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! ;)

iPhone is slick. Too slick?

Well, the iPhone is a hit with me. If it was no more than the internet in my pocket, it would be worth it.

I have only one real issue with the gadget, and we just solved it. It's slick. I always felt like I was going to drop it. And after using it to take pictures from an airplane, I KNEW I had to do something about it.

Mom and Carolyn and I worked it out. Using the monk's cord fingerweave on a piece of blue yarn-stuff made a strap. We attached it to the back with a piece of self-stick industrial-strength velcro--the loopy side.

When I get my car fixed, I'll attach another piece of velcro to the car dashboard so it can have a home. Right near the charger (from the iMic people) which was the first accessory I had to buy.

So now I can hang on to my iPhone.

So that the iPhone will be able to hang on to me, Mom is crocheting a matching pouch that will probably hang from a baby carribeaner from my belt loop or key chain.

pilot's logbook

7/11 C-152 N89933 Lou Lou XW touch&go's, Soft Field landing, spins #lndgs:6 1.8hr instrument:0.3

Beautiful day! Sky scattered with white cumulus clouds. Plenty wind and gusts. Practiced crosswind landings on runway 32. Met my first windshear on one of those landings. Wow!

When we left the pattern, we went to the river and S. Indiana. Mostly we went up. And up. And up. It's been weeks since we've done this, and it really felt good. And smooth. And I fly a lot better than I did the last time we were here.

We took the plane up thru the cloud level, all the way to 9,000 feet. (note: altimeter read 9000. Actually it would have been 10,200 ft.) Taking pictures with the iphone, trying to figure out how to work it, also NOT drop it out of the window. I took a picture of the altimeter at 8,200, and didn't think to take another one. At some point we did some maneuvers. Slow flight was gorgeous and smooth. Doing a power-off stall, the plane was all the way at stall, but didn't buck or go anywhere. Instead of dropping it to do the recovery, I just held it, and held it, and held it. I didn't realize until Mike showed me, that it felt like we were sitting still, but we were really dropping altitude, the needle just spinning around. Eventually, we did the recovery.

Instrument work. Spin awareness. Clouds.

For soft-field landing experience, we went to Lee Bottoms. I lined her up and did the first approach, then Mike took over for the actual landing. Then he went around and did it again. We didn't intend to land, just touch the wheels and go on. Lots of wind bouncing around off the river, the hot spots and the trees. Awesome. Beautiful.

MIke says after this it's cross-country and things start to go really fast. He also knows if he ever gets the urge to barnstorm, he's supposed to let me know, and we'll go partners on it.

Pilot's logbook

7/9 C-152 N89933 Lou Lou Touch & go's -solo- 14 lndgs 2.0 hr MB

Hot. Hot. Thermals bouncing us off the runway, and stuffy air, even with the wind, mostly just drying us out.

Three times around solo. It was comfortable. I'm looking forward to going up by myself, preferably early morning and just working out all the maneuvers for the test.

I am not looking forward to losing Mike, much as I want to be on my own.

At the last, after I mentioned it, he asked me whether I broke glide slope. I said no, but what was running thru my head was, "just at the very end, like always," but maybe I shouldn't be seeing red there at the last, either. Another thing to work on.

I met Mike's parents, Don and Sally(?). They were going up with him after I left. I hope it went well. There was a nice sunset.

I was really wiped when I got home. Ate & went to bed.

Pilot's logbook

7/8 C-152 N69011 Lou Lou Touch&go's landings: 10 1.3 hr MB

Frank and I went together to Bowman Field. We had a good amount of time to kill beforehand, so we watched airplanes and I practiced radio and "desk flying" from the back steps of Air Center One.

Tonight I was landing the plane consistently right, flying well, everything. Frank was there at the airport, so I was glad he got to see it happen.

I've done well before, but then the next time it was not so good. Mike wants to see me do it again tomorrow night, and then he'll set me up to solo regularly. Actually, I flew well yesterday, when I went to Etown airport and flew with a different instructor. I was thinking it was the things that he had me doing that made the difference, but when I tried his landing techniques tonight, they were mostly a distraction. So, while I got a LOT out of the session with Ed, I think I was mostly flying right then, too. So, I've already done my two days in a row, and just need to make it three.

I still have a tendency to drop my hand (on the yoke) to the left when I pull back to flare, so Mike says it might take a deliberate attempt to hold a little bit right at that point.

Nose high landing. Wheelie down the runway.

The sun was setting, reflecting in the Ohio River. Nice.

PS. Primer Lock. PRIMER LOCK! PRIMER LOCK! PRIMER LOCK!!!!!! ALWAYS. EVEN WHEN WE DON'T PRIME THE ENGINE. CHECK THE LOCK!! CHECK THE LOCK!!!! TOUCH IT. CHECK THE LOCK!!!! LOCK IT DOWN.

Pilot's logbook

7/6 C-150 N16084 EKX EKX TO - Adverse yaw demo, positive dynamic stability, APEH?/ORD Stable MOA, rudder turns, emergency engine out, RTNS & LNDGs landings: 9 2.4 EJ

Q&A. Forces of flight. Weight of the air, its effects on things. Dihedral & overbanking. torque "108 cars."

Preflight: Gasket on gas tank. Kiss the stall slot.

Controls always to wind--taxi, landing.
"Guard" not only throttle, but carb heat and mixture until 500 feet.

Rudder--lead turns with rudder. Experience turning hands-off.
"Parking the plane" set a 5?º turn, trim, fly hands-free to have time to do things, figure stuff out, not get any more lost.

MCA. Minimum Controllable Airspeed. Not looking around enough.

Scanning during slow flight turns:
*ONE Scan outside to left.
*TWO Check angle of bank (15º on dashboard); airspeed (low); turn coordinator (bank); altitude indicator
*THREE Scan outside right

Scanning during Steep Turns:
*ONE Scan outside to left.
*TWO Check airspeed (100 kt.);ball of turn coordinator; bank indicator; VSI; altitude.
*THREE Scan outside right.
NOTE: airspeed will tell you what to do. If climbing, you need to increase the weight of the plane--go into a steeper bank.


Ground Reference:
Keep airspeed trimmed @ 100 kt. You can tell altitude by the airspeed.
*ONE Scan outside to left.
*TWO Check airspeed (100 kt.);ball of turn coordinator; heading indicator [if wind direction # is in the top half, do a shallow turn, if wind direction is in the bottom half, do a steep one.].
*THREE Scan outside right.

Emergency:
On takeoff, always expect an engine failure. Have a plan for where (on the runway) you will abort takeoff

Emergency engine out
Airspeed: Climb to best glide, trim. Hands OFF! Apprehension causes things to happen to the controls. The plane will fly better without you. (you have 4 seconds to do this).
Best place to Land (pasture is best, stay away from corn and soybeans. "Look for the coffee."
If you have the altitude,>1,000 ft, go thru the routine for restarting the engine. Touch everything in practice.
* primer in and locked.
* check magnetos. If the noise quits at one setting, leave it off.
* carb heat on, check tach. IF RPM drop, choke and sputter lessen or quit, then lean the mixture.
* throttle
* mixture
* fuel: swap gas tanks OR tip the nose up to run residual gas to the engine.
* radio stack: frequency. Set transponder to standby, set to 7700, set back to 1200/ altitude.

Landing:
Downwind: set speed at 100 kt.
Midfield <--> numbers: carb heat on, power to 1700, three rolls of nose-up trim,"white arc," flaps, pitch for 70 kt. (This made the whole sequence feel more controlled, more calm. Have to remember to clean it up before takeoff.)

Who's gonna kill you? Where's the guy coming from? In the pattern, before turning downwind, it's the person arriving straight-in from your right. Turning final, again, it's someone coming straight-in from your right.

Magneto check before idle cutoff. If there's a wire that jiggles loose and makes contact, the propeller will start when you check it for preflight. The only way to make sure is to turn the mags off and make sure they go off.

He emphasized LOTS of hands-off flying for me.

AOPA's interactive training "Say Intentions"

Air Traffic Control's Flight Assist is available for any and all pilots to call on when they become uncomfortable with their situation or abilities.

"Say Intentions" is a really well-done training/simulation session that does a number of things really well, including:

* Help pilots recognize an emergency situation early enough for ATC to be able to help.
* Remove, thru role playing, the psychological barriers to calling for help.
* Provide the tools and methods to reach help from Flight Assist and allow the user to practice them.

Laura

Laura called yesterday. Dad and Nat were here too, and we all had a great conversation even though there wasn't much content. Laura was calling on Skype and it wasn't up to its usual par, maybe the distance factor.

I called her this morning, though and have her new address in Berlin, where she lives right next to a park with a bit of the old Berlin wall. There's also a big stadium, which is easy to see on Google Earth, but not so obvious to the people in the park, as it is set mostly underground and looks like a hill from the outside.

Her roommate is Jessica (pronounced Yessica), and was very nice on the phone, even though I only spoke English to her.


The Way of Benedict. Buddhism. Mindfulness. Thich Nat Han (sp?) Being aware of every breath. Al Gore. No babysitting today.

Laura's new website venture is online: doingsomethingaboutclimatechange.com, so please link to it as much as you can.

Pilot's logbook

7/4 C-152 N89933 Lou Lou Xw touch&go's landings: 13 1.6 MB

Landings. Yet. Mike reminded me that actually, flying the pattern is excellent practice for just about everything else, and I can see that it is making a difference. Today's radio work was night-and-day better. Also better: general understanding of traffic and our place in it.

Headwind today.
"If we break glide slope 3 times, we're taking the plane back in." Nice try. Actually, I just started taking us high, but it may be the way to do it.

Rudder. More R rudder on takeoff, ground roll, landing.

"THAT is why we don't do a 30º bank on final. Gentle turns, just like you're doing on climbout."

Flaps @ 10º for climb--if you're going to do it, it has to be before power on takeoff. Otherwise, it's too late.

Near the last, Mike took over for two landings. I really need to remember what they felt like. I'll try to get him to do six, tomorrow. I should have stuck to my guns on this.

Approach to airport, consider the normal pattern for the runway. Aim straight for midfield of the airport, join in to the pattern wherever your course intersects it.

Friend's funeral. Car engines & mechanic. Pictures. Flight computer.

Pilot's logbook

First I fessed up to the great revelation--that I have not been paying attention to the displaced runway markings at Bowman, instead aiming to land the way we practice at Clark Co. Why? I think I had it in my mind that the markings on the runway had to do with surface quality or strength, as in you can take off, but you can't land, and never connected it to trees that have to be cleared. For some bizarre reason, I thought we were doing it that way to learn precision, and I didn't question it, even when Mike said things that should have clued me in. And he did.

The good thing about all this is it explains the mystery of why landing at Clark Co. is relatively successful, while at Bowman, it always goes south. AND now we can fix it.

Today was mixed. As usual. Mike had wanted to do touch-and-goes and then go to the practice area, but we never got past the touch-and-goes. Notes:

Checklist: If you get off, re-start at the top, run down the list to the last item done, and then continue. Better than going bottom to top.

Altitude going over to Clark Co.--keep it at 1700 until we get to the river, then DON't climb. We're going back down.

"Clark County UNICOM, Cessna 69011 requests Airport Advisory."

"Clark County Traffic, Cessna 69011, 3 miles SE of the airport, will be crossing midfield to enter left downwind Runway 36. Clark County."

Come in at a right angle to midfield, at 1500 ft."Clark County Traffic, Cessna 69011 is crossing midfield at 1500 ft, will be turning left downwind for runway 36, touch-and-go, Clark County."

Right rudder on takeoff, still not smooth enough.

Once or twice we weren't climbing at all, even though I was at Vy. Should I put in 10º flaps at that point?

Turn to crosswind too shallow, not always coordinated. Sometimes it feels as if we'll never get there, either. Keep watching airspeed on the turn, it's too easy to lose too much.

Pattern: Keep it tight. Keep traffic in sight.

Landing:
Use Aileron to correct drift. Rudder to correct alignment. The plane is almost always tipped to the left. Why? Straighten it up.

Aim for the 500-ft marks.

Flare--even when correcting for drift. Still have to.

Departure from Clark Co. Which way do we go? What do we say?

Aimed for 12-mi island instead of 6-mile. Red roofs are in between the two, upriver from 6-mi. What else is there?

Right base for runway 24. Fly the plane. Where to start landing. How. (altitude) What (start with carb heat), when.

*Write out all the radio calls for all the possible comings and goings. Also to and from Bowman.

*Listen to LiveATC and transcribe.

Throwing things in a box. A maggie look. 25.
What model car, engine? Beta, except finance. cartoonist for Disney.

Next lesson: Find a road that's going crosswind. Follow it, using descent and airspeed like final approach.

Things that have changed

When I'm flying, I'm responsible. Up 'til now, Mike was carrying/handling a large part of the responsibility, and it was necessary and OK to do that.

Do it all. Do it right. By the book.