I've wasted no time in exercising the privileges of my new Private Pilot license. In fact, I've been introduced to two new airplanes in the last two days, both of which are a big step up from the little C-152 Aerobat I trained in.
Yesterday I had some errands to run in town in the morning, and on the way out of town stopped by the airport (with a pizza) to have lunch with the CFIs there. As an up and coming pilot, one of the best things you can do is to just hang around the CFIs and learn whatever you can.
As we ate pizza, Fletch and I talked about the systems and capabilities in our school's new Cessna 172SP. They just got this plane a few weeks ago and she is very nice. It's a 2001 and has about 1000 hours TT. She's sweet: IFR certified GPS, dual Nav/Com, ADF, Autopilot, all the instruments are calibrated, control cables are tight and solid feeling, fuel injected, leather upholstery...she's a really nice airplane. I've been looking at her eagerly since she came in, hoping the day would come when I could take her flying.
While we ate, I asked about the GPS and how I could use it for VFR flight. Fletch was really helpful, explaining the nearest and direst features in great detail. After lunch, we went out to the plane and he turned on the avionics master and showed me how it works. Simple and intuitive, but also quite capable. No moving map, but it provides more than enough information to get safely back to the airport...even at night.
When we got done and walked back to the hangar, I asked when we could do a checkout flight. We looked at the calendar and 542SP was booked into next week already! We looked for any open slots in the next few days and there was nothing...except, if I wanted to we could do it right now.
YAY! I grabbed a headset and strolled out to the plane. After the preflight inspection, we sat for a few minutes while I got familiar with the checklist (it's a lot bigger than the other planes). Everything was pretty straightforward with the only item requiring special attention being the engine start. If it's cold, it has to be primed.
We cranked her up and taxied out to the ramp for a runup and I was already delighted. Even on the ground she handled well. Those nice, tight control cables make it oh so easy to maintain the centerline while taxiing. Down the ramp a little ways and we found an unoccupied spot to do the runup. Mags: good, ammeter: good, carb heat: what carb heat? Got the radios all set and copied clearance for a NE departure and we were good to go.
The pre-takeoff checklist is not much bigger than the 152 and before I knew it we were in the air. What a bird! At full power, she climbed at 1000fpm at Vy, that's awesome performance compared to 7332L! 542SP's big, powerful 180hp Lycoming got us to altitude quick and as we leveled off we accelerated to a cruise speed of 125kts, nice!
As we flew up the coast a little ways, Fletch gave me an in the air tutorial on the GPS and radios, isolating the pax from radio comms and leaning. For the most part, she's just like the 152 and the older 172's, just nicer and with better toys.
At Opana Point we did some basic airwork: slow flight, steep turns (both of which I aced, ironically enough), stalls. The plane handles very, very nicely...like a new car. Enough airwork, let's head back to the airport for some landings. The pattern is the same as in the 152, just a little faster. 90kts downwind, 80kt base and 70kt final...rounding out to slow to about 60kts as we cross the threshold. I landed 3 times with the wind gusting about 10° across the runway and had a nice full stall landing on each. On the last one I got a little sideways and Fletch helped me out, but they were all 3 OK. One more to a full stop and that's 4 and we're done.
Checked out in the nice, new SP in .9. Now I'm ready to fly an airplane nice enough to take even nervous passengers.
This morning as I made breakfast, I got a call on my mobile from a number I didn't recognize. The man on the other end was Mark and explained that he'd gotten my number from Maui Aviators, understood I was a new private pilot and then started talking about the C-182 he is a partner in. Wow. All of a sudden he's asking me if I would fly to the Big Island with him today and help with the radios.
He was maybe a little taken aback when I asked if I could fly the return trip so I could log the time, but he agreed. I told him I'd meet him at the hangar at 11:30 and went out to my office to get a weather briefing. Weather was starting to happen already. A low pressure to the NE was creating some instability that was resulting in towering cumulus clouds on the mountains. Our route looked pretty good offshore, but it got sticky on the interior of the Big Island. I wondered how this pilot (whom I don't know) would handle weather decisions, and decided I would go and find out.
Down at the hangar I got an update briefing and called the Waimea (our destination) AWOS. The AWOS was reporting BKN 600, OVC 1900 at Waimea, which is IFR, which means we cant' go there. 20 minutes later it was SCT 1200, OVC 2200...so I thought it might get better, but resolved to get out of Mark exactly how acute a case of get-there-itis he might have. He was really cool, when I explained that our destination sounded pretty marginal, he said that's what he'd heard and that he would only try to get in there if it looked good from the coast, otherwise we'd go to Kona. Great, that was a big relief.
I can see how it would be a really awkward position to be in, having another pilot pressuring you into making a decision you don't feel good about. I don't ever want to let myself get into that position.
Mark did a preflight on N99MV as I recorded a flight plan at FSS and my what a pretty plane! 230 HP, constant speed prop, 140kt cruise...high performance baby! We got all situated in the cabin and started our taxi. The airplane is really well kept and it shows. Nice avionics, nice interior. It's neat the difference between the school airplanes and someone's personal ship. There was a POH, flashlights and nice flotation vests all in the plane...nice being able to leave some stuff in the plane.
As promised, I worked the radios while Mark flew. We dodged clouds at 3500' on the way across the channel and tried tracking VORs that we could somehow never clearly receive. Eventually we came up on the coast and Upolu Airport was right off our nose, exactly where it should be. The north shore was thick and gray with clouds so we went around to the south, following the shoreline. Up the hill, where our destination lay, was totally socked in. The AWOS was reporting 500 OVC and isolated cumulonimbus, yikes! Mark and I exchanged a glance with each other and decided to go to Kona and rent a car and drive up there...good call. I dialed up Kona approach and the Kona VORTAC and called in our position. They assigned us an approach and in a few minutes we were on the ground at Kona looking for a car.
We wound up taking a cab up to Waimea, Mark and his girlfriend and daughter all had dentist appointments in Waimea. While they went to the dentist I played with my cellphone and went to lunch with the cab driver. Mmmm...teriyaki beef and shoyu chicken, 2 scoop rice and mac salad. I wonder if I'll be able to find a place with good plate lunch in Atlanta...
It rained and rained while we were in Waimea. Fletch called and let me know it did not look good for coming back across the channel. He had heard pilot reports from someone coming from Hilo who reported thunderstorms. Fletch suggested I call now and get a standard weather briefing and then get an update briefing when we get back to the airport so I could see any trends starting to develop...good advice. The weather briefer let us know VFR was not recommended due to limited visibility and isolated showers off Maui's southwest shore, other than that the channel looked clear of precip and with a scattered layer at 4500'. Not that bad.
As we came down the hill in the cab and got underneath the clouds, we had a great vantage point from which to see lots of sunshine on the water. That's a good sign too. An hour later, back at the airport, our update briefing was good: lots of clouds over the mountains, drifting off the north shores, avoid the showers between Makena and Kahoolawe and we should be fine. The go/no-go decision was mine and I decided we would go.
We launched and tracked the Kona VORTAC outbound on the victor 7, which would take us around the back side of Kahoolawe. Before we could get centered on the airway though, HNL Center diverted us north a little to stay out of the way of a Gulfstream descending into Kona.
As we climbed to a cruise altitude of 3000', Mark handed over the controls to me and let me fly back to Maui. What a blast! Clipping along at 150, holding a course and altitude, from the right seat...how fun! I got to lean out the mixture and set up a 23"/2300 rpm power setting for an economical fast cruise home. I really felt like a pilot. Heh, this and I'm talking to center the whole way, advising of our progress.
We had to descend to get under some clouds about halfway across the channel and as we did, saw Kahoolawe in the distance. It looked pretty clear so instead of taking the long way all the way around the west side of Kahoolawe, we cut the corner and headed for the east side. As we drew closer, we could see two rain showers off the east side of Kahoolawe, between the small island and Makena on Maui's south shore. Right between these 2 squalls we could make out Molokini in the haze. I turned right toward Molokini as Center handed us off to Maui approach, almost home.
As we hit the rain in the gap between these 2 squalls, I saw how pilots let themselves inadvertently get into IFR conditions. It didn't happen to us, nor was it even close (we got some rain but never lost sight of Molokini, which was 5 miles away at least), but I saw how it happens. If you see a hole in weather, and count on it staying open long enough for you to fly through it, there is the risk that it won't. Weather can change very quickly, especially in unstable air. Seeing this from the perspective I saw it from was a very good lesson. The more conservative decision today would have been to fly around the 2 squalls, staying in the sun all the way around the back side of Kahoolawe...like the weather briefer suggested. The path I chose, through the channel and between those 2 squalls was safe, but slightly more risky: what if those 2 squalls closed in on one another while we were crossing? What if the big cloud above them all of a sudden let go right where we were flying through? See?
Today I saw why there are so many NTSB reports about dead pilots who thought they could push through weather. It's so easy to go for what looks like a safe route through the weather, if you do, you'd better hope it stays safe. Better to take the safest, most conservative route you can.
Please dear reader, do not come to the mistaken conclusion that we flew dangerously today: that couldn't be further from the truth. We maintained way better than VFR minimum visibility and cloud clearance all the way through even the rain...no problem for us. BUT, I got to see what it is like for the pilot who accidentally winds up in the clouds, not knowing how he got there. I saw how that happens to pilots. It is not something I will let happen to me, I'm going around the west side of Kahoolawe next time if that's what the weather briefer recommends.
When we got established on final for RWY 2, Mark never moved to take back the plane. I guess it's my landing. I got a little slow in the flare and had the stall warn going pretty good before we finally touched down. We were maybe a little side loaded but slow and gentle, not a bad landing for my first try in a new plane.
It was a really great flight, I feel way more like a pilot today than I did yesterday. Hoping Mark invites me along again, that was really fun!
Dear readers, forgive me for losing my fervor. I meant, when we began this adventure, to log EVERY flight. I wanted a detailed record of every lesson, every new experience, every moment of learning...I've more or less recorded everything, but must confess that I have missed a few flights. I've done my best, but am now realizing how valuable each one of those flights were and that I really should journal everything I do in the airplane...as I continue the adventure, I'll try to be more mindful of this realization.
Today, I am a Private Pilot (Airplane, Single Engine, Land).
I have been studying voraciously for the oral exam over the last week or two, desperately trying to commit every detail to memory or at least to develop enough of an understanding of all of the material that I wouldn't have to memorize. Every other day or so, I have been down at the hangar, either flying with Fletch to practice the maneuvers or being quizzed on oral exam material, revealing the areas that needed more study.
All of that preparation, all of the experience, time and money came to their conclusion today. Today was the practical test (or, checkride in aviation parlance).
Fletch called last night as I was changing a diaper and told me he'd spoken with the examiner, and that I was to plan a cross-country flight from Kahului, down the north shore and across the channel to Hilo.
After dinner, I got to work. This part, by now, is pretty easy. Choose checkpoints, plot the course and distance for each leg, figure groundspeed and wind correction, calculate time en route and fuel burn. I really like this part, it's fun and you're on the ground so there's no stress.
After I had a flight plan, I checked the weather. The forecast was NOT looking good. Lots of rain and clouds on the north shore, an AIRMET for turbulence on the south and west shores...not a pretty flying day. We've been having really strong tradewinds, so it's been especially windy, gusty and rainy for the last week or so. I knew that one of the things the examiner would want to see is a good 'go/no-go' decision based on current weather, and prayed that it would open up for our flight at 10am today.
Then I packed my flight bag and thought through everything I've learned so far. What an enormous body of knowledge to be responsible for. I've never encountered any learning experience quite like this one: the breadth and scope of knowledge is huge, the consequences for not mastering that knowledge are huge, the knowledge has to be successfully coupled with flying skill, which is itself, huge. All that, and you're trying to do it with as little instruction and experience as you can, since the $$ cost of that experience/instruction is so high. The private pilot training is FAR more demanding than I anticipated when I set out to become a pilot. I remember thinking I would breeze through it, now I know what flight training really is. Guess what folks, those guys that make $220K/year to fly the heavies transcontinental...they deserve every penny and all the respect you can muster. If I *ever* hear someone refer to those men and women as a 'glorified bus driver' again, that person will hear from me.
I slept great. My alarm didn't go off at 5:30 like I thought I set...but I the coffee maker and the baby both started gurgling at 5:30, which was enough to get me up. I did just what I needed to do: had a cup of coffee, checked the weather outlook, checked for any NOTAMs. Still not VFR recommended along our route, but looking off the back porch I could see that the ceiling was about 1500'. We may have a few showers to dodge on the way out, but it didn't look like it'd be socked in.
Left the house at 7:15 to meet Fletch and the examiner, Bob, at 7:45 at the hangar. It was an eery anticipation driving down to the airport. On the one hand, I have to believe I'm ready for this...Fletch and all keep telling me it's time, on the other hand, I know I could use more practice and could further polish and refine all of my budding skills. How stressful...if there's anything worse than being under the watchful eye of someone else, it's being under scrutiny from YOURSELF! As I sat in my truck at the airport, listening to Morning Edition and waiting for someone to show up and open the door, I just sort of relaxed. Too late to do anything but what I'm going to do now, might as well just go do it.
Shortly after, Bob got there.
Everyone swarmed him at first, asking questions and showing off the new plane. Once the crowd cleared, he was pretty much ready to get down to work. We started with him acknowledging that it was perfectly human to be nervous today, no sweat. Then he got to work on my paperwork: reviewed the application, reviewed my logbook. Once that was done, he asked for my PTS and we opened it to the test standards for the knowledge test. One by one, we went down the list of knowledge areas.
If you want to reference the list, you can find the PTS here. We just went down the list: PPL priveleges and limitations, medical certificate duration, logbooks and flight records, airworthiness of the airplane, operating limitations, placards, markings, POH, weight and balance, minimum equipment lists, 91.205 and required equipment, airworthiness directives...
No problem. All of this material I either knew or knew where to look for it. I found it very helpful to answer questions on the FARs like, 'Well, if I ever find myself in that situation, I know I will need to go through FAR 91 with a fine toothed comb to make sure I'm legal...but off the top of my head, I would say...'. There's a lot of stuff about flying an airplane that has to be memorized (V speeds, emergency procedures, traffic avoidance), whether I'm legal to fly my boss to a meeting in a distant city while on the clock is not one of them...if my boss (I don't have one) ever asks me to fly him somewhere, I can go look it up before I have to give an answer.
We got through the oral in about an hour and a half. Bob talked a little about his experience and his views on certain regulations and procedures and made the invaluable suggestion that if you want to live long in aviation, you'll make a habit of making the conservative decision, early. It's the guys who take risks and get behind a situation that wind up in the newspapers.
It was time to go fly.
We looked at N7332L's maintenance logs and determined that she was legal and airworthy. We reviewed my flight plan and he noted each of my legs and how I calculated time enroute and fuel. That all looked good. I pulled out a printout of my Excel sheet weight/balance hoping that would fly with him...he noted weights and arms and was OK with the spreadsheet. We talked a little about how I would determine how much fuel was in the plane, then much to my joy the guy who flew the plane before us came back and said he had filled it up before going out for 1.2. That's perfect, his 1.2 hours off full tanks left just about 19 gallons in the plane...my planning number. We were within CG and max gross.
As I preflighted the airplane, Bob watched...I noticed every little thing hoping it wouldn't be an issue. 30 year old planes have...blemishes that a real stickler could scrutinize. Thankfully, he was very understanding of the airplane's age. He's been around general aviation for a long time, I'm sure he's seen worse. Preflight complete I let Bob board the plane and then gave the required passenger brief. He corrected me on my seatbelt regulation mistake (what do you know, you *don't* have to keep your seatbelt on while sitting in a crew seat in a C-152) like it was no big deal. Then he reminded me that I was PIC for this flight, he offered to provide whatever assistance I desired in the event of an emergency...hey, thanks. If we have to ditch at sea I'll let you pile us in while I hug the liferaft :)
We were ready to go...this is where I started to get nervous. There's about a million little things you can do 'wrong' while operating an airplane. Pilots are perfectionists, it's easy to look bad in front of another pilot. It was hot. I started to sweat. Just as I was getting through my engine starting checklist, the fire trucks go screaming out of the station...oh great. We decided to sit (and bake) for a few minutes to see if there was a problem on the ramp/runway. Nothing about an emergency on the radio...so after a few minutes I continued my checklist and got the engine running. She started on the first revolution of the prop...that Chuck (our mechanic) is amazing, so glad he completed the 100 hour inspection/tuneup last night.
We taxied and I remembered that I know how to do this. Down to the runup area and through the runup checklist. One mag was more than 100rpm off but within the allowable 150rpms. All systems looked good so we called up clearance delivery for directions out of the Charlie. Wrote the clearance down (even though it's always the same) and got the tower controllers on the radio. We held short of 2 for a long, long time. It was hot. We both were sweating. Finally the United heavy landed and they let us position and hold. Hey, plenty of time to go through all of my checklists!
Our takeoff was into a good 20kt wind and we just blasted off at Vy. We quickly climbed to 1000' and I realized that at 1500' we'd be a little too close to the clouds so I announced that we'd maintain 1200'. I noted out time off and started my stopwatch and listened for traffic advisories. How about that, here I am flying with the examiner and it's just like it always is! Thank God for cool air moving through the cabin! My radio work and traffic monitoring was all spot on. I held altitude (more or less, he didn't complain when I got 50'-100' off my altitude) and just flew to Opana Point. I noticed Bob look at his watch when we got there...we were a little early. Not as much wind as planned. No problem, better groundspeed on the way out to Hana.
Each leg came in a little bit early and we flew easily as Bob enjoyed the view, he kept talking about how much the waterfalls were flowing. I was actually starting to relax. As we cleared Keanae Bob explained that we'd overfly Hana Airport and he would take the plane, then he wanted me to figure what our time enroute and fuel burn to Hilo would be. I thought it was kind of funny that he would take the plane while I did the math...not too demanding, is it? I came up with some time/fuel numbers and he was satisfied. He gave me the plane back in a descending turn and told me to enter on a 45° downwind for RWY 8 at Hana.
My first landing sucked. I was low all the way down final, thanks to overly concentrating on giving myself plenty of room for a nice, long final. I guess I should have just used the nice, tight patterns that I'm used to. When we got to the threshold the wind was switchy and a little turbulent, made it difficult to hold the centerline and I got to drifting as I chased the centerline around in ground effect, touched down with a little side loading, but the centerline underneath the airplane. We taxied off the active and turned around. Bob asked for a soft field takeoff, stay in the pattern. I back taxied and kept back pressure on the yoke, as we neared the numbers I dropped 10° of flaps and kept the plane moving, announcing my position on the radio. Rotate at 50, hold ground effect and accelerate and climb out at Vx-Vy, at Vy flaps come up and hey, there's a soft field takeoff!
On the downwind, he announced a soft field landing. Scary, I thought about how little I've practiced these and checked my checklist for the landing. Power at 1500rpm. flaps 10°, airspeed about 60 and keep the nose up. Again, long, low final...rats! I kept the nose off and the power on until touch down and he seemed satisfied with the landing...good. As we taxied though, he commented on my low finals...says that can be dangerous. Made it real clear to me that you can ALWAYS get a Cessna down, but keeping it up can be a challenge in certain air. He told me we'd do a short field landing back at Kahului and he wanted to see all of the final flown plenty high.
Back taxi to 8 for a short field takeoff and just as I'm about to position a Caravan announces he's at Harrison's at 1000' to land. Crap, that's about 1.5 minutes out! I better hurry! Here's a tip for all you student pilots: NEVER get in a hurry during your checkride! Make the Caravan in the pattern go around if you have to, but DON'T get in a hurry. I forgot to drop 10° of flaps before starting my takeoff roll and had to do it once we were rolling at about 30kts. Bad move, sloppy flying. I rotated and kept Vx and then cleaned up the plane...ears burning. I mentioned that I was bummed that I allowed myself to get distracted and he didn't respond...did I fail?
We climbed out and he directed us off shore for the maneuvers. Clouds were at 1500' up to 6000' and broken, but he thought we could get above them in a hole. We climbed and climbed and kept getting penned in by more and more clouds, definitely not something I've done before. Finally, at 5000', surrounded by towering cumulus (with no view of the horizon...just big puffy clouds in every direction) we leveled off to do the airwork.
This was completely different than ANY practice session I ever had and I sort of started freaking out. As I worried about the clouds, Bob asked for steep turns. My palms started to sweat. I got us trimmed on a heading at 5000' and started my first turn, to the left. Muttered about corrections I was making as our altitude wavered then rolled into my right turn. My bank angle was good, airspeed was good and altitude wavered maybe 75' throughout the turns: sloppy but passing.
Next was slow flight. I got too slow, started descending, got behind the power curve and couldn't correct. Over a few minutes, I frantically kept us out of a stall and just barely kept us within 100'of our altitude. I'm not sure how I let this happen, I guess I just didn't correct enough early enough once we started to go down. Fortunately for me, he called for cruise flight before I busted the altitude limit of 100'...for the whole maneuver, I mushed around losing 100'/minute.
We did the stalls, first power on and then a turning descent stall. I kept it coordinated and corrected fast once it started to buffet, the stalls were good.
He didn't have Foggles or a hood so we did the simulated IMC with Bob holding the checkmate list over my eyes. Turns to a heading, climb, descend...no problem.
As we began our descent he started talking about how close I came to busting the slow flight and I knew I was still passing! All I had to do now was fly back to Kahului and make a short field landing! On the way down, Bob demonstrated how the Cessnas can triple their descent rate. You trim for best glide with power off to get 500fpm, OK...done that before. Then he dropped 30° of flaps and our descent rate was an even 1000fpm, neat...500fpm increment! Next, he applied full cross controlled aileron/rudder deflections for a forward slip and held best glide airspeed...another 500fpm for a 1500fpm descent rate. After demonstrating this, he reminded me that you can always get the airplane down...don't be too low for fear of being too high.
We flew back to Kahului easily and even made small talk, whew! On the way home, I tried not to screw anything up: got ATIS before contacting approach, made position reports, carb heat and landing light way early. Coming over the mill, number 2 for RWY 2 I just tried to stay high. It was gusty and switchy on final and I chased the centerline all over the place, but I stayed high and watched my airspeed. 60kts all the way down...high! He said he wanted us 50' over the numbers and on the ground before the touchdown markers. With 20kts of headwind, no problem. I must have been 200' over the numbers and still touched down a few hundred feet short of the touchdown markers, not off the centerline but again...a little side loaded. Bob suggested I come practice low approaches, flying down the centerline at 65kts all the way down the runway...really learn how to control the drift in the wind.
Taxi was clean and he didn't even stay in the plane for securing the aircraft. Just shook my hand and said 'Congratulations, I'll go start typing it up'.
:)
Passed the checkride with 51 hours.
Today I am a private pilot.