Flightblog

Lesson #16: Pattern Work and an Ass Chewing From ATC

I made a fairly simple mistake today and got a pretty sharp reprimand (unofficial, thank God!) from a controller in the tower.

I was flying the pattern on RWY 23 this afternoon, doing touch and goes for landing practice. It was a little bit busy, but not too bad. After about 1/2 hour of touch and goes and fine radio work, I made the mistake of second guessing a stressed out controller. I touched down on RWY 23 and was about to power up to take off again when I saw a helicopter taking off from the HAT and flying a path that would take him right across my climbout path. I got nervous and unsure, so I aborted the takeoff and braked to a halt. When I advised the tower, the controller was not pleased.

'Maui Tower, 32 Lima is holding due to helicopter traffic in my flight path'

'32 Lima traffic is no factor! He has you in sight and we will advise you of any traffic you need to be aware of!'

Then he said something about taking off RWY 5 (the opposite RWY to 23, which I was sitting on) and it made perfect sense, because I didn't think I had enough RWY left on 23 to take off. So, I readback:

'32 Lima, take off RWY 5' and began to back taxi on 5 for the end.

When I got past Bravo taxiway the controller just laid into me.

'32 Lima, WHAT ARE YOU DOING!? STATE YOUR INTENTIONS IMMEDIATELY!'

'32 Lima back taxiing for take off RWY 5'

'32 LIMA RWY 23 IS IN USE! EXIT THE RUNWAY IMMEDIATELY!!'

At this point my ears were totally burning and I think my leg started to shake a little bit. I was totally humiliated and a little bit scared that I could have accidentally created a potentially dangerous (or at least hugely inconvenient) situation. Thank God no 777 on short final for 23 had to go around because of me.

As I taxied, they directed me off the runway via taxiway foxtrot and then gave me alpha to taxi to 23. Talking to me like I was in kindergarten:

'32 Lima, hold short of 23 at Alpha, you know what hold short means, right?'

:(

They cleared me to take off and the next call I got was from another controller, I pictured the controller I'd who'd been chewing me out sucking down a cigarette in the break room...totally stressed out, swearing about the stupid cessna pilots getting in the way of his finely choreographed airspace.

I feel like an idiot, but am also trying to learn something. I think the lesson is that if ever unsure of what ATC wants you to do, ask them to clarify. I think the controller made the mistake of referring to RWY 23 as RWY 5, I should have caught that instead of just mindlessly going opposite the flow of all established traffic. I guess they won't ever send you opposite the established traffic direction.

I don't know about the helicopter traffic though. My chief instructor claims all of his near misses have been in the pattern while being handled by the tower. I don't think it's safe to assume that if I'm talking to the tower that I will be informed of any traffic that might be a factor. See and avoid only works if I have the freedom to respond to traffic I see. At the same time, the traffic, while on a convergent course, was far enough out in front that I could have avoided it after becoming airborne. At the time, I just was nervous and unsure and knew that it would be a non-factor if I were to remain on the ground...so once I caught myself hesitating, I just stopped.

Any suggestions how I could have handled this differently or what else I should be learning?

My Recent XC to Lanai: The Graphic

Whipped this up in Flash real quick to give a visual of my XC trip on the chart. Click on the leg labels in the lower left corner for more info:

Lesson 15 - Intro to Cross Country Flying

My assignment after Tuesday was to plan a flight from Kahului to Upolu, to be flown today. So, this morning I got out my chart and plotter and E6B and went to work: plotting courses, correcting for magnetic variation, getting weather info and adjusting headings for winds aloft, planning time en route along each leg and calculating fuel burn. Lots of little details to get right and pay attention to, so it was really fun.

The basic idea is really simple: To plan a flight, you first identify the legs you will be flying. These are straight line, 10 minute or so segments of your flight path with easily identified landmarks (or, checkpoints, in aviation speak) in between. With a current sectional and a ruler/plotter you measure the distances and plot the heading from each checkpoint to the next. That gives you the heading and distance from one checkpoint to the next, all the way across your route. That's it, in a nutshell. There are, of course, adjustments to be made for magnetic variation and compass deviation, but don't worry about it for the sake of discussion.

Once you have a weather briefing including winds aloft for the altitude you will be flying, you can calculate with the E6B your Wind Correction Angle and Expected Groundspeed. With the wind correction angle, you can maintain the ground track you want (which is the heading you want to travel). The groundspeed information is useful since it allows you to estimate time from one checkpoint to the next. Time in the air in an airplane is everything for 2 reasons: 1) you know how much fuel you have by multiplying fuel usage per hour by time flown and 2) you pay for the plane by the hour.

All of this information goes in a very well designed table of information that rides on a clipboard on your lap during the flight. At each checkpoint you can note the actual time between checkpoints compared to your estimate, and thus get an idea of how your flight is going. This would be especially important on a longer flight, or whenever you're getting 'low' on fuel. Low is a relative term, because of the disastrous consequence of running out of gas in an airplane, we don't get anywhere near 'low'. I plan to always have at least 45 minutes of fuel on board and will land to refill before fuel gets that low.

It's fun, there's a lot that goes into planning a flight and a great deal of satisfaction from seeing your flight go as planned.

When I got to the airport, Fletch and I reviewed my flight plan and called up flight service station in Honolulu to file the flight plan and get a weather briefing. We made a few adjustments to the plan for the updated winds aloft data and got the airplane preflighted for the trip (including the addition of a life raft in the fore section of the luggage compartment. I guess the channel between the Big Island and Maui is known for being kind of sharky, not somewhere you want to be treading water for a few hours while waiting for the Coast Guard to come get you.)

Flight plan filed and plane ready, we got some water bottles for the trip and taxied down the ever longer aisle of jets on the east ramp. The private jets just keep coming in! We got down to an area clear enough to turn the tail toward the fence and do our runup and turned around. During the mag check, the right mag sounded really, really rough. We leaned the mixture a little and ran up to 2300 rpm to try to burn away whatever carbon deposit on the spark plugs was causing the rough firing. It got worse. We did it again. It got even worse. So, we called off the flight and taxied back to the hangar to have the mechanic check out the plane.

It took an hour to pull off the cowling, let the engine cool and examine the plugs. One of the spark plugs was just completely shot. There was a giant wad of malformed metal (probably lead and carbon from burning fuel) on the spark terminal. This was better news than a bad magneto or burned out cable. Chuck got the plugs replaced (with the new plugs that are specced for that plane, dunno why they weren't in the plane all along) and she purred like a kitten.

Unfortunately, we had spent enough time dealing with the maintenance that we no longer had enough time to complete our planned XC flight before the next reservation for the plane...bummer. So, Fletch handed me a flight planning sheet and said, 'quick, plan a XC to Lanai'. So, I did it all over again...quickly.

Our route would be out of Kahului to Nakalele Point, at the far northern tip of the West Maui Mountains. From Nakalele Point we would cross the channel to Lanai and fly over the 1800' ridge to approach the airport from the southeast. From the Lanai airport we would fly to MacGregor Point where we could talk to Maui Approach and get clearance into the Class C airspace at Kahului and in line for landing. It took about 10 minutes to fill in the navigation log sheet and calculate all of my headings and times en route. Our preflight was pretty quick since we'd already done it, the runup went beautifully and I am hoping we don't have problems with the ignition system in 32 Lima with the new plugs.

All that was left was to actually fly the course. I had my watch's stopwatch feature on and timed each leg. My first leg I was within 1 minute of my estimated time on course. The other legs weren't that far off either, i think I hit each checkpoint within 2-3 minutes and got a good introduction to the principals of flying the chart and the terrain and dead reckoning navigation.

The only bummer about it was I had crappy landings at Lanai and back at Kahului. I'm not sure what went wrong but I know it was me getting behind the airplane. I think to a certain extent, I just had my head all tied up with checkpoints and time en route and headings we'd fly and was constantly thinking about the next step in eh flight...all the way down to the ground. Unfortunately, I forgot to fly the airplane and wound up getting sideways in Lanai and landing with a lot of side loading. Bad for the airplane, worse for the pilot's ego. The worst part was that my CFI was with me. Doh! My last 4 hours have been by myself, with perfect landings one after another...first time I fly with Fletch after my solo flights and my landings suck. Humiliating. Oh well, more practice and we'll be fine. I think another factor was landing at a brand new airport and just being a little unprepared. I think another factor might have been the distraction of another pilot in the plane, talking the whole way through the approach and just knowing that I was 'performing' for my CFI. Whatever it was, I will take control of the airplane and just fly the thing to a landing whatever is going on in the cockpit, on the ground or in my head next time. No more crappy landings while another pilot is watching!

On the way back across the channel to Maui, Fletch put covers over my DG and artificial horizon, guess that's a simulated vacuum system failure. So, I just flew the leg with the magnetic compass. Fortunately we were on a east/west leg...less compass error. Apparently (I haven't seen this yet) the compass can be inaccurate on north/south headings. My time on course for this 19 minute leg was off by about 2 minutes: we got to MacGregor Point 2 minutes early and by then were safe in the hands of Maui Approach.

Maui Approach gave us clearance inbound and directed us to follow yet another Gulfstream in for long final, runway 2. At the mill they called us off 2 and sent us to right traffic, runway 5, which was just fine. I had a pretty good long final in to runway 5 and an OK landing, but I floated a little long in ground effect and didn't exactly stay on the centerline. It was better than Lanai by a long margin, but still not a landing I'm proud of.

Too bad. There's a big low pressure area moving in from the Northwest that's going to bring lots of rain through next week. The forecast is basically for no flying weather until after New Years. It's so bad, they're already calling for flooding in flood prone areas. Looks like I may have done my last flying of 2003 today.

1.2 dual XC
2 landings

Flight #14 - Solo Practice

Today was pretty fun. I took an airplane out and went flying...by myself here on Maui. The objective of the flight was to gain familiarity with solo operations and to practice maneuvers. In other words, just flying around burning av gas.

Weather was pretty ugly out to the north but nice to the south. My itinerary would include departure from Kahului to the south for maneuvering in 'area alpha' (Kihei) and then back to Kahului for pattern practice. After an uneventful preflight (I can't wait to get my checklist for the 152...waiting to see what I got/didn't get for Christmas to place my order to pilotmall.com), I called up departure and got clearance to the south.

Taxied past a bunch of beautiful jets on the ramp, shuttling rich people to Maui for Christmas no doubt, including a Citation X that was just gorgeous! As I was filling up with fuel and watching the line service guys unroll a red carpet at the bottom of the stairs of a Gulfstream, it dawned on me what a big responsibility taxiing the airplane around the ramp (much less flying it) is, you have to be responsible not to drive the airplane into a $20 million jet.

Fortunately, today was not my day to wreck an airplane, I taxied down to the runup area right on the centerline and then got clearance to cross runway 2 at echo and take taxiway alpha to the end. This was the first time I have launched from the end of runway 2. Out on the centerline, looking down the runway, you can barely even see the end of it..7000' of runway! The airport at Kona has an 11000' runway, big enough to land the space shuttle on! Guess I'll be over there pretty soon, have to remember to touch down long so I don't have to taxi a mile to fuel.

Lights, Camera, Action and liftoff. 165° and 1000' to Kihei and then I just sort of flew around. Practiced ground reference maneuvers and steep turns and after 20 minutes or so realized that I prefer doing that with an observer in the plane to at least talk to me about what I'm doing right or wrong. It was nice just being in the air, alone, listening to Maui Approach/Departure alert everyone to traffic. I flew down to Makena and back and then decided to head back for pattern practice.

Approach put me number 2 behind a 767, touch and go runway 2. The Boeing flew a 200KT long final, I puttered in behind him at full throttle doing 92KTs. Finally got in to the middle marker and pulled carb heat, power and flaps to land beautifully in a gusting 10° crosswind on runway 2. Powered up and rolled for a takeoff into runway 5's pattern.

It was great, in 5 landings on runway 5 I got all kinds of chances to follow ATC's directions and handle radio comms. With the exception of one request to say again (LOUD in the cockpit at full throttle on the takeoff roll) I did great. Landings were pretty good, smooth and on the centerline, and this in gusty light wind and HOT parking lots under final approach. When it's a little later in the day and you fly final over the rental car parking lots, there's usually a lot of turbulent, mixing air right there on the last 1/2 mile final or so. Makes holding a stabilized approach even more fun.

After 5 T&Gs ATC directed me to a full stop for an approaching jet. After braking I requested taxi to parking and was cleared for alpha -> foxtrot to the east ramp.

1.3 PIC
6 landings

Lesson #13 - First Solo XC Flight to Hana

Wow! Today I *really* became a pilot! I flew solo to another airport, 23.5 NM away!

Flight planning and navigation was pretty much non-factor. Just make sure the weather is good, you have 2+ hours of fuel and time to complete the flight before dark.

Got to the airport about 10:30am to preflight and sat around while Chuck cleaned the spark plugs on 32 Lima. I had planned on flying solo in the pattern at Kahului today, but the weather was so good I wanted to go to Hana instead. John OK'd me for Hana and we checked the schedule and saw that I had plenty of time (almost 2 hours) before the next guy would be there for the plane.

Preflight was uneventful and the closer I got to departure time, the more excited I got. I got ALL ready, strapped in and about to start the engine. Looked over my kneeboard frequencies and noticed that I didn't have the Hana ITAF frequency noted...just the Hana airport. So, I had to unbuckle, jump out of the plane and run across the ramp to ask Fletch for the Hana traffic frequency: 120.65.

There's a whole lot of big, beautiful jets here on the GA ramp for Christmas. I had to taxi past about 1/2 mile of Gulfstreams, Legacies, Falcons and Fokkers to get to the runup area at the end of the east ramp. As I rode past those big, beautiful airplanes, gleaming in the Maui sun, I thought about how rewarding it's going to be to fly a $20 million jet someday. That is what I am working toward, one flight hour at a time. Departing for my first solo flight to another airport, I got to consider that the disciplines and skills I am learning on flights such as these are the same disciplines and skills that are going to serve me in the cockpit of that $20 million airplane 10 years from now. It's good to have goals and vision.

My runup was uneventful so I contacted Maui Clearance Delivery for clearance out of the Charlie airspace. Cleared for 1500', 1 mile offshore, squawk 1764. Readback correct. Contact Maui Tower for taxi. Directed to position and hold, traffic is Cessna on the runway a few taxiways ahead of me. I moved out onto the centerline of the enormous runway 2 and sat there. It's a sort of vulnerable feeling, being in a tiny little airplane on the centerline, with huge rubber streaks on either side of you where the heavies touch down and no visual reference for what's behind you. ATC is God at that point and you just hope they didn't forget about the 777 on short final for the runway you're sitting on. When they cleared me to take off, I was all too happy to apply full throttle and get out of there.

As I climbed out, the airplane kept wanting to pitch down. Oops, aren't you supposed to trim for takeoff before you go? Pulled the trim wheel back a quarter turn and watched the nose position itself at the perfect height above the horizon. Climbed out over Spreckelsville at 80KIAS and checked out Paia and the waves breaking at Kuau and Hookipa. Beautiful. By the time I got to Hookipa, Maui Tower handed me off to Maui Departure and they confirmed me on radar and pointed out a couple of helicopters coming down the coast. I leveled off at 1500' and acknowledged contact with traffic and watched as the helicopters turned onshore for the airport.

A few minutes later I'm past Pauwela, coming up on Opana Point and Maui Departure directs me to squawk VFR and terminates radar contact. Switch to ITAF and report position. Here's where I learned something. Some of the helicopter pilots are pretty complacent and don't necessarily obey all of the regs for VFR flight in Class E airspace, they can be sort of hard to find (especially when they're in the clouds way back in a valley up on the mountain). I had a few advisories from helicopters and could barely make out anything they were transmitting. You hear the mic key and the sound of rotor blades flapping and muttering and that's about it. Then, out of nowhere I hear LOUD AND CLEAR:

'Hana Traffic, Astar just west of Wailua, 1500'...'

CRAP! I'm just west of Wailua at 1500'! I look out my right side and there he is, coming out of a valley RIGHT AT ME! I got a little scared and took a few seconds to think about what to do....did I need to change course to avoid him? Did he see me? I quickly said:

'Hana Traffic, Cessna 7332 Lima. I'm at 1500' right in front of you!'

He acknowledged and turned immediately. Maybe 500yds off my right wing, not exactly close...but I didn't like seeing him coming right at me and finding myself unsure of what to do. I guess if he'd been close enough to threaten, I could have made a diving turn to the left, away from him and away from the mountain. It was a little troubling to me that he was 500' off of the westbound even thousands altitude he was supposed to observe. I almost said something to him about it, but figured aviation on Maui is too small for me to want to be the student pilot that chastised some crusty, Vietnam vet helicopter pilot for flying a wrong altitude. I'll just keep my eyes peeled and my mouth shut and learn what I can. The lesson for me was that when the traffic advisory is loud and clear, they're close...when it's muffled and static masked, they're probably either back in a valley or farther away. Just the nature of line of sight radio transmissions.

So, that was fun and I continued toward Hana. Watched the big waves breaking on the wrong side of Hanamanu for it to be any good. Looked up the hill and saw a big box truck on the road to Hana. Yuck! Thank GOD I'm not driving a car to Hana today! What a great perspective, at 1500', a mile offshore above the Keanae Peninsula and looking down the coast at the Hana airport, then back up the mountain at all these beautiful waterfalls and valleys...ah, paradise (and no driving to Hana either!).

At George Harrison's I announced my position and that I was switching to Hana Airport. Switched to the airport and called out my position, immediately I hear Armin:

'Hey John!!! Are you by yourself this time!?'

:)

'Cessna 7332 Lima, affirmative.' I began my descent to pattern altitude and enjoyed a moment of personal pride in my accomplishment to date.

'Cessna 7332 Lima entering left base for runway 8. Touch and go.'

No visual contact with traffic. Descending through 800' and make a right turn to left base for runway 8. Carb heat on, power to 1700rpm, airspeed in the white arc and flaps 10°. Reduced power a little more, made the turn to final and there's the runway. My first landing was just beautiful...maybe a little fast (no stall horn at touchdown) but on the centerline and smooth. Flaps up, carb heat off, full power...check RPMs and oil pressure for full power and away we go...

'Hana Traffic, Cessna 7332 Lima departing runway 8. Remaining in the pattern for left closed traffic, runway 8'

Armin: 'Hey! That one looked pretty good!'

:)

'Cessna 7332 Lima. Affirmative.'

Flew 4 more touch and goes. Got to maintain visual contact with some helicopters that were entering/leaving the pattern and watched Armin land his trike from my downwind leg on the last one, it was really cool. At 12:30 it was time to head back so I could GET THE AIRPLANE BACK TO THE HANGAR FOR THE NEXT PERSON SCHEDULED TO FLY IT!!

Made a left downwind departure from the pattern and bid Armin farewell. Got past the Heiau to George Harrison's house and switched back to ITAF, then just cruised up the coast, downwind to Kahului. The clouds were really light and staying close to the mountain so I urged the 152 up to 2000' and enjoyed the view from a little higher up than I've flown that route before.

The next learning experience came when I started approaching Opana Point and hadn't yet made contact with Maui Approach. Hm, very high groundspeed with the tailwind and I'm coming up on the Charlie airspace fast. I switch to Maui Approach and there's all these helicopters in front of me, behind me and uphill from me tying up the controller. I'm watching the houses fly by and Pauwela Point coming up and can't get a word in! This is not good, because I have to have clearance to enter that airspace...no clearance and I'm in violation of the FARs. Just as I was about to fly a right 360° turn to give myself a little more time, everyone shut up and I was able to let the controllers know where I was. They gave me a squawk and directions to right downwind runway 2. Sounds like clearance to me. I dialed up Maui Tower and acknowledged I had helicopter traffic in sight and was making right downwind for runway 2 with information Echo. They asked me to continue right downwind (which struck me as funny, since I was still 5 miles upwind of the tower) and I acknowledged. Started my descent to 800' and watched Paia town fly by underneath me. I love flying here!

As I flew past the tower, I got to watch a couple of Aloha 737s take off. Tower cautioned wake turbulence from departing jets and cleared me to land runway 2. Abeam the numbers: carb heat on, power to 1700rpm, flaps 10° and begin descending to land. The wind was strong in the pattern so I cut my turn to base a little short for what I'd hoped to be a short final. The wind was so strong that by the time I was ready to turn final, I was all the way out at the road. Oh well, turn final and power up a little to motor upwind . Maintained a visual glide on the VASI all the way down to the last 200' or so, then got low to fly right into the numbers. Gusting wind...working to stay centered on the runway...20'...10'...start to round out...hold it...steer with the rudder. I was set for a perfect landing when a gust blew me to the right. Instead of turning to the left, I just kept steering with the rudders, which made me all sideways...bummer. Too low to really correct and just touched down a little crooked for a less than beautiful (but still perfectly acceptable) landing on runway 2. Got to remember to KEEP FLYING THE AIRPLANE until I'm parking. You turn with ailerons and keep the nose centered with rudder...all the way to the ground.

6 landings in 1.1
1.1 PIC

Lesson #12 - Prep for Solo to Hana

Today's flight was a test. My assignment was to fly my CFI, Fletch, to Hana (PHHN) and back without him having to intervene, help, tell me what to do or otherwise affect the outcome of the flight. Since the route to Hana is simple and familiar (follow the coast on the North shore of Maui east to Hana), we didn't need any navigational planning.

Weather was beautiful! The wind was out of the NE at about 10KTS with scattered clouds at about 2000' and a solid deck of clouds up on the mountain above us.

Today's flight was a test. My assignment was to fly my CFI, Fletch, to Hana (PHHN) and back without him having to intervene, help, tell me what to do or otherwise affect the outcome of the flight. Since the route to Hana is simple and familiar (follow the coast on the North shore of Maui east to Hana), we didn't need any navigational planning.

Weather was beautiful! The wind was out of the NE at about 10KTS with scattered clouds at about 2000' and a solid deck of clouds up on the mountain above us.

We departed Kahului with clearance to the NE at about 8:15AM and started up the coast to Hana. Maui Clearance Delivery cleared us for 1500' and remain offshore. It was just a beautiful day to be in the air. We climbed out at about 85KIAS and headed up the coast, into the morning sun. Bright sunbursts shone through the clouds overhead, marking our way with bright rays, majestic!

When directed by Maui ATC, I changed COMM frequency to Maui Departure and reported my position, altitude and heading. They confirmed having me on radar and I continued eastbound. By the time we got to Opana Point, Maui Departure terminated flight following, issued VFR squawk for the Class E airspace and bid us good day. I switched to ITAF on 120.65 and requested a traffic advisory:

'Hana Traffic. Cessna 7332 Lima with you. 1500'. 1 mile offshore. Eastbound for Hana at Opana Point.'

No response. Usually there's just some helicopter and Pacific Wings or Tsunami Air Caravans between Kahului and Hana.

The rest of the 15 minutes out to Hana were pretty uneventful. I practiced some dutch rolls (getting smoother) and called out my position on ITAF at each checkpoint along the way. Once we got to George Harrison's, I made my last report to Hana Traffic and switched to Hana Airport on 122.90.

'Hana Airport Traffic. Cessna 7332 Lima 1 mile east of Harrison's. 1000'. Making left base for runway 8. Touch and go.'

No response. Looks like we have the airport to ourselves.

Descend to 800' and make my turn into the pattern on the base leg. Carb heat on. Power to about 1500rpm and 10° of flaps. Call base to final and make the turn. A little high, 20° of flaps and continue descent on final. Nice right crosswind, so I bank into the wind and push opposite rudder to remain aligned to the centerline. Perfectly aligned, we descend through the threshold, slowing to about 60 and make a smooth, almost perfectly aligned touchdown on RWY 8.

Flaps up. Carb heat in. Power to full and we're ready to go. At 60KIAS we lift off and level out to accelerate. Climb into the pattern at 75KIAS and report intentions.

'Hana Airport Traffic. Cessna 7332 Lima on crosswind making left closed traffic for RWY 8.'

No response.

Abeam the numbers: Carb heat on. Power to 1700rpm. Flaps 10°. Base leg. Final. Touchdown.

Fletch keys the mic and announces full stop landing. We taxi over to the terminal and Fletch jumps out of the plane, telling me to just fly the pattern until 9:20, when we have to head back in order to GET THE PLANE BACK TO THE HANGAR FOR THE NEXT PERSON WHO HAS THE AIRPLANE!!! ;)

So, off I go! Announcing my position and taxiing. I had such a great time, flying the pattern in Hana. I did slips, flat approaches with 10° flaps, steep approaches with 30° flaps and no power. Got to work with a Caravan in the pattern and talk to them on the radio. It was great. All of my landings were with a right crosswind and while none of them were so perfect that I couldn't learn something from them, they were all good enough that I would have been comfortable having Carie with me.

The one thing that bugged me was that after dropping Fletch off, I'd forgotten to turn my transponder back to 'alt'. When I was talking to the Caravan, he asked me if I had a transponder. Guess I wasn't showing up on his traffic avoidance system. Doh! Today I am ordering a new checklist for the 152 to keep in my flight bag, no more excuses.

At 20 after, I landed and picked up Fletch. We back taxied and took off for Kahului. Exiting the pattern on left downwind, I forgot my assigned altitude and kept climbing through 1200'. Fletch starts singing, 'off we go.....into the wild blue yonder...'. That's his cue that I'm high. I took a sec to remember that eastbound altitudes are thousand + 500, westbound are even thousands, meaning my return altitude would be 1000' (since at 2000' or above we'd be dodging clouds the whole way back).

On the way home, Fletch quizzed me as I reported position to ITAF. What would I do if I was by myself and a squall blew in behind me and another in front of me, sandwiching me between rain clouds? Descend to maintain visual contact with the ocean and the shoreline and follow the shoreline back to Kahului.

As we neared Opana Point I tuned ATIS and got information Delta. Dialed up Maui Approach and let them know I was inbound. The approach controller was a little hard to understand, but gave me a squawk and asked me to tune the tower. I got Maui ATC and requested clearance to land. They told me to make right traffic for RWY 2 and I started my descent to 800' and aimed for the control tower. Flew a tight pattern into RWY 2 and landed in a bouncy crosswind for what was probably my best landing of the day.

As we taxied, Fletch congratulated me on passing the test and told me I am now cleared to fly solo to Hana...whenever the weather is within my solo endorsement minimums (2500' ceiling, 25KT wind and 10KT cross component).

9 landings
1.5 TT
.5 PIC

Lesson #11 - Centennial of Flight Marks My First Solo!

An auspicious day for flight indeed.

All night it just rained and rained. I kept looking at the satellite images of Hawaii, watching the cold front sweeping down the island chain from the northwest. First thing this morning I made coffee and came out to check the METARS down the state. Kauai reported clear skies and 29.97+ pressure, Oahu: clear skies and 29.95, Maui: scattered, broken and overcast, pressure 29.94. Within an hour it had started clearing and the pressure was rising, so I headed down to the airport.

Upcountry was in the clouds, it rained on me all the way down eh hill and I finally broke out of the clouds at about 200'.

The beacon was OFF on the ATC tower! VMC conditions!

Fletch was waiting for me at the hangar, transcribing my logbook entries from my temporary logbook to my new hardcover one. We chatted for a few minutes and then he asked me to preflight the airplane. The mechanic came out and shook my hand, congratulating me on my solo (which I hadn't flown yet...that was kind of weird), guess he had to leave early, told me he was assured of my success. Guess my instructors had been talking in the hangar before I got there.

Fletch and I taxied and got clearance, runup as usual then into the air.

'7332 Lima, make left traffic, runway 5'

'Cessna 7332 Lima. Left traffic. Runway 5.'

Easy going. My headings and altitudes were perfect. Patterns were tight. Wind correction was excellent. My touchdowns were oh so smooth....like butter. I was flying better than ever! After 2 trips around the patter, Fletch called the tower and advised that we'd be making a full stop on 5. As we taxied to the hangar, he kept telling me that if anything feels weird, just go around.

After a few minutes of logbook and paperwork, we went back out to the plane and let the tower know I was a student pilot making first solo. They were OK with that. Fletch shook my hand and told me to have fun, then shut the door.

It was absolutely weird to be in the airplane by myself. Hot in the sun and just quiet. I very quickly got my headset on and listened to ATIS kind of loud to break the silence. Once I got taxiing, it sort of hit me all at once that I was doing this by myself. It was weird, I started to get a little nervous.

At the runup area I did a regular runup and checked mags and carb heat (didn't remember til hours later that I'd forgotten to check the ammeter, darn guy that walked out with the checklist last week!), everything looked good. Called the tower and got clearance:

'Maui Tower, Cessna 7332 Lima on the east ramp with Whiskey. Request takeoff for touch and goes'

'Cessna 7332 Lima. After takeoff make left traffic runway 5. Taxi to and hold short of runway 2 at Echo.'

Then I got nervous...

'Maui Tower. Aren't you going to give me a squawk? 32 Lima.'

'7332 Lima. I guess I can if you want me to. After takeoff squawk is 03**'

'Maui Tower. Say again.'

'32 Lima. Squawk 0377'

'Maui Tower. Squawk 377. 32 Lima'

At the hold short line I let them know I was ready to go and got my clearance to take off. Taxied out onto the centerline and smoothly applied full power. 32 Lima accelerated down the runway, right on the centerline and I swear I was airborne within 300'. Made my 45° turn at the intersection and then my left downwind. Cross checked altitude and WHOA! I'm at 900'! Guess my climb rate is a little better without the 180lbs of flight instructor I usually carry with me.

At the numbers I pulled carb heat, reduced power to 1700rpm and dropped 10° of flaps.

'7332 Lima. Cleared touch and go. Runway 5'

'Cleared touch and go. Runway 5. 32 Lima'

My first landing was pretty good. I flew a nice, long, stabilized final and was on glide the whole way down. When I got to the numbers, I was nice and slow and just floated for a second before touching down gently, but a little bit off center. Smooth transition to power and I'm accelerating for takeoff again.

Even got high on my climb out the second time around, but just powered back early and began my descent slowly. Carb heat on. Flaps 10° and make the turn to base. Cleared touch and go. Turn down final and I'm perfect. This time the turbulence was a little stronger and I had to really work to keep the plane on the glideslope and centerline. As I rounded out, a little fast for turbulence penetration, I just floated and floated. It seemed I was holding the nose up forever. As I held the nose, I steered with the rudders and forgot the ailerons. Too bad, I got a little sideways and touched down a little harder than I like. Not dangerous, not a 'bad' landing...just not gorgeous. So, carb heat off, power to full, flaps up and we go around for one more.

Again, great pattern work. Great approach. Just touched down a little rough. I don't think I was prepared for how differently the plane would fly (especially in ground effect) without Fletch.

Taxied across runway 2 to the ramp and pulled up to the hangar where everyone was waiting to congratulate me. It was great, I was a Lindbergh, exiting the airplane to the accolades of my airman peers.

Fletch went to work on my logbook, endorsing me for solo flight with generous wind/visibility limitations. Brad got his camera and took a few photos of me with N7332L on the ramp, then with Fletch. It was great! Since I was wearing a black shirt, I had to buy a T-Shirt from Maui Aviators to cut up. We made a nice magic marker inscription of 32Lima and the Wright Flyer with the date, airport, runways, tail number and hours logged.

Today, I became an airplane pilot.

Total time to solo: 11.3 hours
Landings before first solo: 60
Lessons to solo: soloed on lesson #11

6 in .7
.3 as PIC :)

Lesson #10 - Look Outside...Fly the Airplane

Fletch called me on the way to the airport this morning at 7:30. He had the flu. I wished him good health and reminded him to drink plenty of fluids and get plenty of rest (I'm sure he's hearing that from everyone).

Fortunately for me, John Muralt (Chief CFI and Owner of Maui Aviators) had mentioned to me last week that he wanted to fly with me soon and see where I'm at. Today was the day.

Flying with John was really, really good. He was totally casual about things...left his door open while we taxied. When I discovered that my laminated checklist was missing from the airplane, he said 'no worries, we'll just have CIGARs'.

Controls - Free, full travel and correct
Instruments - Engine- and flight instruments, altimeter
Gasoline - Fuel-Selector, Fuel-Pump
Attitude - Flaps and Trim set
Runup - Engine run-up, magneto check

I missed the ammeter test, but John caught it before we taxied.

I still like having a checklist and will always have one, but being able to fly without it was pretty liberating and just sort of set a casual tone for today's lesson. I relaxed.

We got clearance and flew the pattern on runway 5. I had the best landings I've had yet, even though my pattern work was sloppy. John kept telling me, 'Look outside, fly the airplane'. I realized how fixated I get on the instruments and how I don't fly the airplane, I fly the instruments. He kept telling me to just focus on the sight picture for everything: climb, bank angle, straight and level, glide slope, airspeed. Look outside and fly the airplane.

I had a much easier time staying on the centerline and flying smooth. My airspeed wavered a lot but the flying was really smooth. I was especially pleased with holding the nose off the ground after touchdown. We had some wind, so as the plane slowed, it was really easy to keep the nosewheel floating by holding back elevator. A couple of touch and goes we never even let the nosewheel touch the pavement...just powered up, raised the flaps and took off again.

I logged 10 (John used the Hobbs meter to count my landings, lol) but think it was more like 11 or 12 landings.

In our post-flight debriefing he made it sound like he thinks I'm ready to solo. So, pray for good weather on the 17th...it's an auspicious day for flight!

11 or 12 in 1.1

Lesson #9 - Flying to Become a Better Pilot

What a beautiful day to be in the air. The 152 starter repair was complete by 9:30 and I showed up at the hangar for my preflight at 10:30. Fletch and I were taxiing by 10:50 and enroute to Hana by 11am. It was an absolutely perfect day.

I kept my hand on the throttle until we got to Opana Point, and as soon as I took it off, Fletch pulled carb heat and reduced throttle to idle and told me to let him know if I need the power back. I did my ABCs and picked a suitable field. The field I chose had a gulch running up the middle of it, but we would have glided uphill and into the wind and I think we might have walked away, unlike my first exercise there.

I'm glad we're doing these so much.

As we proceeded toward Hana, we practiced slow flight and managed to hold heading and altitude at 55KIAS, very good. More dutch rolls on the way out, those were looking better than the last flight too.

Fletch told me we're polishing now. I was encouraged.

We flew wide of the Hana airport to make a standard 45° downwind entry, announcing our position. The first landing was a full stop on RWY 8 so I could run in and use the potty ;)

We were sharing the field with a brand new Blue Hawaiian AStar helicopter that was practicing autorotating into the grass. Kind of eery to watch a $4 million helicopter just plummet out of the sky. Their vertical speed is probably over -2500fpm all the way to the last 50' where they flare and arrest the descent.

We waited for a little squall to blow through then took off to practice the pattern. Had an excellent day of practice with all kinds of variations. I flew my first engine outs in the pattern, and learned a very valuable lesson. As we were on the downwind leg at 800' I saw Fletch pull carb heat and chop the power. No problem, from 800' I have the field easy. I pitch for 60KIAS and aim for the numbers, keeping my airspeed at 60. As we get to the numbers, I am a little low and make turn to final too sharp. The result was a near 30° bank at 55KIAS 100' off the ground. That was very, very stupid.

The lesson that was learned is this: if you're 60KIAS and no power, you're coming down. There's no sense risking your neck to fly your (emergency) approach across the threshold. Turn early and set up high and use as much runway as you need. It doesn't matter if you touchdown 1200' down the (2500') runway. If you're way high, full flaps at 60KIAS will bring you down like a rock.

We did 2 more and I landed the last one nicely. It was a good lesson.

Next we did approaches to land with no flaps. It was really pretty cool...you pitch for airspeed (which is a little faster with no flaps) and slip to get down. This is a cross controlled maneuver, where you bank into the crosswind and apply opposite rudder to maintain the centerline. This brings so much of the side of the airplane into the relative wind that the drag is HUGE. You come down as if you had full flaps on, even though the airspeed stays relatively low.

8 landings and then we headed back up the coast to Kahului for a touch and go on runway 5 followed by a full stop on 5.

8 in 2.0

Lesson #8 - 5 in .5

Well, here I am at a point where I just have to practice. When I fly, it's to fly landing approaches and practice landings.

Today we got a late start. Got to the hangar a little early to preflight the plane and hey, the plane's not here. It didn't get back 'til 10-15 minutes into my lesson time. Add the preflight and it amounts to us not getting started until a half hour late. Bummer.

I guess that's part of exercising a pilot's greatest virtue: patience.

Being in kind of a hurry, we worked really efficiently and really everythign turned out great. I taxiied easily, talking to Fletch and maintaining a reasonable jogging taxi pace right on the centerline down to the runup area. Reminds me how much I used to struggle with the brakes to get the plane to drive straight.

Progress.

Runup was good. Got information Whiskey on ATIS: winds 040 at 15. Almost straight down RWY 5, perfect. Takeoff was great, then right at liftoff I got blown sideways hard, rolled a good 15° as we rotated and scared the crap out of me. Fletch reminded me to use ailerons when taking off into crossing wind (duh!).

Then we were cleared for touch and goes, left traffic on RWY 5.

My approaches are getting pretty good. I'm starting to fly really tight approaches, closer to the runway and using a lot less power on final. There's so much wind to correct for that you can fly a nice long final even if you make your base turn early. On the approaches where ATC called the base on an extended downwind, it seems like we took forever to fly the final back upwind to the runway.

My favorite is getting to be where ATC calls for a short final. You get to the numbers, pull carb heat, cut power to idle and dump as much flaps as you're willing to touch down with (20° when it's windy) then just point the nose at the water and maintain 75 KIAS throuhg a 180° turn into the runway. It's fun, everything happens really fast.

I did much better this morning at keeping the airplane on the centerline. The thing I am having trouble with anymore is managing pitch while in ground effect. After the round out, before touching down, is the critical time for having a good landing. The plane is still flying, and still has to be flown, but it's getting ready to settle down. It's tough, you have to use the rudder to keep the nose on the centerline of the runway, and also manage (with subtle elevator input) little gusts that want to pop the plane back up into the air.

It's pretty hard to do it all just right, very easy to make tiny little mistakes that result in a bad landing: dropping the nose, dropping in from too high, touching down prematurely and bouncing...all very common mistakes. Fletch is staying off the controls until about 1 second after I should have corrected, then he'll offer input just enough to spare us from pounding in.

It's starting to get a little frustrating. I know how to do it, I'm just taking my time to let my eyes, mind, hands and feet get used to what it feels like to actually do it.

So, more practice is in order. We may go practice in Hana Wednesday, may just work at Kahului. I kind of like Kahului for all the traffic and radio work, makes it all a lot more real and more challenging. Also, the wind at Kahului is more of an issue. I think that learning to land in tricky wind conditions is going far toward making me a better pilot than I would be if I were learning at a small, uncontrolled airport with 3kts blowing straight down the runway.

5 landings in .5 hours.

Lesson #7: Pattern Work at PHNN

Today we flew somewhere.

We left Kahului at about 12:30 for Hana. The weather finally cleared up and we had beautiful, tradewind weather enroute. Scattered clouds at about 1500' rolling off the mountains with clear skies out to sea. Our route took us about a mile offshore, eastbound to Hana at 1500' (lower when we needed to clear clouds).

Today we flew somewhere.

We left Kahului at about 12:30 for Hana. The weather finally cleared up and we had beautiful, tradewind weather enroute. Scattered clouds at about 1500' rolling off the mountains with clear skies out to sea. Our route took us about a mile offshore, eastbound to Hana at 1500' (lower when we needed to clear clouds).

I lost the engine at 1400' on the way and learned an important lesson about making decisions during an emergency: don't EVER let your field get behind you. I overflew my field into the wind, planning to make a right 270° turn back into the wind and into the field (which was perched on a cliff over the ocean). At about 180° it was apparent that I was short, which would mean an impact in the cliff. I guess I could have ditched in the water at that point, but how dumb is that. Always keep the field in front of you with S-turns or flaps or whatever you have to do.

Back at altitude, Fletch introduced me to a great exercise for learning the feel of ailerons with rudder. The Dutch Roll is a cruise maneuver where you line up the longitudinal axis of the airplane (using a rivet or feature on the cowling or something) with a point on the horizon and make coordinated rudder and aileron inputs to roll back and forth 20° without the reference mark on the plane leaving the spot you picked on the horizon. Lead in with a little rudder, then increase rudder with more aileron and go back the other way. Smooth.

This is a great exercise for learning to feel the controls and to feel coordinated flight. He told me I'll be practicing this often. Judging by how smooth his were and how jerky and nose swinging mine were, I guess I will be practicing these a lot.

We announced our position to Hana enroute and entered a left base for RWY 8. Hana has no visual approach lighting so it's all by site reference. I had a great time just getting the correct site picture on the runway and flying the airplane down to the numbers.

Conditions were wind 100° at 12-16, a little cross. But my approaches were much better than the other day, even on Hana's 50' wide runway and tire width centerline, I did a pretty good job of staying on the centerline.

It was ground effect that killed me today. I'd float down into my nose high, ground effect attitude just right, then lose it. The nose would wag and I'd forget to apply rudder or apply too much and forget to use the aileron. The plane was all over the place on touchdown and it got sort of frustrating.

More practice is all.

As we were leaving I got to talk to Armin on the radio, he was very supportive, it was great. Back to Kahului for more touch and goes, except the controller forgot that he'd cleared us for T & G and after our first landing we had to sit while he landed a 767. My last approach of the day was on RWY 2 and was a great approach, great touchdown and then I forgot to hold the nose and it just comes crashing down on the asphalt. Bummer.

So, for next week: Practice, practice, practice.

Fletch says I will fly 5 touch and goes where he has to offer no input whatever, then 5 more at our next lesson, all hands off from him. When I do that, he'll have me pull over to drop him off.

So, that was 8 landings (6 in Hana) in 1.4. More great practice and I'm beginning to value what experience means.

Lesson #6: More Work in the Pattern

Moving toward the imminent solo flight, we did more practice in the pattern today.

The conditions were marginal. Scattered clouds at 600', overcast ceiling at 1800', light drizzle on the east end of the field, winds 020-040 at 18-22kts. Very challenging conditions.

It was sort of questionable whether we'd fly or not, but Fletch calling it legal I decided I wanted to take it on. I'm taking advantage of this time that I am under the wing of an instructor, enjoying being able to fly without the responsibility of making the go/no go decision, knowing that that responsibility will come soon enough. For now I'm just glad to be able to work so closely with my instructor and learn where the limits are and how you play within the bounds. Questionable as it looked on the ground, we had a great time in the pattern.

We were cleared for an expedited departure on runway 2, with heavy traffic on final behind us as I went through the pre-takeoff checklist while taxiing (fast) onto the runway. Full power, airspeed at 55 and rotate. What a freeing, wonderful feeling to leave the ground and watch as the earth slips away. It's indescribable.

We had a nice lady controller on Maui Tower who was very easy to work with and friendly. We asked for touch and goes on runway 2 whenever possible and were immediately cleared for right traffic runway 2.

We did 8 landings. Again today, it was a mixed bag. It was amazing to me how much better I flew today than last night. Everything was easier. I was able to keep my altitude and airspeed steady, fly better turns and keep track of what was happening on the radio. It was very rewarding.

I had one landing where I flared a little high and got a bounce, but used my airspeed to cushion before we touched down so even that one was not too rough. Several of the landings on 5 (the nasty runway with the big rotor at the threshold) were good enough that I would have been comfortable with Carie in the plane.

I noticed that on that runway, with the berm and trees upwind of the threshold end of the runway...there's a lot of really ugly turbulence and sink and just crappy air as you cross the threshold. I was flying great finals, keeping the plane on the centerline all the way down at 75 kts, looking good for a great landing. Then BAM! Just as we cross the threshold, we drop 200' and get thrown into a 30° bank. Be nice to have a little more than 100' to correct for that, but not here. Do your best to keep the plane flying straight and just keep flying it down to the comfortable spot. In my approaches where I carried a little more speed through the threshold, we floated in ground effect a little farther down the runway. Those were the more gentle landings of the day and I think it was because we were touching down farther down the runway from the junk air.

The advice I got from one of the CFIs at studentpilot.com was terrific. Forget about the control surfaces you're using...just fly the plane to the numbers. I had a much easier time with the slip on final today. Aileron into the wind and opposite rudder to keep the nose on the centerline. More often than not today, I ended up right on the centerline. That was great to see, since practically all of my landings were well off center yesterday.

Progress!

8 landings in .8

Lesson #5: Welcome to the Traffic Pattern

Oh. My. God.
I am completely fried.

Today was my introduction to flying the pattern.

The weather was awful as I drove down the mountain with Carie this afternoon at 1. My lesson was scheduled for 3:00, giving me a little time to babysit Dakota while Carie got some things taken care of at her office. So, after dropping Carie off at the office, Dakota and I went over to the hangar to get a look at the weather and see the airplanes.

In the time since driving down the mountain, the weather had deteriorated. The beacon was on on top of the tower as I headed toward the GA ramp. Got to the hangar and walked across the tarmac in a drizzle to sit with Fletch. It just kept getting worse. Fletch was typically optimistic and said as long as we have 3 miles and 1000' at 3 o'clock, we're good. I was a little skeptical. Turned out he was right. In the time that it took to go back and pick up Carie and get back to the hangar, the weather had improved to VFR in the pattern, which was all we needed.

We drew it on the whiteboard and talked about pattern procedures: Take off and climb at Vy (77kts). At 400', make a 90° turn to fly crosswind. Watch wind drift and crab as necessary to maintain 1 mile separation from runway. At about 1 mile, make a 90° turn to fly downwind, watching the runway. Level off and reduce power to 2200rpm at 800'. Abeam the numbers apply carb heat, reduce power to 1700, slow to 85kts and drop 10° of flaps. At 45° from the numbers, make a 90° turn to base leg, descending and watching the end of the runway. Decide whether you're high, low, fast or slow and apply corrective pitch/power. Watch the wind and turn 90° to final and stabilize the airplane in a 70kt descent, apply more flaps if the wind is light (it's not). Keep the nose of the airplane on the centerline with slips, turns, rudder, constantly correcting for wind and turbulence. Power to idle as we cross the threshold. Begin rounding out the descent and slowly descend to an altitude that would be safe to drop from (about 3'). Use light, light pitch movements to hold the plane at this altitude, gradually increasing the angle of attack as the airplane slows and using aileron and rudder to keep the nose lined up with the centerline. Touchdown. When the nosewheel drops, maintain direction control with rudders. Raise flaps, power to 100% and push in carb heat. Check full power, oil pressure and airspeed. At 55kts rotate. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

We did that for 1.4 hours on the Hobbs. The whole time, we're getting ATC directing us to all kinds of variations. Carry long downwind, wait for ATC to call base leg turn. Short final. Short field landing. Make right traffic for runway 2. Make left traffic for runway 5. Full stop landing for United heavies' wake turbulence. Traffic is 757 4 miles at 2 o'clock, follow traffic in.

Fletch pretty much handled the radios and just let me fly the plane.

It is SO HARD. I watched my airspeed creep all over the place in the climbs and descents. I kept getting pushed off the centerline by the crosswind. Wanted to round out and flare with too high an angle of attack almost every landing. Man, there's SO MUCH to keep straight!

This was the lesson I've been waiting for, the one where I encounter a task that I don't already know how to do. I learned today and it was wonderful. Fletch was really patient with me in spite of me just totally death-gripping the yoke and ignoring his directions.

We made 11 touch and goes. About 4 of my landings were OK, the other 7 were pretty ugly. I only bounced on 2, but had problems on most of them. Too fast, too much crab when I touch down. Too much drift when I touch down. Too much nose high in the round out.

It was a really good day in the airplane.

I'm going back for more tomorrow at 8am and can hardly wait.

One step closer...