Everglades midair crash kills both pilots

Pilot's logbook

12-29-07 PA-28 N8316E LOU-JVY-LOU JC

I went for my checkout in the Warrior. I was supposed to go with Todd, but then things got switched around and JC was willing to go with me. JC's good.

I LIKE this plane! It's more stable than a C-152, but not at all like the C-172, which reminded me of my first car--the family's old 1953 Buick Roadmaster -- swam like a tanker. The Warrior feels light and spunky. It's more physical than the other planes I've flown. Pitch control takes a different kind of effort on the yoke. (I should actually be using more trim, and I'll work on that). Also the flaps lever is really physical. This is going to be FUN!!!

I didn't land it well enough to call it a good checkout, so I'll do some more tomorrow. Maybe. I've got 011 reserved for an hour and a half to take Christina's mom flying, but she can't go at that time, so it frees me up to just fly.

If I'm REALLY lucky, I'll hear from Mike. I left a message on his phone. He came in AC1 today to say Hi, which was great, but now I'm thinking of things I'd like to talk about, and really, I'd like to fly with him, but we were at AC1 with lots of people around and I mostly enjoyed just watching and listening. There's been a lot of water over the dam since I saw him last, for both of us.

I've been kindof floundering the last few weeks. I canceled music lessons for the month of December to be free for Beth and Juan and the boys, so everything's been up in the air. I've only flown a few times since I got my license. On top of that, holidays are nice (very nice because the girls are here), but taking a toll on flying. Talking to Mike seems to have helped. He set me a goal that I want to make: Instrument Rating by April and CFI by August.

Monday I just agreed to play a funeral at Bardstown at 11 am, which cuts the day in half, so maybe no flying. I'll save time to spend with Laura if we can do it, but after she goes back to Berlin, I'm going full guns with flight training and experience.

I need to find time to fly with Will in the next few days, too, before he goes back to Arizona.

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Pilot's logbook

Last week: C-172

16T Bob:
Startup procedure:
Full throttle, full mixture. Fuel pump on, master switch on, when fuel gauge jumps, turn fuel pump off.
Mixture Idle, Throttle 1/2", turn key. As soon as it starts, put the mixture full rich and adjust throttle to 1000 RPM.
Check Oil temp and pressure.

Landings.
Bob flies one perfect one. "Standard" turns, one-finger everything.

JC N66198
Adventure in electronics: Alternator wire came loose and fused itself to the exhaust something. That's the punch line, the finish. It was a long story getting to that.
The moral of the story is: The electrical system is NOT an on and off thing. Our first clue something was amiss was transponder being flaky (not surprised at that). GPS cycled off and on. Funny recurring noise, probably the radio, but we thought it was an engine noise. Ammeter? We both checked it. Oil pressure in the green, oil temperature cold. Fuel gauges registered low, but not all the way down until much later. Radios worked between us, but JVY didn't hear us at all. Once we stopped, the battery was dead.
Dane & Tony: Always bring the plane home.

Yesterday:
C172 is a new plane, but same issues for me. + TRIM! More right rudder required.
Vr=55, Vx=65, Vy=78, Va=99!, V 10ºflaps=110, 20º=85,

Slow flight--include flaps
JYV DO midfield 45º to downwind entrance ALWAYS.

Flare: I was consistently too high. "Wait 'til the runway starts to flatten out, then roundout."

Approach speeds: 85-75-65. TRIM!
------
Softfield takeoff, don't forget 10º flaps. These flaps can come up once the obstacle (if any) is past. TRIM!
------
Landings: CH, flaps, trim.
-------
Steep turns: Establish airspeed below 100 (Va on this plane is 99). Roll into full 45º bank. Bump up power 100RPM. Use trim.
--------
Electrical system same as C-152. 28-volt battery, 24-volt system, 60-amp alternator.
---------
Compare to water in a hose. Volts = "pressure," Amps = "amt of flow."

Pilot's logbook

11-39 Cessna-152 II N89933 LOU LOCAL Satisfactory Completion of Private Pilot Checkride PWH 5 lndgs 1.7hr

12-1 C-152 N89933 Lou Lou First flight with Frank 1.2 hr Southern Indiana. Small space.

12-3 C-152 N69011 Lou Bwg Lou 3.0 hr.
Weather/winds. Either get a lot faster, or just do it the night before and forget about it.
Check wings.
VFR doesn't seem to mean the same thing to controllers. Pilot decides.
BWG, not BMG.
Nav radio digit--just guess.
Pilotage/Dead reckoning question: answer--if there's a road, follow it unless you know what you're looking for looks like.
Get another headset.

Still haven't seen our house.

of cold weather, engines and starters ( C-152)

Starter: 30-seconds maximum, then stop. You can do this three times. After that, stop and wait at least 3 minutes. Otherwise it gets too hot and burns up.

POH: (if flooded)
set mixture to idle-cutoff, throttle to full, run starter a couple of times. Then stop. Attempt restart without priming.

POH Cold-weather:
Ignition switch: OFF
Throttle--Closed
Mixture-Idle Cut-off
Parking brake set (or qualified person at controls)
Prime 3 strokes
Propeller--PULL through by hand several revolutions
Mixture--rich
Throttle OPEN 1/2 to 3/4 inch
Prime 2 to 4 strokes depending on temp
Primer--RECHARGE FOR PRIMING after engine start
Propeller Area--CLEAR
Master Switch-ON
Ignition Switch--START (release when engine starts)
Carb Heat ON
Prime --AS REQUIRED UNTIL ENGINE RUNS SMOOTHLY
Throttle--Adjust for 1200 to 1500 RPM for approximately one minute after which the RPM can be lowered to 1000 or less
Carb Heat --OFF
Oil Pressure--Check
Primer--LOCK


Cold-weather starting from an "old country boy":
10 or 20 pumps of the primer
get out of the plane
turn the prop thru 4 turns
preflight
prime again and it should start
(the gas is not vaporizing, just sitting there in a puddle)

checkride prep

Plan a one-way trip to Champaign, Illinois. Figure Peyton at 150 lb. Start over Clark County airport. Have a number of close checkpoints. Figure on short-field takeoffs and landings. Weather is not good tomorrow. Call tomorrow night to try to set a date and time.

Todd signs me off for my checkride

Dies irae

Dies irae

House Removed

FOA

FOA

Festival of the Arts

Festival of the Arts

Zach being creative

Dane and home-schoolers

Nat's birthday

Long Cross Country--final leg

Bowman Field-->Columbus-->Lexington-->home

Pilot's logbook

9/20/07 C-152 N69011 JVY-JVY Touch & Go Solo landings: 3 .5hr

Finally. Thanks, Todd!

Scottsburg airstrip

Pilot's logbook

10/20/07 8 PM N66198 C-172 Lou-Lex-Lou 172 ops, GPS intro, Night Cross Country Pilotage, Dead Reckoning, Radar Service, Night Landings 1.7 TH

Frank packed a picnic for the flight.

As I was driving to the airport, I came right under Joe F. flying the pattern above the Watterson Expressway. I watched him almost to landing, when I had to take the ramp off. It was the first time this has ever happened. So many times as I have been flying above the Watterson, I'm aware of the traffic below. The sunset glow added to the effect.

It was nearly dark when I went to the plane, which I've never been in before. (I went out once this afternoon to check it out, but someone had it up flying.) Just looking for things in dim light is difficult (also exciting). I was using my red-covered flashlight, which works just fine.

The C-172 has an entirely different feel. It is so stable and smooth (at least tonight, with minimal wind) that there almost isn't much for me to do, except figure out where we are and where we are going. Oh yeah, and talk on the radio.

198 has a GPS system in it, and Todd introduced me to that. It takes the guess-work out of it. Things are hard to see at night, even a beautiful clear night like this one. Airports do NOT show up easily. Todd was in charge of this one, and I was a steering passenger. He's a good host, though.

I thought I'd be ok with the radio, but between using a different avionics system and different plane and everything, at some point I pretty much left off the radio and listened to how Todd did it.

Coming back to Louisville, we got a straight-in for 24. Todd showed me how in a 172 you can "fly the glide-slope." We set 20% flaps and then just rode it in.

One Mag?

Pilot's logbook

10/20/07 8am N69011 C-152 LOU-JVY-LOU .5 hr., 3 landings.

All week the weather has been uncooperative. Also, I can't get anyone to put the book in the plane for me. Yesterday I was there at 7:45 and the wind was calm enough for me to be legal (<7 kt), but I was locked out. Tony came eventually and said why did'nt I fly? The wind was calm, and even though I knew it wouldn't be, I went out and preflighted and started the plane up. The new ATIS called the wind 8 knots, so I shut her back down and came back in.

Today it was perfect, but again, no book in the plane. Dane came about 8:30 and I took 011 up and over to Clark County. I had time for two TG's before coming back by 9:00.

AC1: test proctoring, etc. Left at one to see Frank for awhile before coming back in.

Pilot's logbook

10/15/07 Monday 8:00 C-152 N89933 LOU-JVY-LOU TG's :) landings:9 1.4 hours solo
10/15/07 Monday 12:30 PM C-152 N89933 LOU-BAK-LOU landings:2 Cross-country. 2.1 hours

Early morning trip to Clark County. No one else there at first. Seven perfect landings, one that I tried something different. Still a good one, just not perfect.

(No wind. No one in the way.)

When I went back, I checked to see whether Dane's frog was still on the plane. It was. Next time I'm in there by myself I'll move the frog to another place on the poster and deny I did it.

No one else needed the plane all day, so I planned another trip to Clark County, and Todd signed me off.

The weather was Clear Sky all around, with some low visibility and rain coming in tonight. Actually, there was a cloud layer at about 6000 that wasn't expected to be there, and a visibility issue that cleared up, but had me wondering.

For some reason, the trickiest part of the path for me to "see" on the ground is picking up I-65 right after Clark County. I waffled around a little bit on that one, could have just gone for the VOR radial from Bowman, but I didn't. Still, there's more time on my tach than I expected, and this is the only place it could have been.

Columbus was there. I didn't see the ___ airport at all, coming up on the Columbus airport, and wondering if I was looking at the right one, and exactly how big Columbus was. I went higher to look it over, decided it was the right one, slipped the plane down to pattern altitude and came right in right for the landing. Just right.

After I pulled off the runway, I was deciding whether to just go on back or to stop, when tower asked me if I needed directions. I told them I was considering going to the restaurant for lunch, and he said I'd have to get a move on, they close at 2:00.

So I ate lunch (a cup of white chili and vanilla creme pie with strawberries), and then went on back.

The return trip was completely uneventful. I-65 and the VOR and all my checkpoints were there. I didn't go all the way up to 5,500 as planned, because there was a layer of broken clouds above me and I judged I needed to stay at or below 5000 to keep out of the turbulence right under that layer. At this point I realized that I am ok flying by myself, but I'm not ready to have an inexperienced passenger along. I think if they were nervous, which they might be, I'd have more than I can handle.

FMI.

Upon arriving at Bowman Field, tower gave me "Midfield Right Downwind for 24" which screwed me up so badly the other day. Well, I've certainly thought about it enough. It was not as easy as the usual approaches, but I did it correctly. Ka-Ching!

Todd asked me about it as soon as I came down. It felt good to have a good reply.

Pilot's logbook

10/14/2007 Sunday 8AM LOU JVY LOU TG's, Approach. landings: 4

note in the plane:
*Power Controls Altitude
*Pitch Controls Airspeed
*If you don't like the approach go around

Have Fun!! Be Safe!!
YOU CAN DO IT!!!!
--Todd
10/13/2007



Also, Dane's frog finds a home.

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pilot's logbook

10/13/07 1:30 N89933 LOU JVY LOU landings: 5 .8 hours PIC

This morning I came in early hoping to go up in the plane, but Todd wasn't up until 10 . He and I talked and I do have permission to take the plane in calm wind from here to Clark County for TG's and back. OR TG's here.

I manned the phone at AC1 all morning. Then, at 1;30 I took 933 up for a spin. The plane felt light, unsteady and really jouncy. I guess it was just thermals, but it was weird. I also remembered Mr. Whipple's saying that the 933 didn't seem to have much power. I couldn't pin it down to rpms, though.

Takeoff was fine. Getting to river crossing and contacting UNICOM for airport advisory was ok. She said they were using 32, on which I've never landed. I was starting to think through the approach, when a couple of other guys had a conversation about taking off on 36 and taking off on 18 and taking off on 32 and deciding that they'd start using 36. OK, good. I was happy to be able to cross midfield and come in normal.

When I did, there was someone else entering downwind, so I figured I'd not try to turn in front of him, and instead, stayed above pattern, went on past, made a big turn to the right and entered downwind after that. I don't know if that's what was expected or not, but ok.

Then I went to make the landing, and it was horrible. Why? The plane was jouncy and I kept thinking "Is it me?" "What am I doing?" Go -around. Try again. I think the next one was not bad. Then again, and for some reason I was really off. That was enough. I went home. When I came in over Six-Mile Island, tower gave me "enter midfield right downwind for 24." I was glad it was a full pattern entry, but to enter midfield from where I was was weird. Heading for the middle of the airport from where I was had me entering at a sharp 45º turn left, not the usual 135º angle that you turn to make a 45. I did it, but misfigured and was too close to the runway. Then I made that leg longer to compensate, but still came in at a big overshoot for final, so didn't even try to descend, but called a go-around. I can't figure how I could have come in any other way, given the directions, but maybe I'm missing something.

Then I went around again and did another approach and landing. I don't remember whether I did the approach all right, but the landing was gentle, so I called a day and went on in.

Evan met me to help put the plane up. There was a barbecue sandwich and coke waiting.

Then it was on to St. Joe for church. Jim Fitzpatrick was cantor, and that's always a pleasure. Afterwards, he told me, "If you were as good a plumber as you are a musician, I'd hire you." I wish I was as good a pilot as I am a musician.

The plan is: Every morning, wind calm, 1/2-hour flight to CC and back. Maybe one or two TG's. Every morning. Routine. Routine. No biggie.

pilot's logbook

10/12/07 8:00 PM LOU JVY LOU ................ landings: 7? to full stop. TH

Originally the plan was a night cross country to Lexington. I planned and practiced and got ready, but the weather, while always "VFR," had a low ceiling about 4500-5000 ft. The briefer figured it would break up, but really, it didn't.

Instead of the cross-country, Todd and I went to Clark County for a bunch of landings. Night flying is as fascinating as I'd hoped it would be. Finding the airport is hard. The green and white beacon is nowhere near as visible as I'd thought. Todd is pointing straight at it, saying "green. white. green. white..." and I'm not seeing it at all in the sea of lights. The runways don't stand out, and look a lot like roads, if anything.

And Clark County Airport, which in daylight is surrounded by bucolic green farm land, has a zillion lights around it at night. It's hard to believe you're in the same place.

I checked out my flashlights, figured out the little one is not bright enought except as an attachment to the pencil. For cross country, I'll need a more visible watch face, which is true for daylight as well.

Bill helped us out with his headlights. Todd kept track of the landings.

Pilot's logbook

10/8 C-152 N89933 LOU-BAK-LOU 1st Solo Cross-Country Landings:2 2.1hours

I met Todd right at 12:00 with my weather and planning all done. He was topping off the tanks. We went in and he checked my plans carefully and filled out the necessary endorsements in my logbook.

I promised not to break anything, but actually, I wasn't anxious about the trip, other than to be on my toes. I had radio frequencies and notes on altitude on the front of my checkpoint sheet, and a post-it note to help me keep a scanning pattern going, which is actually easier to do if I'm the only one in the plane.
-----------------------------------------------
.................*Airspeed
TRAFFIC.....*Heading ........TRAFFIC
..LEFT......*Altitude.........RIGHT
.................*VOR

Compass-->RPM
...Ammeter-->Suction gauge
......Oil Press/Temp-->Fuel

!!!!!MIXTURE!!!!!
-----------------------------------------------

The ideas were right, but the note was too big. I need to make one less than 2" wide by 1 1/2". I also need to add "best landing."

The trip there was totally positive. Starting the plane is occasionally a problem, but not this time. Takeoff was smooth. Setting course and following it was fine. Altitudes were good, and I kept them within close range. There wasn't a lot of traffic, but anyone I heard on the radio, I kept track of, and there were no surprises.

The air was only a little bumpy. Having I-65 and a VOR heading FROM Bowman Field practically all the way to Columbus probably seems like a no-brainer, but there's still plenty to be on top of, partly because there's nobody else there making suggestions, and partly because I'm using a different set of stuff: map, clipboard, diagrams, notes, all in different places than I am used to keeping them.

I did keep track of checkpoints and time. I can see how Pirsig's "Cleveland Harbor Effect" can really come into play, here. It would be really easy to see something and convince yourself that it was what you were looking for, and be totally wrong. (More on that later.) The time spacing helps.

Winds were calm, even at 4,500 ft. altitude. Somewhere near Clark County Airport, as I was beginning to climb to altitude, I looked for I-65, and was confused by the roads under me, since the biggest one looked to be going the wrong way. What I did, instead of worrying or even trying too hard to figure it out, was clear the area around me and then just start a 360º climbing turn. In the first place, it was just an enjoyable thing to do, and in the second, by the time I came around I had my bearings and could see which road was the correct one. It also made sense as in following Mom's directions to us children: "If you're lost, stay in one place."

933 and I puttered along just fine. Eventually, Seymour Airport and the white tanks showed up right where they were supposed to be. I started thinking about descent and looking for the airport. The air was hazy and nothing distant was showing up sharply. I started coming down before I spotted the airport. When I saw it, I think I was surprised to still be up at maybe 3000 feet. But there it was. I contacted tower and they asked me to call final for runway 23. Good. 23 meant I could enter midfield downwind and do the pattern instead of some other approach which is harder to get right.

As I got closer, I couldn't figure which runways were which. I was checking my diagram, and checking my compass and heading indicator, and bouncing around as we got lower, too.

Eventually I determined it was the wrong airport, not just me not thinking straight. So, I did the circle upward thing again and found another airport that looked right and headed toward it. About the time I was ready to call tower and explain why I wasn't there, they called me and said they had me on radar, and I was cleared to land.

Landing wasn't great, but it was gentle. Maybe the super-wide runway. I must have been fast, because the plane floated when I flared, enough that I added power and started to go around. Then I recognized that I still had a mile of runway ahead of me, and just brought us back down nicely.

I taxied and parked, called Todd to tell him I'd made it, ate some dried mango and took pictures, and then headed back. The tower guys were pleasant. My taxi instructions, after I said I could see G and H, but not A, were "be careful of the workers, and turn right, the way their truck is pointed." I had to hold short a long time at the runway for someone to land, so I figured I'd better lean out the engine, and I was afraid I'd forget to put it back in. I kept my finger on it and kept chanting under my breath, "Mixture, mixture, mixture," but even so, I pulled out onto the the runway and was ready to go full power before I realized with surprise that I hadn't reset the mixture. That's one item to watch seriously.

Going back, I was careful about being aware of the restricted area to my right, and watching for everything on the ground and the air near those airports. I didn't have the VOR safety net at that end of the course, and there were a lot of bumps and a funky layer of scattered clouds above me. Still, not a biggie, until I tried to contact Seymour traffic about transitioning the area and couldn't get the radio to the frequency. This made no sense to me, since I had talked to them on the way there. (clue! but I didn't get it). I kept trying to turn the com radio down to 112, which it wouldn't go past 118, jumped to 132 or something.

I never figured it out, but I did figure out why it was harder to keep my altitude steady on the way back (I had the same trouble flying with Todd). Most of my checkpoints and I-65 were to the right since I used the same ones going as coming. I was always moving the nose down to look for something, and there we were, at 2600 instead of 3500. (Dane told me later that the radio problem was that I'd written the wrong frequency on my plan sheet. That's why they have us memorize the frequency ranges of the com equipment.)

I'm going into great detail on the things I want to correct. They were only a little part of the whole trip, but everything is major in this game, so I'm harping on them.

Eventually I gave up on the radio issue, tuned to Clark County and listened for traffic on that one. Then it was time to choose my island to cross. I took 12-mile island this time, and tower gave me a right base for 24, which I should be really used to, except I haven't done it but once in the last month. Again, it's the last thing that sticks in your head. VASI wasn't working, but that's no excuse. My base was too close (to the right of KT) but for some reason I put us there, figured out when I turned final what I'd done, and I should have just redone the whole thing. Isn't this what I promised myself to do? I've put myself on notice about that. No harm done, but no more. Ye gods.

My evaluation/ list of stuff also includes:

Make space on the flight plan sheet to write landing ATIS and ATC instructions. I think I'll just cut and paste the PIREP box to the back instead of the front. I don't need that equipment chart that's on the back.

PS. (Writing this up a day later) I just talked to Mike B., first time since he's been gone, and he asked me whether I was going to fly to Columbus again. Makes sense to me.

It really was a good first trip. The landing took the wind out of my sails, or maybe just the natural letdown of the trip being over. It was a good day. Todd was more nervous than I was. Hmmm....

Pilot's logbook

10/7 C-152 N89933 LOU BAK LOU Flight planning, Pilotage, dead reckoning, leaving procedures, airport approach & landings. landings:2 1.9 hours TH

Sunday 3:00 - 5:00 pm

Cross-country trip to Columbus. This was the good one. I have a list of things to work on in my notes, but the trip was good. Columbus and the ground between here and there were all where they were supposed to be, and the airplane was where she was supposed to be, too. Todd was great--he played passenger really well.

MONDAY: COLUMBUS SOLO!!!!!!!!! (weather permitting) WHOO HOO!!!!!!!!

Windows open.
"Fore!" (Todd)

Eval:

I was rushed getting the last-minute part of the flight plan this time, too, but not as bad as before.

The gasoline measurer wasn't in the plane, and we didn't top it off. Gauges read almost full, and my finger test (gas up to the first knuckle of my forefinger) means 8 or 9 gallons in each tank, but this might not have been a good call. Better to really KNOW how much gas is in there.

Winds calm, on the ground and at altitude. Broken cumulus layer at 5,000-ish, so we stayed at 4,500 on the way there, and 3,500 for the way back. Climb-out course (350º corrected to 346º) took us directly to 6-mile island, and then correctly to the right of KJVY. I set us on VOR 351 FROM Bowman field, which turned out correct and took us practically to the Columbus airport.

All the way TO Columbus, we held altitude and heading within a very small margins. On the way back, for some reason, it was not as good.

Checkpoints all showed up as planned, except Henryville, which was most likely there, but wasn't distinctive enough to tell if it really WAS Henryville. Todd says any little town that is shown as a small circle instead of a shape is not usually a good checkpoint. Roads other than interstates are no good. Power lines, railroads, water towers are better.

I neglected to set the compass on the way there. One result (probably) was that the runway approach was confusing. Tower gave me a right base for runway 5. I had a hard time seeing it, a hard time figuring the angles, and (Todd says) I started my descent too soon. It was a crummy approach. Touchdown was ok.

I forgot to clean up the plane after pulling off the runway. (Carb heat, transponder and flaps.) Also, I need to be really careful to use the before-takeoff checklist to catch things like this.

Return trip--
I didn't have a VOR radial to follow from Columbus, but the heading (346, 350) worked correctly. It was important to know when I-65 should be on our right or our left.
It was harder to hold altitude and heading.

I should have descended sooner before 6-mile island to stay below Charlie airspace.

For Bowman right base for 24, head for the center of the airport, turn base when you intersect it. Again, I started the landing sequence too soon, and it was an icky approach. Both of those landings, it would be appropriate to go around and do the square thing to get it right.

Interestingly, the approach felt unbelievably slow, much much slower than my airspeed readings were telling me.

Notes for next trip (Monday at 12 noon):

Have flight plan totally ready.
Need current chart and Airport Directory.
Order a fuel sump and measurer-thingie.
BE SURE AND PUT THE MIXTURE IN BEFORE THE LANDING SEQUENCE. I did, but I'm always afraid I'll forget. This time, I put it in when I started the descent from altitude because I was afraid I'd forget later.
With only one person, you really need to do more looking for traffic.

Figure out altitudes and distances and points for standard and non-standard landings at these two airports.
Figure out and practice a scan that includes traffic, emergency landing place,compass.

Todd added:
Don't forget about the military restricted area west of Columbus.
You can ask for a progressive taxi if you're not sure where you're supposed to go.
Flight following is always an option for help with traffic.

----------------
Now playing: Sarah McLachlan - Blackbird
via FoxyTunes

Pilot's logbook

10/4 C-152 N69011 LOU LOU Level Flight, constant airspeed, climbs & descents, constant roll climbs and descents, climbing and descent by ????, unusual attitude and recovery procedures, touch & goes, IFR radio and NW(?) procedures. landings:2 1.1 hr (.8 simulated instrument) ZC

This session under the hood finished up my instrument requirements for private. I was expecting it to be hard or uncomfortable, but it really wasn't. At the end, Zach proposed an interesting game. He had a name for it, which I've forgotten. The object was to keep the plane rolling in successive 180º standard-rate right and left turns, and at the same time keep yo-yo-ing from ascent to descent between 3,000 and 3,500 feet. Of course, these changes don't happen at the same time (or sometimes they do) and you definitely have to multitask. Cool.

I wanted to finish the instrument work with Zach, which worked well. I expect I'll do the rest of the cross-country and night flying with Todd. After that, it's review for check ride. I'm studying for the oral with Peter, and I'll probably do the review with Todd.

Pilot's logbook

Planned: cross country to Bloomington.

Compass wasn't working in 011. The part has been ordered for a couple of weeks. We got the ok to take the Piper Warrior instead. I took the checklist out to preflight, and spent at least 20 min. looking for the lever for flaps. I found it in the POH book, right beside the pilot's seat.

Couldn't figure out why planned course was so far off from the VOR, and I kept trying to check it out. (After we got back, Todd looked at it and found the headings that were wrong--I used a westerly course to come back to the outbound radial after skirting the towers, and then mistakenly continued to use that course for the next couple of checkpoints instead of the right course one along the radial.)

At any rate, it got hard to know where we were. At the height of this foolishness, we came up on an unexpected layer of rain and rain-clouds. I kept talking about how we should just go back, but was waiting for Todd to call the shots on it, and he was wanting me to do it, which was correct. Eventually, we turned around and came back.

X-Plane

Last night I "flew" from Bowman Field to Bloomington (KBMG) and it was a fairly successful trip.

I found all my checkpoints, kept heading and altitude withing limits, I think. I tracked VOR FROM Bowman and BOR TO BMG as well.
Landing was good.

This morning I took the trip back from Bloomington to Bowman. I kept track of time until the last 15 miles. I used simulated"real" weather, which I didn't do last night due to taking a daytime trip at night. Today, the air was really bumpy, and I had a strong crosswind to deal with.

Notes for improvement:
I tried to follow my first heading to the 2nd and 3rd checkpoints. I could tell it was wrong, and adjusted, but forgot to use the figured heading.

The color-copied chart was hard to read and didn't have a compass rose. Still, the real chart is a pain to use since we are using a course that angles across multiple folds. This also affected having frequencies of airspace that I was transitioning. If you're going to redo the chart, must be legible and have compass.

I did not see any checkpoints after Salem. At this point I switched to the Bowman Field VOR and followed it. I never saw Clark County Airport, either. As far as I can tell, I passed right directly OVER the WAVE towers (or whatever that is east of Greenville) My altitude was high enough to be 1000 feet above, but my plan had been to skirt them and then return to VOR heading.

I didn't have my Bowman Field Airport diagram, and had to work to picture the approach to runway 14 (which actually might not be open today, due to stuff on it).

I forgot to reset the Mixture to rich, and landed with it out.

The approach to landing was ok, up until the last, at which point we were in the grass. I have yet to be able to deal with crosswind landings on this simulator. Thank goodness I do a little better in the real world.

I'll fly the sim again tonight since I'm taking the trip tomorrow.

I'm going to meet Peter at Seneca Park to start to review for the oral exam. I don't know if I know ANY of the answers orally. Do I still remember them on paper? I'm going to review by taking a practice written test, then re-check my cross country for tomorrow and take that with me, too.

I'm really behind on the rest of my journal. I have notes scattered all over the place.

Pilot's logbook

9/24 C-152 N69011 LOU-BAK-LOU Radar Service, pilotage, Dead reckoning, navigation, flight planning, flight plan filing
Cross-Country to Columbus, IN with Todd.

Last night I updated and re-did the planning for a Columbus flight.

(I have enough trouble with them, that I think I need to just make a blank copy less winds and weather, photocopy it half-done, and practice filling out the "fast" part that you do the next morning or en-route.)

Notes I made:

Then I flew the course on X-plane. Talk about difficult! Flying, recording time, watching, everything at once! I'm really glad I did it. (Altimeter at 5,500.) What's more, I was THRILLED when I looked up from the Seymour checkpoint and noticed that beautiful twinkle of the VASI light in the distance.

8 am I met Todd at AC1. I re-checked weather and winds aloft and filled in the course, distances and asked all my questions.

We left at 9:30, asked for Flight Following, which took us east to 12-mi island. Then we went back NW a little to get back on course.

One of the hardest parts, actually, was using the paper with the plan. I'm not good enough at picking out the pertinent numbers.

Summary here:

Choosing checkpoints: if it's right under you, even a whole town, you might very well not see it, so choose points to left and right. Also, if a town, note shape of roads, shape of town, or some other identifying feature.

Biscuits and gravy at the restaurant were AMPLE and then some. 1/2 order would have been a lot. Frank will like it here.

To file a flight plan, call WX-BRIEF on the phone. Read them the stuff on the back of the plan page in order.

Back at AC1, Zach was in. We three talked a little. Todd suggested that I should do the next cross-country with Zach, which is a relief, because it's been a little awkward. So, that's that. We talked about Zach's new dual headset bag that he ordered (one side for the headset, the other for all the stuff), and how &when to lean the mixture. (Screw the gizmo out smoothly until there is a definite drop in RPM and pitch. Then, screw it BACK to the point before the pitch changed and a little more for margin). Also, on runup, when checking the magnetos, if one of them is not sounding good, turn back to "both," lean it out just like above, and run it that way for about 20 seconds to burn out the carbon. Recheck the mags. If it's not fixed, go back in.

Instrument flying with Zach was on the books for the afternoon.

9/24 C-152 N89933 Lou Lou Basic altitude instrument flying, level flight, level turns, climb, and descents, climbing and descending turns, IFR Radio procedures.

Click here to see some of the additional things iPhone can do already

YES!!!

Pilot's logbook

9/21 C-152- N69011 Lou Lou First trip to practice area by myself. BEAUTIFUL! LNDG: 1 0.5 hr solo 7:30 AM TH

Smooth air, fog on low ground, 3? 5? mile visibility. I went to Southern Indiana, did simple stuff: altitude, turns (it felt like dancing), forward slips (without losing heading). Simple stuff. Going and coming, find your way home. All smooth.

Thank you, Todd!

AC1: phones & invoices. Evan's 16th birthday. 1:00 checked out. Todd asked me whether I wanted some taxiing experience. I taxiied 011 over to the new T-hangers (#51) so he could change the oil. I enjoyed being with him in the middle of his tools and all those things he does so well. Tony and Dane came, found more stuff to do.Dane introduced me to the new Champ that lives next door. Beautiful! Then Tony asked me to taxi 011 back to AC1, bring back 933 (which was up in the sky, so I couldn't.)(radio--one digit off)


After I was back, I talked with Zach about the afternoon flying time I had scheduled. He said I should build solo hours & experience.

9/21 C-152 N69011 Lou Lou Touch & Go's. Bumpy, jetwake, tailwind landing. YES!! Landings: 4 1.0 hr.

Winds had been reported as "calm," but the air was bumpy as s__t with thermals and varying winds. ) The very first time around, they gave me a right approach, which I didn't do very well, and just decided to go around and get started better. 3 times I didn't land, but did go-around (bad approach, jet wake, bounce). All the others were OK or good. I touched down right at 1000 ft. once & took off immediately at Vx to clear the trees. One of the good landings was with a crosswind. At one point I realized that they were calling winds @6 knots, and my sign-off didn't allow for that. I thought maybe I should go back in, but by the time it was time to land, I heard another report that said winds 5. So I stayed out. It was worth it to get that feeling of being charge and being able to work with anything that I needed to. I never felt out-of-control or worried. I had a definite tailwind on the last landing.

When I came down, Stephen came out to help me put the plane up. Todd brought me out a cold can of tea. Zach was not to be seen, but as I write this, I just called him on the phone & he was upstairs at AC1. He said he'd watched and the landings were good, also the go-arounds. I put in a call to Frank and to Mike's answering machine. Today is the real solo!!!!

I'm sitting on Brian's porch at Eagle Aviation waiting for the traffic to clear out to go home.


----------------
Now playing: Paul McCartney - Blackbird
via FoxyTunes

Pilot's logbook

9/20/07 C-152 N69011 LOU-JVY-LOU T&G's, Radio Comm., Traffic patterns, Uncontrolled airport opps, Full Stop Lndgs: 4 TH

Pilot's logbook

9/19/07 C-152 LOU-JVY-LOU Turns around point, T&G's lndgs:6 1.0 TH

Pilot's logbook

9/17/07 C-152 N69011 LOU-JVY-LOU S-Turn, Turn around point, Steep turn, Pitch roll, Emergency approach, Straight & level, T&G's, Soft field landings lndgs: 7 1.7 hr. TH

Pilot's logbook

9-15 Saturday night Lou-Jvy-Lou X-wind touch-and go’s, Short & soft-field procedures. landings:11 1.1 hr ZC

I can tell at the takeoff whether It’s going to be good or not, and this time was not. Not bad, but not good, sharp, precise, whatever. Definitely not solo material. What’s the key? I had it last week.

Takeoff: Ok.

To Clark County. I didn’t know the radio frequencies. I thought I’d jammed them into my head last week, but I guess not.

Zach had plenty input on all landings. Not unnecessarily, either.

Red-red only once, but near the end. "Easy on controls, like a baby’s butt." “Where are you looking?” “Look longer.” Airspeed. Airspeed. 30-degree turns. Pattern rectangle was different every time.

I didn’t use the angles & banks from Rectangular Course, and I should have, since there was wind. They weren’t in my head as well as I’d thought.

The air WAS bouncy, “030@5 gusting to 11” (strange). Zach almost caught a bird with his teeth.

I don’t know.

"Did we have fun?"

How many times have I said we have to do something different? Maybe I’ll checkout in 933 next week.

Starting the week off with Todd on Monday may tell me something.

pilot's logbook

9/10 C-152 N89933 Lou Lou X-wind touch & go's, engine out procedure .9hr ZC

Next time Zach drags his feet, I'll figure he just might have his reasons.

We waited all day for the weather to change, and when we got a good report on the METAR, I showed him. He looked at it and didn't say anything. About a half-hour later I put my books up and went out for a while. When I came back, he was checking something, and he didn't really look at me, but said if I wanted to go preflight, go on out and he'd meet me.

So I did. And we did go.

The winds were not as benign as the report would have us think, and it was cross-wind, but also changing. Anyway, long story short, I certainly didn't feel as if Zach was "expendable," and it was good experience--just not the one we'd hoped for.

Engine-out: if the real thing happened from a point on downwind, (which is where it usually happens, when tower wants a short approach), I'd just make a nice smooth U-turn, slip down to the runway, and put her down in the middle. No tempting trees.

On climbout, don't be distracted by anything. Fly the plane. Door coming open, radio, whatever.
wait 'til level flight to deal with the door.

Aileron correction for drift: Do it right away. Don't be too subtle. The wings aren't going to touch the ground.

pilot's logbook

9/10 C-152 N89933 Lou Lou Touch and Go's, short field T/O & landing, emergency procedures ZC

Lots of landings. All in control. I knew what I was doing, and did it. As we flew, the clouds lowered, so by the end of the hour it was going to be illegal. Otherwise, I would have been going solo for Zach, and this time rightfully so. Hopefully this afternoon it will clear up.

I heard from Mike today. He doesn't check email very often, I think. He sounds good--very busy. Hopefully I'll be good to call him soon.

I'm working on flight planning for cross-country.

Pilot's logbook

9/9 c-152 N69011 LOU LOU t&go's 8 landings ZC

Weather iffy, rained all day (hooray for rain). Zach is really cajtious about rain, so we did an hour of ground school-- planning a trip to Cplumbus. Then Dane came upstairs to check the weather :) and commented to Zach that it had cleared.

Just t&g , but tonight I was putting the plane where I wanted her to be, not reacting. Still, the next-to-last (after Zach said, "I'm not here, you're on your own," was by far the worst of the night.

Still, Zach says whatever it is I've been doing, it's the right thing.

I think I've turned the corner for real this time.

Mistakes:

Pattern not alwaysbconsistent.

One time I flared because Zach flinched (or somesuch small movement) and it was too early. That was the other touchdown that wasn't so good.

Birds.

Coming off runway, need to be ON the yellow line, too close to grass.

Forgot to put the key in the book and figure time.

pilot's logbook

9/8 C-152 N89933 LOU LOU t&go's 4 landings TH

Early morning on the schedule . I like it. No Kevin. Todd went up with me. I like him. And would like to be an instructor colleague with him.

pilot's logbook

9-2 C-152 N69011 Lou-LOU 9ldgs T&go, short field takeoff, n-flaps landing, soft-field landings ZC

pilot's logbook

9/1 C-152 N89933LOU-EXX-BRY-LOU
Touch&go, Taxiing, VOH navigation, X-wind, X-C Flight Planning, slips, go-arounds

Peter. Todd etc.

Video here: Progress in Iraq according to GWB

What cost? Who pays?

microsoft word-->pdf-->iPhoto-->iPhone

Talk about easy. I never noticed that the Print-->PDF menu in Microsoft Word for Macintosh has a "Save PDF to iPhoto" option.

So, any document I'm making to use with my choirs or whatever, I save as .pdf to iPhoto, then pop it to one of the "photo albums" that I have set to sync to iPhone (such as iPhotoDocuments, or Chant), and bingo, it's there.

If I need to get it OUT of the iPhone to give it to someone, I just go into photos, select the document image, email it to the person.

This works gratifyingly well for all those Word documents I make that have chant and music fonts in them and which are difficult to transfer in their native form.

I'm going to do this with all my music lesson handouts right now.

Pilot's logbook

8/29 C-152 N89933 Lou Lou Touch & Go, accuracy landing, soft field landings

Zach says today we really made progress.

Keep rudder smooth on final.
Airspeed 65-60 on final.

If coming in too low, add plenty power, but keep the nose attitude down, hold it at 65. 65. 65. 65. 65.

-----
99s are having a meeting at E'town airport (KEKX) at 11 on Saturday. Christine said, "Are you flying in?" I said, "I don't do that yet." She suggested have instructor come, set up a cross-country. OK. Zach can't, he's scheduled at 1:00.

Peter can. He sat me down to go over cross-country planning.

Course, deviation, variation, plot, checkpoints, distance and time, weather for all airports, frequencies, runway lengths, etc.

Meet at 9 to go over flight plan. Make it a trip worth doing.

Frank says, "Go fly."

Which Way?

I keep remembering two events from way back in my past--both from High School years. They keep bumping up in my consciousness like a chipped tooth that you can't stop touching with your tongue.

One was being a member of the Seneca HS Tennis Team. I joined in the first year that there was a girls' tennis team (Thank you, Ms. Richardson). Since there were no established players, anyone could join--experience or no. I liked practicing after school, bouncing the ball off the wall of the building and whatever else we did. I only remember playing once in a match. It was at Seneca park, and it went on forever. In tennis, you have to win by two points. I kept getting ahead by one point, but not two. The other player would catch up. Then I'd get ahead by one. This must have gone on for a long time. I remember Ms. Richardson saying something like, "Come on, get this over with. Win or don't win, we need to go home. Everyone else has been finished for a long time." I don't remember who won the match.

Is that what I'm doing with the landings? If so, then the solution would be to get a move on. "S__t or get off the pot," as Mima would say.

The other event I remember is learning to drive. The plan was to learn on the VW Bug, so I'd know how to drive a stick shift. I remember practicing on the long driveway to Girl Scout Camp (now Hebron Ln.) with Mom in the RH seat. I couldn't get that car into gear without killing the engine no matter what. I killed it, and killed it, and killed it, over and over and over again. I can hear Mom saying in frustration, "Listen to the motor. Can't you hear it? You're the musician!" But I couldn't, and we finally gave up. I took my test in the big automatic '53 Buick. Later, everything changed. I didn't practice on the Bug anymore, BUT somebody took our family, all of us kids, to a movie, "Herbie the Love Bug"--antics of a Disneyfied Volkswagen. (I don't think we went to movies very much,if ever, so it was a big deal.) Shortly thereafter, I sat in the right-hand seat of a VW on a long trip to the Appalachian trail. Our CIT counselor, Sparky, was driving, and I thought she hung the moon. I soaked up everything she said and did, including hot-dogging that little car.

When I got home from the trip, I got in Dad's VW and drove it. Just like that.

If this is the key image, then I may as well just get on with everything else and assume that when it's time, it will happen.

???????????!!

1-27

Fuel. Bolt missing from tail inspection panel.

Today was hot and bumpy. We went to Clark County to work on landings.

I was early. While Zach ate I watched landings, but there were only two.

The first would have been textbook ZC, with a long, level flare that only gradually went down. The other person flared 35 feet in the air and landed way down the runway.

Takeoff rwy 6. Turnout north. Keep it under 17,000 ft.
Clark County AWOS is 118.575. CTAF is 122.7.
CCT, Cessna69011 is 5-1/2 miles SE, inbound.

Enter L downwind at 45º.

Smooth rudder pressure, not back-and-forth on final.

Airspeed.


Engine out: first turn ok, better to keep it coming on around to the runway, and slip if necessary to come down.

Oil temperature high. Did you notice?

Sunglasses.

Next time try holding it one foot off the runway all the way down.

Go to Clark county tomorrow and watch landings.


pax,
Maggie

Pilot's logbook

No flight hours here today, but airport hours. I started at 9 at AC1. Drove the gas truck to fuel one of the planes. I also put it back in the wrong place and didn't put the keys where they belong, but now I know.

Peter came in shortly after that. It was his 30th birthday which he was moody about, (and which I have a hard time being sympathetic about) and also nursing a premonition that it was going to be a bad day. No way, right?

Well, he was for the first time acting as "proctor" for a couple of people taking online tests. Other people were in and out, up and down. The power blinked and I had to call Lisa to find out how to restart the computer. Peter got cut off in a phone conversation with a potential student. No big deal--until the fellow upstairs came down and said his test was gone.

The next four hours were crazy. No one could get the computers back online. Bellsouth tech support was worthless. "Our equipment is working. The problem is on your end." Laser-Grade was useless. The people in India were no help. More people came for tests, camping out in the Pilot Shop. Lisa spent about an hour on hold. The airline pilot from Fort Worth eventually gave up, called Laser Grade and found out that the nearest place he could continue his test was back 20 minutes from his home in Fort Worth. At this point I called my brothsr David to ask him if he knew any answers. He ended up coming over, and spent a careful hour with his computer (and his own cannibalized network equipment) and put things right again. Ye gods!

I left there, skipped the Herde family reunion, and went to Bardstown where Youth Choir was singing 5:00 mass. The kids--Taylor, Andrew, Maggie, Grace, Madison--were stunning. They did everything well. Very well. I Want to Walk as a Child of the Light. Go out to all the World. Prayer of St. Francis. Shepherd Me, O God. Qui manducat. Lord, I Lift Your Name on High. (And this is the thing I'm wanting to turn over to someone else!!?)

Pilot's logbook

8-24

Started out the day at AC1. Ford Trimotor across the field had a lot of people coming in looking for it.

Lisa, Dane and Tony were all there, so I wasn't busy. After a while I pulled out my books to review. Lisa suggested why didn't I study, so I tried.

Too crazy inside.

I went out in the porch with Peter to catch up on VOR stuff. Good thing I did. First I was drawing a blank, but then I got the hang of it again. (One of those and one of the Area Weather Forecast things that I FINALLY got the hang of this morning showed up on the test.)

A little after lunchtime I decided go ahead and take the test.

Score: 92. Check!

Frank and I went to Indiana to get the car from Mr. Proctor.

Check!

Evening--more landings with Zach. It was the first time I've been up when the runway lights came on. Everything was smooth--in slow motion. Zach says you're ahead of the plane when it feels like that.

Looking long down the centerline made all the difference on the first one.

Still, not consistent though. Especially not on the final touchdown. BUT--pattern, turns, and rollouts were mostly VERY smooth and consistent (with a couple of exceptions.)

Thinking about landing, I was intending to concentrate on holding level on ground effect, but I mostly don't remember it happening.


pax, Maggie

The difference between one and more than one is all the difference in the world. Indeed, it is the world. --LeGuin

basic to reading a weather map

Ok. I admit it. Weather maps, TAFs, PIREPs, Weather Depiction Charts and Radar Summaries are real boogers.

And, it's even harder if you're looking at those western states that all look like modified squares and realizing that you don't know which one is which.

The link above is a brush-up for that.

Ac1

Working the desk on Saturday is different than other times. Busy.
Stephen and I got to learn how to do refunds on credit cards. Rental
for trips is done on flight time--3 hour minimum per day.

C-171 66198 blue
C-172 2316T red & white
PA29-161 8316E Warrior
PA28R-200 3664F Arrow

I-64; Cannons; Dutchman's; Taylorsville

Drivers' license renewal: Go back out Taylorsville Rd., take a left,
then two more lefts.

Mike calls Neil sometimes.

Oil is in the office, bottom of book cabinet, if not there, upstairs.

Evan has something on everyone. ;)

pax,
Maggie

http://randomlight.blogspot.com

"The difference between one and more than one is all the difference in
the world. Indeed, it is the world." --LeGuin

Private Pilot Exam

My goal is to be ready to take the written test by this weekend.

I'm "cramming" by going through the PrivatePilotExam.com website. My strategy is:

Listen to each lesson, watch the video. Copy to iPhone so I can review when I'm out.

Take the practice quiz for each lesson six times (or however many times it takes to get it 100 % plus five). Read all Q&A aloud.

Review old quizzes every day.

Fwd: 1/3

pax,

Maggie

http://randomlight.blogspot.com

"The difference between one and more than one is all the difference in the world.  Indeed, it is the world."  --LeGuin

Begin forwarded message:

From: Maggie Hettinger <mhettinger@mac.com>
Date: August 3, 2007 11:36:32 PM EDT
To: Margaret Hettinger <mhettinger@mac.com>
Subject: 1/3

1/3

Jim--"I was there when you soloed." nice guy.

T&G
Started out by sitting on the runway and seeing what it looked like.  The first few were perfect. (thanks, David!")

Went to Clark County, three other people in the pattern.  Unlike the last practice, when everything was sloshy from heat and humidity, tomight she was almost sharp.

Still working on airspeed on final, come in without dipping, be able to land nose-high.

Back to Bowman. Several more timea aroud. Sunset beyond the haze. Tower complimented us on the last landing, saying "That was a good one to end on."


pax,
Maggie

http://randomlight.blogspot.com

"The difference between one and more than one is all the difference in the world.  Indeed, it is the world."  --LeGuin

pilot's logbook

8/1 C-152 N89933 LOU JVY LOU t&g 1.1hr ZC

Good flying tonight. There was a traffic jam at the take-off ramp, and an interesting dance when the Kosair Lifeguard jet needed to move ahead of the rest of us.

Wind was calm. So were we. Visibility was extremely hazy over Bowman and the river, but cleared over Clark County.

Better landings. Zach still talked to me some on touchdown, but it was only talk, and not a lot of that -- no physical corrections that I remember.

I talked to him a lot, saying everything that was running thru my head, which made me feel more as if I was running the show, and might have made it easier on Zach (or maybe it was just a nice evening).





At one point I asked him to do a landing. I especially like to reinforce the nose-down angles/visual for touchdown. Zach hot-dogged it a little before takeoff, holding the plane on the right wheel. That was fun. Earlier on, Zach had said wouldn't it be a great night for pictures, and of course I had the iPhone, so we did a little of that, too.

Mostly, though, I was working hard the whole time, and being "assertive" about doing things before Zach could reach in and do them. (I think he's just fast and focused.)

However, I overdid it at one point coming back home, when Tower asked us to "ident" and I kindof knocked his hand away. That would have been ok except I wasn't sure enough where the button was, and I fumbled it. But--I won't miss it again.

Afterwards, I was on the parking lot when Zach came out, and he made a point of swinging over a little to give me a thumbs up "good job."

Relief.

We're on track, I hope. This switching over has been a little difficult. Nobody's fault. Just is.

When I told Zach that I'd be coming in Monday to man the phone and whatnot, I found out that Zach and Neil are the only instructors still there. Jacob went back to school yesterday. Interesting.
---

I still need to he more consistent and aware with airspeed on base and final.

None of the touchdowns were icky, and at least a couple pleased all three of us (I include Mike, who's hanging out in my head, of course).

And the flesh and blood Mike, whom I miss muchly, should actually be on Florida if he left on Friday.

I hope it's going well for him. He always seems so sure if himself, but there might have been a few cracks in his armor about this leap. Maybe I'll drop him a note since things are looking up and I can say so. I'd much rather be telling him that I'm going to Columbus. (I think that will justifiably rate a phone call.)

Making cards for Dr. Ramsey

Last year I made some copies of the Otomi Figures book for Dr. Ramsey, but never managed to make the cards that go with it. Beth, Alex and Ben came over today to help me, and I actually got it done. The boys are good workers. Both of them think ahead and work fast.



Beth and the boys also rescued a box turtle that was hit by a car.

pilot's logbook

7/30/07 C-152 LOU JVY LOU

Touch and go's at Bowman. Not great, not bad. Then to Clark Co. Zach is always fast to do things. Radio--I need to be sure, long before we get to Six Mile Island, the frequency of the automatic info for Clark Co. What is it? What is the frequency?

Coming back, there was a convergence at Six-Mile Island. ATC kept us apart.

Landings: Airspeed. 70, 65-60. Need more right rudder at flare & touchdown.

Afterwards, Jacob and I did a little X-Plane. I found out my joystick has a twist motion. He sets it for rudder. I also like where he puts the trim--on the top buttons.

When I was getting ready to go, a lady (Margaret) came in looking for a brochure to the Lexington Aviation Museum, which a volunteer had told her about on the phone yesterday.

Everybody was mystified.

Then, since it was early, and I didn't want to go home, I bopped over to Eagle Flight next door to look for Christine. She wasn't there, but Brian was. As I was leaving, Margaret drove up, still looking for her brochure. Long story short, the "Bowman Field" number in the phone book rings at Standiford field. Her grandson is a good candidate for monthly flight lessons from Grandma. Brian grew up in Spain, only came to this country 4 years ago. The porch there is the best place on the field to hang out. I was working thru the Gleim book and yakking. Ken Figa is my brother Bill's friend's brother, and he (Ken) flies the Ambulance plane and is an instructor at Eagle Flight, and invited me to come back and bring my flash cards and rehearse for orals.

Tony asked me if I could stay and talk to him a minute. He needs somebody to answer the phone, would I be interested? I gave him my schedule. Will trade my hours for airplane hours (no, not one for one). I said yes, will start next week. We'll see how it goes.



Frank and I went back to Clark County Airport to see the B-17 "Liberty Belle." Met two people, one pretty young who live in the neighborhood and knows amazing things about airplanes. I sent him the information for a free ride in a taildragger with the Bowman Eagles.

Zach says, "Need to finesse landings, then solo, then cross country."

Fwd: [MD] Go Figure

pax,

Maggie

http://randomlight.blogspot.com

"The difference between one and more than one is all the difference in the world.  Indeed, it is the world."  --LeGuin

Begin forwarded message:

From: ARLO J BENSINGER JR <ajb102@psu.edu>
Date: July 28, 2007 5:42:25 PM EDT
To: moq_discuss@moqtalk.org
Subject: [MD] Go Figure
Reply-To: moq_discuss@moqtalk.org

Gotta love this.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/07/28/saudi.arms/index.html

"The United States is developing a proposed $20 billion, 10-year arms sales
package for Saudi Arabia... One of the more controversial proposals will
probably be selling the Saudis, for the first time, satellite-guided bombs
known as JDAMs. The sale may include a 500-pound and a 2,000-pound version of
the aerial bomb."

To "counter Iranian aggression".

Meanwhile, consider...

"In 2002, the United Nations Committee against Torture criticized Saudi Arabia
over the amputations and floggings it carries out under the Shari'a. The Saudi
delegation responded defending its legal traditions held since the inception of
Islam in the region 1400 years ago and rejected "interference" in its legal
system." (From Wikipedia entry on Saudi Arabia).

Not to mention the Israelis seem convinced that Saudi Arabia's ties with
international terrorism are "indisuptable". (http://www.jcpa.org/jl/vp504.htm)

Even the CATO Institute seems less than "happy" withe Saudi Arabia's passive
support (at the least) of terrorism. (http://www.cato.org/dailys/11-16-01.html)

So I wonder, with even King George begrudgingly admitting that Al Qaueda is
stronger today than prior to our invasion of Iraq, are we really "at war with
terrorism" when we give 20 billion dollars worth of weapons of mass destruction
to one of the larger violators of human rights AND a state sponsor of terrorism.

Wacky. Until, I suppose, you read this.

"Saudi Arabia is the world's leading petroleum exporter" (Wikipedia).

Makes sense.

The moral high-ground, it appears, is the top of an oil well.


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7/27

7/27
Touch and go.
Runway 24. Wind straight on a about 8 kt.

Pattern was good. Climbing was logy-- high humidity and lots of haze.
Landings were close to right. Zach said that anytime he was starting
to make a suggestion for correction, I was already doing it.

I was making It a "roundout" and that seemed to work. I put more nose-
up on the actual touchdown, which is the way I want to, but which has
been getting lost for the last weeks.

It was a good session.

pax,
Maggie

http://randomlight.blogspot.com

"The difference between one and more than one is all the difference in
the world. Indeed, it is the world." --LeGuin

Gist piano workshop

Gist piano workshop
Vic Geigere
Steinway recital hall--do a recital here with Debbie? Minimal rent

How a piano works
12,000 parts

How to we communicate how important it is?

Syndi Russ -- Shepherdsville, has homeschoolers, wants contact--Bdstwn
music club

Music enhances higher brain function , spatial intelligence

The Mozart effect
Shaw & rausvh

Spatial /?? Skill

Mozart listeners improved, not technopop, not Ph. Glass, not silence
(more likely to identify correct shape of folded, cutout piece of paper.
Complex & patterned music works, for ten minutes.
From Dateline video, can have a copy

Why ?
Cultural literacy
Discipline
Confidence
Self-expression
Sense of accomplishment
Stimulation
Enjoyment
Connection with history
Outreach
Coordination

Teacher handing out a score--"Here are the answers. It's your job to
come up with the questions."

**Copy handouts and send home one per week.

There's a lot of crayons in this instrument. What colors are you using?

Do you know the make, model, size of student's piano

Once a year, visit home for a lesson "review"

Complete semester payment
Review system
Tuning certificate

If you gave Chet Atkins a guitar with omly so many strings, how well
would he have learned to play?

Studio:
Repertoire
Listen to self

Teaching improvisation: take a simple tune--have student vary rhythm,
harmony

"copying beethoven" DVD available
"the quotable musician"

"A critic is to music is as a bird to a statue."

video--piano

Voicing
Huge difference between a 5'1" grand and a 5'10" grand, but the tonal
difference in sound is huge.

Essex piano brand--Frank Z recommended for Windsor Gardens.

Boston pianos & Essex pianis are designed by Steinway to use their
patents and techniques st a lower price range.
Boston made in Japan
Essex made in Korea & China.

Some (non-steinway) piano soundboards lose their "crown" shape over
time.

20 tons of tension in a piano.

Lower tension makes more sustain as opposed to attack.

Sostenuto pedal (middle) was a Steinway invention.

Parts of the hammer:
Hammer, shank,, flange, action rail

Investment value compare new versus old:
Depends.

Steinway's biggest competition is old Steinways.

Playing a good piano is like playing with a bigger box of crayons.

Prizes, recognition, =

Tax deduction benefits for teachers section 179 up to $108,000

Aug 11 beargrass Christian Hsrry Pickens improvisi

pax,
Maggie

http://randomlight.blogspot.com

"The difference between one and more than one is all the difference in
the world. Indeed, it is the world." --LeGuin

Piano teaching, etc.

I went with Debbie to a music teachers' workshop at Gist piano.

It was thinly-disguised advertisement for Steinway, but still valuable.

My notes are on the iPhone. maybe I should copy them here.

If nothing else, he had a bunch of handouts that I can copy and send home, one at a time, to my students' parents. The usual topic is why bother to learn music. I ordered two videos that I can send home with parents, as well. The time was well-spent to get on the same page with Debbie, and also the donuts and lunch were very good.

I'm setting up my lesson schedule. Youth Choir will be during school this year, on Wednesday mornings. I'm changing my lesson schedule to Wednesday and Thursday afternoons and evenings. I can go to Bardstown, have the YC classes, Debbie can be available to work with accompanists or others, then I'll be stuck in Bardstown until afternoon, but it will be two days in a row, so maybe I'll concentrate better, and be more free with the rest of the week.

Mr. Proctor called last night and said the motor for my engine has been sold to someone else. He can't find another for less than $1400, and the car would not be worth it. I told him I'd call back in a day or two. Talking with Debbie, though, I realized that Amy's car will be sitting here all winter, so maybe I can use it and avoid having to rush into something like buying a new car.

I missed my flight lesson today because I didn't check the time until afternoon. I can't believe that. Zach said never mind. (I guess I'll have to pin him down on a bad-weather day for some ground school to make it up to him.)

Frank is out of town tonight and tomorrow. I finished up the final Harry Potter book. It was a satisfying read, with enough surprises to be good, characters well-portrayed, and an ending that was consistent with the rest of the story on both the adult-reader level and the little-kid level.

pilot's logbook

7/23 CE-152 N69011 Lou Lou XW Landing, MP Operations,Slow Flight, MCA T&Go's landings: 7 1.2 hr. TK

Tony was waiting when I got there, asked me if I'd like to fly with him. It was a pleasant session.

Tony helped me notice something I've never seen before. I'm aiming to the left, both on downwind leg AND on the approach to the runway. (How many bazillion times has Mike said the same thing?) I think I'm looking at the line formed by the left side of the cowling and it's throwing me off. If I can correct this, I might be home free.

Tony emphasized rudder use, made sure I knew that you can turn the plane with just rudder. He talked about making rudder corrections well back from the touchdown.

Constant airspeed.

Hold nose up for entire landing roll--it's more maneuverable (ex. arm around yoke) and slows you down better.

Power control: Extend forefinger to feel how far in or out the throttle is.

I mistook 12-mile island for 6-mile island again, which made me look and feel stupid at one point. I guess eventually I won't do that anymore.

Radio is beginning to be the least of my problems. I usually understand what's going on, and I can pretty much just say whatever I need to.

Tony said whenever he asked me for judgment calls (too high? too low?) I gave him the right answers. That's progress.

Tony asked me about what I teach, wondered if I'd be interested in teaching aviation.

You bet. Think I'll get there?

pilot's logbook

7/22 C-152 N69011 Touch & Go's landings: 10 1.2 hours ZC

Sunday, July 22, 2007
7 pm to 8:30 pm
Assigned: read up on landings, desk fly. Flare. (familiar?)

Still stuck in the landing pattern.

Maybe with Zach two or three is all we should do. It started out really smooth with me (I didn't ask Zach to do six landings, so, there we have it again) but deteriorated from there, I guess.

Lots of commotion tonight. 4 planes in the pattern. "Who is in front?" "We're not cleared to turn." "it's ok to turn." "We'e supposed to be following." "Who is in front?" "933 go high crosswind parallel to the runway." "Turn right at midfield, enter downwind."

We won't do that again. I'll just take us to do something else. Too antsy. I was't antsy, but it put us in lots of compromises.

70 knots on base, going over the trees has to be 60-65 knots.

Explanation after:
Leveled off too high, then got too slow, not straight on the runway.

The last three touchdowns Zach was saying more right rudder just as I was using left rudder. !??! It might have been a disagreement on what is "centered."

Monday there's no way to schedule Zach and the plane. I'm signed up to try it with Tony, or if not, Jacob.

Zach says, "You're right there," holding his fingers 1/2-inch apart.

Remember to get a navigation log page from Zach next time.

pilot's logbook

7/21 Saturday N69011 Lou Lou Touch & Go's landings: 10 1.2 hr. ZC
Zach was planning hood work, but I asked him to take us six times around the pattern. Worked like a charm.

It's getting the rhythm that mattered, and in this case, I could tell that he teaches landing differently than Mike, and we'd likely be in some kind of seesaw tugofwar forever if I didn't get clear what he's looking for.

Runway 6, wind from NW, 10 knots. Big bunch of helium balloons in front of us. A flock of birds that ATC offered to run off, but couldn't get them to scatter.

Takeoff: leave flaps in one notch (won't need it for solo). Look ahead (hospital on right, check behind if you want) to come out straight off the runway. Climb out at 67 kt. Take flaps up just before turning crosswind at 500 ft. above takeoff altitude (1,000 ft at Bowman).

Turn downwind, keep climbing to 1500 ft. Level off, power to cruise, and trim for hands-off flight.

At the numbers, carb heat on, power back to 1500, flaps when in range, let the nose drop to pitch for 75, turn base and come out on base at 70, flaps when wings are level. You can lose 200 ft. on that first turn. OK.

Turn final. Airspeed should be 65 coming in.

Flare, hold it level in ground effect, then at drop, nose up for landing.

Use air for brake if stopping. Pull all the way off, use checklist for post-landing and securing.

Zach was pleased. Said if there was gas in the plane, he'd send me to solo tonight. I said it's ok, we'll do it tomorrow.

I think we should start with the 6 landings again tomorrow.

22.

Pilot's logbook

7/20 C-152 N69011 Lou Lou Sim. hood time, level flight, level climbs, level constant climbs, descends, level turns, climbing turns & descents, constant climbs, ???? descents landings: 1; 1.0 sim instrument; 1.3 hr total; ZC

Flying with a hood was different than I expected. In some ways it was not as difficult as I thought it would be (although I can't imagine doing it while dealing with all the other issues you have to deal with). I didn't stay on target all the time. Most often it was the heading that would wander away from me. I did better with altitude consistency than I usually do.

The unexpected part was that I would "feel" level when we were 2º or 3º banked (usually to the left, and I tended to lose the heading to the left, too, I think).

I also had to work to scan instruments consistently. Attitude indicator, airspeed, attitude, VSI, attitude, altitude, attitude, RPM (listen for RPM), attitude, airspeed, attitude, VSI, attitude, altitude. If something needs fixing, start the fix, keep scanning, check for the fix next time around but don't watch the indicator while it happens.

Climb at full power, 67 knots. Descend at 1500 RPM, 70(?) kt.?

Zach was laying it on, too. He'd have me start to do something I hadn't done before and then go right into telling me something important while I was doing the first thing.

We flew toward and past the Marysville VOR station. I've seen it before, and had it explained, but now it's starting to sink in.

Lost? Read the name on the water towers.

Final landing: I came in too high, partly by accident, and partly because it was runway 6 and I was aiming a lot further down the runway than usual (displaced). We had to slip a little, and ended up with Zach doing a lot of the approach. I'm not sure exactly what made him so nervous. I didn't think it was that far off.

I'm going to ask Zach to do six landings for me tomorrow night. Hopefully he'll go along with my request to save some time by spending some time. Partially, it's the same thing I should have followed thru on with Mike, but also Zach expects something different, and it may well be that I"m working hard to do something that is counter to what he expects.

Before we went up today, I asked what, if anything, he would trust me to do by myself (solo) and he said we needed to do more landing work and mostly have calm weather, which we have not had for over a week.

Homework:
VOR
Maneuvers: landings,
Instruments

Afterwards, I went looking for Christine at Eagle Flight next door (wooden building with a nice porch), and unexpectedly found Brandon there. He was hanging out with Brian and Azziz, and is now working out of Mike Pratt's establishment on the other side of the airport. Brian gave me Christine's phone number, and said she works mostly mornings.

picked up some guys....

I met a couple of guys at the Bardstown (Samuels Field) airport. They had come down to avoid a storm between them and Indianapolis. They were trying to refuel, and not having luck with the pump. Then they got it started, but knew they were stuck for a while with the storm. I took them to Kreso's for dinner, and we ate and talked and watched a "gap" in the storm that they wanted to fly through. Then I took them back to the airport. I guess they made it, because I didn't see anything on the news.

Jeremy is a pilot/ instructor. The other fellow, can't pull his name out of my head right now, was on a business trip, but he's a student pilot, and he hires an instructor to fly on these trips, so he can fly for the experience, but also turn over the actual responsbility for the trip to a pilot. INteresting.

Jeremy clued me in on a VOR site (http://vrotate.com/VOR/vor.html) that lets you experiment with VOR operation.

Dinner with Barack Obama

The title link takes you to a video of Barack Obama having dinner with the lucky supporters who represented the rest of us. It's a nice conversation. As far as I'm concerned, it shows some of the reasons people like us started contributing to Obama's campaign before he even decided to run. This is the kind of person that GOVERNMENT should be.

I hope Obama doesn't get hurt by all the foolishness that goes with elections. I'd like to see him active in US leadership for quite a while to come.

Pilot's logbook

7/15 Planned to fly with Zach after I took Frank to the airport. I checked the weather--METARs, TAFs, some regular sites, and knew that the wind was 13 kt gusting to 18 or 25, so there wouldn't be any soloing even if I did get my act together.

I asked Zach about wind-shear, and whether immediately adding power (full power?) would be the right thing to do under that circumstance, and he said yes, that's why we keep one hand on the throttle.

When I got there, Zach said go ahead and preflight, but come back to check the weather. When I did, he showed me a line of storms developing on radar that would be on us in about a half an hour. They hadn't been there when I first came, which was why I hadn't seem them before I left the house. I called the weather briefer WXBRIEF, and it was really interesting that HE didn't know anything about those storms either. He was talking about the stuff that was brewing up north, but didn't have a clue about the stuff in the west, and when I told him that was what we were looking at, he didn't have anything to say about it. Zach pointed out that we might have been able to do a few touch-and-go's here at the airport, but the big issues was that we would be out somewhere when the weather came in, and we wouldn't be able to land back at Bowman Field, and would have to go to some other airport.

Zach's routine with getting weather is:
*Check weather radar first.
*then NOAA.gov --> standard briefing.

TAF's are updated at 6, 12, 18 & 24 Zulu, with "AMD" amended updates when required by conditions.

*Weather.com takes your home zipcode.

*Watch the weather channel. Duh. Can you believe that this past week I've been telling myself I should watch the TV weather, and trying to make myself remember to turn on the TV at 10:30pm to catch it, and it never ONCE occurred to me that WE HAVE THE WEATHER CHANNEL ON CABLE TV ALL DAY LONG. Old dogs and new tricks.

At any rate, we didn't fly today. I bought a plotter, had a nice talk with Lisa (where I might have talked too much), went to meet Beth & Juan and Alex and Ben at the mall (playground ship, bookstore, pizza & potato soup & iphone, bought $20 worth of dead-sea-salt hand soap and conversation from a young man from Israel peddling his miracles at the Mall, sat in the Panera parkinglot and alternately highlighted Gleim pages and took catnaps, delivered bread to Wayside Mission, and came back home. Frank is in North Carolina for three days. He's having a good time.

And, I have this big honking hole that won't fill. Channel it, channel it, channel it. Fly the plane.

The Adventures of Ace & Tailspin

I was uploading the pictures from our Wednesday flight so Mike and anyone else interested could get them. It took me half the night and part of the next morning (and $20) to get them to upload to Flickr. The good thing is that by the time I did it and re-did it with different tools and such, I pared the photos down and added titles and things that I wouldn't ordinarily have taken time to do.

So, if you click the link above, click on the little booklet "The Adventures of A and T." DON'T click on slideshow, because then you won't see the captions.

It really was a good day.

Pilot's logbook

7/13 C-15 N69011 Lou Lou Slow Flight, Power -on -off stalls, S-turns across a road sim. engine out procedures, x-wind landings landings:3 1.3 hours ZC

Zach had different specific things that he expects. I'm listing:

Hold altitude at 1700 further than we have been, almost to the river.

When we went up toward the practice area, I thought he wanted me to head straight for the Madison Power Plant towers, which I did, but that takes us over Kentucky, and actually he later said its' better to go up the Indiana side. Over Kentucky also puts us near a really large tower, one I've noticed before, but don't usually fly near.

He has specific RPM's for slow flight, which actually makes it easier to practice, and is pretty specific about carb heat off and on. ON whenever you're in the white arc. Take it out (off) for stall recovery, before flaps go up.

Zach told me he'd just not be in the plane on the way back, and if I hadn't talked to him at all, and had just handled everything, I'da been soloing afterwards. But I didn't.

Next time. for sure. I'm practicing stalls and emergency landings on the X-Plane (flight simulator) which I've never done before, not realizing that it could be useful. I also figured out that if I hold the joystick at the bottom of the handle, it functions a lot more like a real plane, so that's a BIG improvement.

My goals for this week are 1) Do what it takes to solo. Practice approaches, departures, radio, procedures. 2)Learn the navigation and cross-country chapters in Jepessen and Gleim. 3) Channel it! ;)