight
First post on this forum. As a low hour student I like to learn from other pilots lessons. Thanks, Kimberly for being willing to share your "lessons learned" with the rest of us. You never know what some student with far fewer hours than you will pick up and retain when they need it.
ISPYFROMABOVE
Filing Flight Plan
A few thoughts. First, it sounds like you've already worked through the issues of the "worst flight ever", but don't feel alone in that. I had a similar flight. It was a few months ago. I got my PPL in a 172 last year in September. I had about 96 hours in the C-172. I got my Multi engine private, instrument rating, and commercial multi in a Piper PA-44 seminole. I hadn't flown a cessna for about 4 months. I was near 200 hrs total and started preping for my commercial single engine checkride. My first flight back in the C-172, even with 100 hrs in it before and another 100 hrs in a faster and more complex airplane, I couldn't land the cessna to save my life. My CFI and I did 3.6 hrs, flew all over the inland empire. Departed KRAL riverside, up to KVCV victorville, over to PMD (low approach only), then to big bear L35 down to palm springs KPSP, banning KBNG Redlands KREI and finally back home to KRAL. I did several landings at most of the airports, every one of them sucked... BAD. My CFI had to take the controlls on a few occasions to keep me from balling the airplane up. I was so aggrivated by the end of the day that I didn't even want to look at a cessna again. I took a couple days to calm down, went back over all my cessna training material, tried to remember what if felt like to land the cessna 172 (completley different than landing the seminole) Did a hour or so of "Chair Flying" in front of a large paper c-172 cockpit, and the flight the following week was much better. But had you asked me on that day I would have told you that there was no way I was going to be able to pass my single engine commercial checkride, but 3 weeks later I was issued another rating.
The ability to reflect on poor performance and find ways to improve ones flying is a sign of a good pilot. We have bad days, but your ability to work through them and learn from them will make you a better pilot.
The ability to reflect on poor performance and find ways to improve ones flying is a sign of a good pilot. We have bad days, but your ability to work through them and learn from them will make you a better pilot.
gismo
Touchdown! Greaser!
Unless you plan on getting an ATP with the minimum logged times and fly a high proportion of your flights to a point more than 50 nm from your departure airport but don't land there (this type of flight is the only thing that qualifies as XC for ATP but not for anything else) you might as well just log the flights as XC if they meet the "landing more than 50 nm from the original point of departure" requirement.
comanchepilot
En-Route
stop processing the emotions and start processing the pilot stuff Kimberly.
You can fix the flying. As long as you get past the emotions of it. Thats why many male pilots have the issue of too much ego and not enough critical self-examination.
You don't want me to say it was ok but I can say 'get over it' - don't wallow in it at the time it happens. Acknowledge what happened - FIX IT right then - and move on. Don't worry about it - nothing every got fixed from someone wringing their hands.
You also need to fly the Skyhawk - I've landed one at 30 knots just to see how slow I can go. I was in one last week - where we were buzzing along on crosswind at 60kts - happy as a clam with 20 degrees of flaps.
Slo-flight here to learn exactly how slow you can fly an approach to a short[er] field.
You can fix the flying. As long as you get past the emotions of it. Thats why many male pilots have the issue of too much ego and not enough critical self-examination.
You don't want me to say it was ok but I can say 'get over it' - don't wallow in it at the time it happens. Acknowledge what happened - FIX IT right then - and move on. Don't worry about it - nothing every got fixed from someone wringing their hands.
You also need to fly the Skyhawk - I've landed one at 30 knots just to see how slow I can go. I was in one last week - where we were buzzing along on crosswind at 60kts - happy as a clam with 20 degrees of flaps.
Slo-flight here to learn exactly how slow you can fly an approach to a short[er] field.
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My attitude is that emotions will happen, but we have to just go ahead and "fix the flying" anyway. I treat the emotions as an incentive to fix the problems.
For example, last night I thought I was going to die of embarrassment when my ability to hold heading while setting up the GPS between approaches got so bad that ATC felt compelled to comment on it. I'm a renter, so I don't fly the same equipment all the time, and it turns out that I didn't know the KLN-94 as well as I thought I did, and I had set up a flight profile that taxed my knowledge of it to a greater extent than I had expected.
I also have trouble dividing my attention between avionics setup and holding heading and altitude, so that's another thing to work on.
So this morning I sat down and wrote down everything that went wrong during the flight, why I thought it went wrong, and what I thought I should do about it. That made me feel better.
comanchepilot
En-Route
I agree - but the airplane needs to fly itself. If you cannot trim the airplane to fly straight and level and not gain or loss more than 10' whilst you are play button pusher then something is wrong with the airplane. most are not flying negatively stable airplanes - almost every airplane GA has possesses at least one lateral and one yaw trim tab. USE THEM. Airplanes should fly hands off in smooth air and not porpoise or turn on their own. Rentals too - though you have to fly them to learn how to get them to do that. . . .which is not really your job - but I digress.
The last part is called a debrief - and doesn't everything take 10 min after after day they fly to sit back and think about their flying and how they could have improved it? Sit down in the chair or after the lights are out - and fly the trip in your head again - for one- its really good at getting you to relax and get to sleep - and second its a good time to think about what you did and how you can do it better.
Most of the planes I rent trim very well. I keep telling myself that I need to take my hands off the controls while setting up avionics, but for some reason I keep forgetting to. Which gives me an idea for how to use an instructor: I should get one to tell me "hands off the controls" every time I touch a radio. Maybe that would help get me in the habit.
The planes I fly that came from the factory with a KLN-94 installed have auotopilots that are usually in good working order, so another thing I need to do is refresh my memory on how to set it up to hold an assigned heading or course before each flight (and altitude, if available), and let "George" fly whenever I'm setting up avionics.
One thing I did right on this flight was that before the flight, I refreshed my memory on how to get the GPS into missed approach mode, since I knew I would be doing that in IMC!
AIM 1-1-19p has a list of tasks that a pilot should be proficient on with each model of GPS before using it in IMC. I don't know why, but I used to not take that list seriously, but NO MORE, because at least one of the items on the list was a factor in Sunday night's flight!
denverpilot
Tied Down
Heading hold or a bug that worked right would make my life sooooo much easier.
35 AoA
Pattern Altitude
I am normally soundly asleep by the time I get to the part where I crank the left motor on startup......best sleep aid ever