pilot's logbook

Taxiing, T/O, 360º turns, stalls, spin awareness, turn around point. 1.5 hr.

Turn around a point. 1500 AGL

bank + bank -

fastest slowest
*


no bank




Enter with tailwind from here. The steepest turn will be first.
======================================
Rudder?
At lower airspeed and high torque, such as takeoff, right rudder is needed to counteract propellor.

On takeoff, right rudder is needed.
V(r) (rotation) = 50
V(x) (best angle)= 55
V(y) (best rate) = 67
==================
Angle of attack
Angle of incidence
Relative wind
=====================
Power off stall
1. Power off
2. Nose level / hold altitude
3. Full flaps
4. Ailerons neutral / hold heading
5. Coordinate rudder
6. Buffet / recover


Stall recovery:
feel buffeting, horn goes off
1. full power, take off 10º flaps, nose level.
2. verify airspeed increase.
3. 10º (next notch) flaps.
4. verify airspeed.
=====================
LH Spin
Neutralize ailerons
full right (opposite) rudder
gradually pull up
gradually bring up power
========================
No flaps on takeoff.
Spin messes up the heading indicator. Reset.
Keeping traffic in sight. Have to.
Ignition MAKE SURE IT IS ACTUALLY OFF!!!!!!!! LOOK!


Questions for next time:
Airport map & runway markings not magnetic north but corrected (true) north? How are the heading indicator and compass set?
At some point, Mike was "suggesting," "Maggie, fly the plane!" When was that? Takeoff?
Talk thru takeoff.

Clearance. (no flaps). Full power. Right rudder, ailerons into crosswind as needed. Rotate at 50 kn. V(y) is 67. If taking off 240, at some point hang a right toward the north. Stay below 1200? 1700? until we cross the road. What road? Then climb to whatever.

[Ken R. in Holy Name Band is a pilot. He says he flew for about 12 years. That'll give us something to talk about.]

Macbook

Yet another surprising use for the macbook. Already it has become my audio recorder for choir: just open it up, run Sound Studio and press record. The recording can last for several hours, so I can set it up well before mass and catch the whole thing. No more waiting until the last moment to start and then forgetting to do it, no more transferring from minidisk to computer. The quality of the built-in mic is plenty good enough for my needs, which is to review what we're doing in choir.

Now it's a scanner, too. Not perfect, as you can see, but it will work in a pinch. I'll have to do a little processing, but not too much. Sharon would like an easier arrangement of this song, Your Only Son. I've got what I need to make it.

pilot's logbook

I'm reading Saint Exupery (from Alex). That man positively floods you with his passion and love for flying and life. What could be better?

No flying here today. Rain. Low ceiling. I signed up with Mike for next Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Maybe I can get up to speed on some of the basics if I can just manage to work on it regularly. Tonight I'm reading and re-teaching myself Centigrade to Fahrenheit conversion and 360-degree compass headings and such. And signing up a few more piano students to help pay for this adventure.

I've certainly never felt so supported and encouraged as I do now. I've been dumbfounded at the people who have just come out from nowhere to make sure that all goes well. Everybody should feel like this!

pilot's logbook

No lesson. weather.

3 packages in the mail

I received a marvelous package from Alex R. this morning. He sent books and photos. The books are "The Proficient Pilot," by Barry Schiff, "Fate is the Hunter," by Ernest K. Gann, "Rod Machado's Plane Talk," and "Wind, Sand and Stars," by Antione de Saint Exupery. As I wrote back to Alex, I've been grinning ear-to-ear ever since I opened the box. I headed off to work with SaintExupery in my day planner, and I admit to reading it it church.

Alex's photos are his own--flying a B-17, a P-51 Mustang, and most of all his regular job--flying the C-46 in Alaska. I've got them playing on my iMac right now.

My second box was my $25 copy of the Jeppesen "Private Pilot Manual." Mike recommends it, and I can give Barry's back to him. I can see why they like it. I actually feel as if I understand the mechanical sections, so it's got to be good.

The third package was music for all the beginning piano students I'm signing up. Funny thing, all the students I inherited from Amy have been girls. These new kids are all boys. I think I'll schedule summer lessons kindof like they do the flying lessons. It might be a better way to handle all the unpredictability of summer so I won't end up tied down for hours when people don't show up. I'm applying some of the other non-flying things I picked up from Mike and am amazed at how well it works. I think I was in a rut and I'm waking up from it.

If Mike hadn't been wearing his salesman hat when I wandered into Air Center One looking for ground school, I wonder where I would be now? Maybe just somewhere else, but likely I would have let the whole flying thing fizzle out instead of jumping (falling) in.

I'm behind in my notes. Hopefully I'll get last lesson jotted down before I go tomorrow. Hopefuly the weather and karma will cooperate. Hopefully tomorrow is the day that I discover some of my venerable synapses and neurons have started cross-wiring themselves for their new duties.

pilot's logbook

Weather forecast thunderstorms. No lesson.

pilot's logbook

XW T/O, Landings, steep turns. Turns around a point. Wind correction.
(I'm making these notes way too late. It's actually Thursday night the 26th. Gotta do better, maybe before I go anywhere else after the lesson.)

* I made sure my hair was our of the way of the headset, and that made a big difference.

* Better control of the plane today. At least one of the 360 degree turns was right on. There wasn't a clear horizon line, so I watched the inside controls a more, but I'm looking forward to a clear day.

* It does help that I figured out that to hold a particular airspeed you nose down to make the needle go down and pull up to make the needle go up (on the right hand side of the dial where I am anyway). Along with that, Mike says the actual airspeed doesn't matter that much as long as it's within a range. (pretty much in the green)(?)

* Joy! I suddenly understood how easy it can be to keep track of the wind direction by looking at the numbers on the heading indicator. If the wind is from 180 deg, you just see how 180 relates to the graphic of the airplane. (Mike's scratching his head here. Actually, he doesn't give much away in the way of reactions. Maybe being a CFI teaches you to be really laid back.)

* When we were talking about avoiding other traffic, Mike told me about his friend Chris (who I actually met when I was at Clark Co. Airport with Barry last week.) He complimented Chris, saying he was an excellent pilot. I think I asked him in what way, and Mike said Chris was the kind of person who really knows everthing there is to know about piloting, and if you ask him a question he doesn't know the answer to, he'll dig until he finds it.

* Mike says he (Mike) is different. He's ok with saying "I don't know," he'd rather be flying the planes. I like that.

* Thank goodness I hadn't eaten breakfast. We were considering setting down at Clark County. Annoying.

* Insight after the fact: that cockpit is really small. It's way too easy to be in somebody else's space and not realize it.

Like the picture of our plane? Google has everything.

Alex

Know what I'm doing right now?  I went to Google images and dragged every image of an altimeter I could find over to a word processor page, and spread them all out so that I can practice reading the damn thing.  Maybe even just finding it.

Ah, give it another week. <grin>

pilot's logbook

AM: Barry sent me a volunteer opportunity. Go help out at the Army Aviation Heritage Foundation booth for Day-Before-Thunder-Over-Louisville. I met Carol & Mike Brady, Bonnie, Annette (works at Air National Guard), Laura (from Ohio), Lee (pilots the big green plane that they all came in), J___, piloted the Huey I rode in, Leia (works for nursing homes, Jim Shaeffer (part owner of planes and/or other at Air Center One), and a lot of other people whose names have already slipped out of my head.

We had a great spot to watch the air show (probably a complete rehearsal for Thunder). F-16, A-10 Warthog/Thunderbird?, P-38? Thunderbird?, Navy Seals. The AAHF had Hueys, Cobras and Apaches. Riding in the Huey was amazingly smooth.

Lesson with Mike:
Taxiing, climbs, descents, steep turns, stalls, slow flight, landing.

When I came in, Mike was upstairs with a student, and Dane asked me whether I wanted to go ahead and preflight the C152. OK. I had plenty of time to do it, because Dane forgot to tell Mike that I was there, and he was waiting inside for me. oops.

I'm glad it worked out that way. I felt like I knew what I was doing for the most part, and the things I didn't know were:
Fuel strainer (pull the white gizmo beside the oil checker, while reaching underneath to check the gas that comes out.)
Carborator air filter (down under the nose, check it for debris)
Avionics cooling fan (still don't know about that one)
Avionics off. Switch (down or up? It's the silver toggle switch that's not marked)

So, that's one section of this stuff that I feel confident about. It's not this big confusing list anymore.

Flying was more difficult than it should have been. I wasn't "multitasking" well at all. Half the time the flight instruments seem like they work backwards of what I expect (direction-wise). And while I don't have any problem with nose up=pull back, nosedown=push forward, adding one more step, ie. "hold airspeed at 70 knots" means I'm watching the airspeed indicator and forgetting how this chain of thought works to keep it correct. (Figuring this out, to bring the needle down, take the nose down. This only works on the right side of the dial, but if I get the moves there, I'll have it. ). Now, if I could just do the same for the altimeter. It doesn't speak to me yet. Maybe some altimeter flash cards. If it works to teach 6-year-olds how to tell time, it might work for me.

I kept losing altitude on my turns, and coming out of them late. Think about how far 100 feet is from the ground, and then think how easily you lose that much in the air. Mind-boggling. I hadn't thought of that until Mike mentioned it.

At one point, Mike asked me whether I was scared of what might happen so he showed me a little more what the plane will or won't do. I don't think I'm scared. I just don't feel it yet, and I'm used to doing things by feel. Also being good at whatever I do. Talk about being out of your comfort zone!

Even though I was using Barry's headset, I was still having problems hearing thru it. We ended up ditching the headsets and just shouting. I'm going to check prices on the David Clark headsets and the AvComm200.

I asked about when you decide to use the throttle to make a difference in altitude, and when you use pitch. Ans: big changes (more than a couple of hundred feet) probably raise or lower the RPM. We did a sideslip. That's cool.

Looking back at this, it almost looks like it wasn't a good lesson. But actually, it was. Even though it took me most of the evening to get in the groove at all, I felt a lot less uptight. (I give Mike a lot of credit --he handles that well.) I scheduled three lessons next week. Mon Wed & Fri, all in the morning. Maybe that will be enough to get us over this particular hump. After that, it will just be fun.

Frank and I talked about all this. He was being really convincing that he not only doesn't mind me doing all this, but really, really, wants me to do it and do it well.

pilot's logbook

I spent this morning with Carmel and her friend, Steve, who is a tree farmer in Henry County. Carmel wants to know more about managing the timber at the farm. Sounds good to me.

Flying lesson # 4.
Taxiing, climbs, descents, XW, T/O, landing, steep turns, wind correction, pilotage.

First we talked about landing. Mike gave me the V airspeed info for our C152. I went out to do the exterior check. There actually was something in the gas--it looked like worms in the tester. Mike says oil. I also had a hard time seeing the gas level in the wing tanks, and that's because there wasn't much in there.

"Bowman Ground, Cessna 69011 at Air Central One information Victor to depart runway 32. " Something like that. What?

Takeoff with a cross-wind: hold ailerons all the way into the wind on the runway. Let them level gradually on (before?) rotation. More attempts at straight-and-level, climbing and descending, medium turns and steep turns, setting the trim correctly. It was a beautiful day. Mike had me glide, and we made an attempt at a run-through for an emergency landing in a field. I practiced following a road, having to crab the plane into the wind to do it. Coming back, he had me figure out how to get home, and it's really hard to see the airports. But there are two breaks in the trees, and one was Bowman and one was Standiford.

As we were coming in, there was another plane near us, and I understood the radio telling us that, but I never saw him. Mike did, eventually, and he was right under us. Gotta work on that!

Good session. I was bushed at the end of it. Mike did say one thing that made sense. What if he were trying to learn the flute, and had spent 5 hours at it? How far along would he be? That's telling.

I want to remember to print off the info for that pilot kit and take it to Mike.
Also it occurs to me that all the time we were practicing using headings, I guess with the wind, we weren't actually moving in the direction of the compass. I'll ask Mike about that. Also, I want to spend a little more time just watching Mike fly. He's good.I know how my brain works. I'll soak it up more smoothly if I do that.

During the night the Standiford Field traffic woke me up. They must have been flying base right over our house, one jet every two minutes, for at least a half-hour. Then it stopped.

Southern Indiana Airports

Barry invited me to go flying. He has a beautiful plane, a blue and white 1972 Piper Cherokee 140E.

I met him behind Hap's at Clark County Airport on one of the first nice sunny warmish days we've had for a while. Lots of people had the same idea. We flew to Seymour Airport where he was checking on some Civil Air Patrol planes that are in for maintenance.

Next we flew to Madison Airport. I didn't know these neat places existed. Barry introduced me to at least a dozen interesting people. There was lots to watch, listen to, and talk about.

Jericho

A storm came through and knocked out the internet and cable just about the time Jericho was supposed to come on. Rats!

Medical exam

I got my second class medical certificate today. Dr. Glen Stoutt was great fun to talk to. He must love flying, and he sure likes talking to people.

My blood pressure has never been high until the last couple months, when it's crept up a little bit. (Why now?) The second time he took it it was within limits, but I'll have to work on that. Too close for comfort.

I'll have to stop taking phentermine. Hopefully it got me started on the weight loss, and I'll be able to continue.

The eye test was close, too, but it's past time to have my glasses checked. While I'm at it, I probably need to make my current pair into sunglasses, since I don't have any bifocal sunglasses. Or maybe I should get the automatic tint glasses. If I'm wearing sunglasses and need to read something on a chart, will I be able to see it with the tint? Gotta think this one thru, too.

I'm reviewing and reading.

Next lesson I plan to:
Spend as much time as it takes to get the headset right. I'll get with Barry before Monday and take the one he offered to lend me.
Start echoing back to Mike what he has me doing. That way maybe I'll remember more of the details and also get more used to the terminology.
Use better rudder & trim.

Questions:
The handbook goes into a lot of detail for different degrees of turn. It says that for a 30-degree (medium) turn you should use ailerons, elevator and rudder to set the turn, then relax the ailerons and rudder, but hold the elevators. The plane is supposed to hold its bank. Then to get out of the turn, you apply the controls in the opposite direction. I don't think that ever happened when I was doing those 360degree turns. I had to hold the controls the whole time. I think.

Check some of my flash card answers with Mike. Landing procedures, optimum speeds,

Since I only had one lesson this week, maybe I can get in three next week. Debbie just called and said they had made a mistake and underpaid me by $50 a month all year. It's a sign--more practice. I'll have to thank Sherry for the windfall.

pilot's logbook

C-152 N69011 LOU LOU Preflight, Taxiing, climbs, descents, straight & level, T/O & landing, steep turns. 1-1/2 hr.

All right! This is possible. Without all the wind of the last two flights, we had an entirely different experience. I was worried. Now I'm not.

Preflight is starting to make sense.
I pretty much followed the yellow line when taxiing, which is a HUGE improvement over last time.
Takeoff makes sense. Mike was telling me what to do, but it doesn't feel difficult. The plane does all the work.
We flew over Indiana today. Lots of practice trying to hold a 30-degree bank and keep level, also practice climbing steadily. It's not steady yet, but at least I'm starting to feel it and to know what it all looks like when it's right. This time I was looking outside for most of the verification, and checking with the instruments. The amount of bank you have to do to show 30 degrees on instruments looks a whole lot more like 45 degrees out the window.
We worked on maintaining airspeed by changing the pitch.
I learned how to set the trim.
At one point, Mike had me take the plane up to 5,000 ft and head back S toward the river, about 15 miles. We pulled the engine back to just idle, so essentially we were gliding. Now THAT was interesting. The plane just hangs there, moving along, doing its thing. Coming back in, Mike had me take the river to 6-Mile Island, then hang a left toward Kaden Tower. Bowman Field is on the right. Now I can't remember how the last turn(s) were. Did I just hang a right and go in? I don't remember.

Looking forward to next Monday!

Pilot's logbook

4/6 C-152 N69011 LOU LOU Taxiing, Preflight, straight & level, climbs, descents, XW T/O, Landing. 1 hr.

I went up, and it was a beautiful day.  Gusty winds, again, but a cloud of snow that Mike had me go into just a little, which was beautiful.  But I barely noticed that, because I was so busy torturing that little airplane trying to keep it steady and such.  

A number of useful things happened.  At one point, Mike complimented me on how I handled a big bump of wind.  I told him I didn't do it, the plane did it herself, which was worth noticing.

He had me flying straight-and-level and making turns.  At one point he told me it was like we were in a "big parking lot." 

That helped.  And MIke ran the throttle the whole time, which was better than me doing it.  I think I need to get a better sense of what is normal, how the plane sounds and feels when it is right instead of all the individual details and instruments and stuff inside the cockpit being separate and confusing input.

After the lesson, I asked for homework and Mike assigned me to read the FAA chapter on straight-and-level flight and turns, and as soon as I turned to the page, I saw the piece that I've been missing.  It's  under "Integrated Flight Instruction" on pg. 3-3. 

This means the use of outside references and flight instruments to establish and maintain desired flight attitudes and airplane performance...

The airplane's attitude is established and maintained by positioning the airplane in relation to the natural horizon. At least 90 percent of the pilot's attention should be devoted to this end, along with scanning for other airplanes.
90% of the time, the pilot's attention should be outside the cockpit.  No more than 10% of the pilot's attention should be inside the cockpit...

If the airplane's performance, as indicated by flight instruments, indicates a need for correction, a specific amount of correction must be determined, then applied WITH REFERENCE TO THE NATURAL HORIZON. The airplane's attitude and performance are then rechecked by referring to the flight instruments. THE PILOT THEN MAINTAINS THE CORRECTED ATTITUDE BY REFERENCE TO THE NATURAL HORIZON.

The pilot should monitor the airplane's performance by making numerous quick glances at the flight instruments. No more than 10 percent of the pilot's attention should be inside the cockpit. The pilot must develop the skill to instantly focus on the appropriate flight instrument, and then immediately return to outside reference to control the airplane's attitude.

Level flight, at first, is a matter of consciously fixing the relationship of the positions of some portion of the airplane, used as a reference point, with the horizon ... maintain a light grip on the flight controls ... learn to associate the apparent movement of the references with the forces which produce it. ... develop the ability to regulate the change desired in the plane's attitude by the amount and direction of forces applied to the controls without the necessity of 

To establish the desired angle of bank,the pilot should use outside visual reference points, as well as the bank indicator on the attitude indicator.

The best outside reference for establishing the degree of bank is the angle formed by ... the lowered wing of high-wing airplanes.

This sounds like what I WANT to be doing, anyway.   I'll read and visualize this chapter as much as possible, and then show it to Mike and ask if he'll work on it with me Monday.

I 'm going to go to Google Earth and look at Bowman Field and at the area between there and Shelbyville.  I think I'll print a copy and ask Mike to help me mark on it where it is we fly.  He told me, but I want to be a lot more clear and set myself things to look for.

Barry sent me an article on how to taxi.  I'll read it next. I'm not even going to go into how badly I move that airplane on the ground.  It's really humbling. 

It's probably good for me as a teacher.  We have a story that we sometimes snicker about--when Beth was driving, but hadn't been doing it very long, and she got into the car and said "Gas on the right, brake on the left."  Whoever was riding with her about had a cow.  Well, that's where I am with these controls.  I'm saying aloud: Push in, go forward.  Pull back, stop. I'm looking at a directional indicator and asking myself, do I go right or left to get to (whatever heading)? I might see all my piano students in a different light when we start up after spring break.  

I'm also determined that if I can make a cranky old pipe organ behave with finesse and class, I can do this, too.  Ha!

Jericho--"One Man's Terrorist"

I didn't get to watch Jericho at its regular time, so I got the next edition from iTunes on Thursday. "One Man's Terrorist" was pretty powerful. It came together with the Holy Thursday mass, how it plays out the idea of service, loyalty, conviction, and the conflicts that develop from those values. The other thing that you noticed with this episode was the tension caused by the availablity of weapons and acceptance of violent methods in service of those values. Simply because weapons were available, the situations could, and did, veer into catastrophe at any point.

Very American.

Holy Thursday Morning Prayer St. Joe 6:30 AM

This morning Fr. Bill presided at morning prayer. He introduced it beautifully as the beginning of the Triduum. There were about 35 people who came. Sharon and I were doing the song leading. I could tell Sharon was a little nervous about being by herself on the other side of the church, but she did a fine job of starting everyone on that side and keeping them together when we sang antiphonally. I did record, so maybe I'll have something worth keeping.

Practical stuff: We needed more choir. We defaulted to me singing solo and the people in church singing the alternating verses, which is actually ok, but not what we had intended. I recruited Pat and her husband to come on my side and sing tomorrow, and Bill will be there with Sharon, so that should fix it for tomorrow.

Also, I ran over Fr. Bill's reflection by starting the Gospel Canticle. Habit, I guess. How often do I ever attend MP with a priest as the presider? Almost never.

This is just nit-picky stuff to remember in facilitating next year. It was a beautiful service. Someday hopefully someone will want to do it more often than two days of the year. We sing again tomorrow--Good Friday.

Pilot's logbook

4/4 C-152 LOU LOU Taxiing, Preflight, Straight& Level, Turns (30 degree), T/O & landing, XW
I had my first lesson today. AirCenterOne is located at Bowman Field (KLOU). My instructor is Michael Bingham, CFI.

At first we were going to cancel because the weather was "marginal"-- clouds and gusty winds. I suggested we spend the hour doing Q&A and informational stuff. After I got there, we decided to go up anyway.

Mike walked me thru the pre-flight inspection. Then we got in and I was introduced to the rest of the procedures. Most of it made sense, but there was an awful lot of it. Sensory overload. The Cessna C152 is going to be fun, but actually I didn't feel too much fun today. There's a huge difference between riding and trying to be in a position of understanding and responsibility for what goes on. Also, by the end I was feeling a little green around the gills.

So far, I suck at taxiing. Were we ever on the yellow line? I guess I crossed it several times.

All the moves are things I am not at all used to. To taxi, you drive with your feet (for direction) and one hand on the throttle for speed. Brakes are at the top of the rudder pedals. At first you basically run the machine with one hand on the throttle. That's seemed to be the operative issue from ground to some kind of cruising state, and it gets adjusted a lot during that time. The other hand is on the wheel in charge of ailerons and elevators. I never got any feel for that, either. I'll blame it on the winds. Mike was basically flying and I was messing him up, I think.

I'm learning a lot from Mike, and not just the aviation stuff. He's a real go-getter about the flight instructor business, and that's useful in itself. I should apply his example to my music lessons. I'll have to if I'm going to pay for all this. $176 today.

Some things he does:
* talk it through, talk it through, and keep on talking. What we're doing, why, how it works. I don't know how many times I'll have to hear it all before it clicks, so I'm glad he doesn't just leave it at short explanations.
* he's assertive about getting my business.

Takeoff was about like I expected, but landing surprised me. First of all, how you can ever get in line for that runway (but everyone learns how, right?) Interesting was how slow it felt when we were coming in for final approach. It's like the plane stops and hovers and hangs and then sinks. (I doubt it will seem slow when I have to do it, but that's how it felt today).

We're going up again on Friday.

The owner of Air Center One is Tony, and I met about 8 other pilots and instructors. Do I remember any names? No.

I talked to the people at Bardstown Airfield (Honaker Aviation), also, but I think I'll wait 'til down the road to get in any contact with them. Eventually I'll want to, for proximity and networking, at least.

I also sent an email to (and heard back from) a local person who is willing to be a mentor. His name is Barry, and he looks to be interested and interesting. He flies his plane out of the Clark County Airport, but I think he actually lives in Shepherdsville.

So I'll have local advice to add to Amy's friends Alex and Julie.