Monday, January 5th

Almost there...

Well, my grand social blogging experiment didn't quite work the way I wanted. Sorry for the update delays. I knew this past month was gonna be tough, and I thought I was prepared, but nope. I think I can summarize my December in one picture.

After CFI ground school wrapped up a week or so after Thanksgiving, we took to the books hard while we waited for our turn at the FAA Flight Standards District Office for our CFI Initial oral exam and checkride. Lucky me... mine was one of the first scheduled, for December 15th, to be followed by the checkride on the next day.

After a handful of sleepless nights leading up to that Monday, I arrived at the FSDO (located at the Fort Worth Alliance Airport) and met my examiner, who promptly quizzed me about everything I've learned since I've been here. Five hours later, I headed home with a promise that we would continue for another hour or two the next day to wrap up. Sure enough, another two hours on Tuesday and we were done.

I can't take anymore. I feel like I just gave birth... to an accountant!

To complicate things, that Tuesday was socked in with the first big winter weather of the season. Freezing rain, low ceilings... unflyable, so we rescheduled the flight for the 18th. And of course, the 18th rolled up with no change in the weather, so we rescheduled for after Christmas... the 29th.

ATP closed down for the holidays which, since I live here, gave me plenty of time in an empty building to stew over my remaining checkrides. It was a long week, but fairly productive.

By the 29th the weather had cleared up beautifully. About 40 degrees and dry, with barely any wind. The weather gods were smiling on me this day. Instructor Walt and I take a quick Seminole flight up to Alliance Airport to pick up the FAA examiner. A quick preflight, and we're off. I was nervous as hell, to be honest... and it showed. After teaching the examiner (as I would a first-time flyer) the finer points of taxiing, I accidentally skipped a checklist before heading out to the runway... something I had never done before. The tower cleared me to take off, and I realized my mistake. Instead, I nervously asked the tower for clearance to taxi back to the run-up area, which was approved. I headed back to the run-up area and completed my checklist. The examiner stayed silent.

It was only after takeoff, when I realized that I hadn't busted this checkride, that my nerves calmed down and I was able to concentrate and deliver a pretty nice flight. Flew northwest to Lake Bridgeport and did lots of maneuvers... slow flight, stalls, Vmc demo, drag demo, single-engine failure, turns around a point, then back to Alliance for short-field takeoffs and landings, and a single-engine landing. Checkride passed, and I can now call myself a Certified Flight Instructor.

I had the Instructor-Instrument checkride on the 2nd, which was nearly identical to the original Instrument checkride in October and went pretty well. Funny how much I needed to refresh on, though... a lot of this stuff tends to slip when not used for a while.

One more remains... the Single, scheduled for tomorrow but moved to Wednesday due to more of this crap. What the hell... I'm already a month overdue and the coffee's still free.

The cord gets cut this week, and then I get to decide what to do with the rest of my life. Suggestions graciously appreciated.

Monday, December 8th

Word came in last night that one of ATP's Seminoles and another flight school's Cessna collided and both planes crashed into the Florida Everglades, killing two student/instructor tandems. Since this blog is public and details are few, I'll decline further comment other than to express my deepest sympathy for the families of those lost.

Trying to study with this news hanging in the air is tough enough. Then came word this afternoon that an F-18 from MCAS Miramar crashed into a house in the neighborhood where I grew up, a few hundred feet from my high school.

Tough to make sense of this day. Just gonna try and keep my brains in my books for now.

Tuesday, December 2nd

Forgot to mention...

I spent Election Day moving out of the Grand Courtyard apartments and into an apartment at ATP. Since my roomies were all graduating at a record rate, and not much in the way of new blood coming in, the ATP brass closed the apartment and moved me into a studio on the first floor of the school, which I'm sharing with flight partner Dan. Not bad, really... the commute to school's great (one flight of stairs) and there's a flight simulator in the backyard. Free coffee, too.

Just finished day 6 of CFI (certified flight instructor) school. All the horror stories I've heard over the months from my friends and roomies are mostly true... it's an immense load of reading, comprehension, quizzing, correlation, and some flying. The CFI 'initial', the checkride done by the local Flight Standards District Office in Fort Worth, is first up and will involve a rather lengthy oral exam, covering everything I've learned, but this time at from the standpoint of an instructor... not just the 'whats', but also the 'whys' and 'hows'. If I'm gonna be teaching it, I'd better know it, right?

Got re-acquainted with an old friend today... the Cessna C172 Skyhawk. It's a requirement of CFI candidates to be signed off as being proficient in stall awareness and spin recovery, so today's the day that asst. chief pilot Javier and I went up to try our best to crash a plane by going vertical. You may recall that in my early stage of private pilot training, we accidentally put one into a spin during a stall maneuver, which looked something like this (not my video!)...



This time we did it on purpose. And what do you know... it was a hell of a lot of fun! We did three of them before heading over to Mid-Way Airport to meet flight partners Mike and Dan for their turn, and they were just as giddy. Dan even got into a few fully-developed spins, where the plane made several complete rotations before recovery. I can't wait to practice these again on my own someday.

Anyway, that was my day. Final day of ground school is tomorrow, to be followed by as much self-paced study as my little ol' noggin can handle. Still no word on my checkride dates, but that should be coming in the next few days. The end is nigh at hand...

Saturday, August 16th

A day after a fairly uneventful trip to San Angelo, TX and back, Ben and I grabbed 920TA and filed a plan to Monroe, LA. I was excited, since I've always had a soft spot for the Bayou (New Orleans in particular), having been through here several times, and was looking forward to seeing it from the air. Here was what I saw enroute.


So much for aerial views of swampland. Nearly 3 hours and a successful ILS approach later, we're flagged into the local FBO by a very friendly guy who chocks our nosewheel, hands us the keys to the courtesy car, and suggests we head for the Waterfront Grill. Man, what a find! Started by sharing a bowl of crawfish dip, then I had a huge bowl of really bitchin'* gumbo. Nice view too.


We thank our concierge back at the FBO for the meal suggestion and start off back home. During the run-up (where we test the engine at the end of the taxiway), the left magneto check made the engine stutter and drop about 500 RPM, which isn't normal. I had seen this before, on my first solo cross-country, and knew how to fix it, but the procedure I had used before wasn't working. Ben fooled with it a few times but no joy, so back to the FBO. A phone call to Arlington and a new procedure later, problem solved and away we go.

It's dawning on me that my time in the Cessna is coming to an end, and I'm already getting a little sentimental about it. ATP's private pilot program comes with an 85-hour allowance and I'm at about 80. I'll get to fly them again briefly later in the program when I go for my commercial single certificate, but for now I'm already starting to miss it. It's made me a pretty good pilot and been a fun little bird to fly around in, especially when I get views like this on my way back from Monroe.


* Dad, this word is just fine. Use it loudly and liberally. (earlier family debate... carry on)

Tuesday, August 12th

"They've got cookies!"

Ben and I hop into 2656G and head north.

We filed an IFR flight plan to Stephenville yesterday, but today was the real test. Shortly after being directed through DFW's Class B airspace, we entered our first cloud... and stayed there for about 90 minutes on our way to Tulsa. All the book-learnin' on spatial disorientation and "trusting your instruments" came back to me like a fastball to the noggin, but reading about it and expereincing it are two very different things. The windshield turns stark white and my senses instantly starting telling me that I'm climbing and banking hard to the right. After focusing on the instruments for a second, I realize that I'm flying level but banking slightly left. The next hour and a half is spent adjusting my eyes and learning to scan my gauges. Tougher than it sounds, and hard to articulate.


Also experienced my first true ILS approach for landing into Tulsa's Jones Airport. Arrived exhausted but feeling pretty good about the flight. Learned something pretty cool!

While I chat up the gas truck driver, Ben ducks his head into the FBO and turns back to me, grinning. "They've got cookies!"

The way home was easier. Flying through a broken layer of clouds meant being able to keep my eyes focused on something other than just the instrument panel, which was far less fatiguing. On the way home I spotted my great-granddad's home of Denison, TX and took a photo. That's the Red River separating Texas and Oklahoma.

Good day of flying... and more to come.

August 08, 2008 (private pilot checkride)

The final prep flight on Thursday didn't go well, as I was staying a step behind the procedures, seemingly always preoccupied with one thing or another, rather than looking ahead to the next item on my checklist or getting set for the next arrival. My landings also took a step backward, all of which concerned me since, as Ben reminded me ad-nauseum, my final exam was tomorrow. I spent the evening preparing the necessary navigation log for a flight from Arlington to Hillsboro to Lubbock, and getting quizzed for the oral exam by my roommate Joe, who went through this only a month ago and was a huge help. I still didn't sleep well that night.

0545 - I report to school to check on the weather and complete the endless array of paperwork needed to complete the upcoming tasks. At 0630 I'm greeted by K.B., a friendly 60-ish man who's one of ATP's two designated checkride examiners. Behind a closed office door, we sit down and he tells me what to expect about today's events. After the oral exam, we'll take a flight where I will be, in effect, carrying my first passenger and he'll expect a nice ride.

"Tell me about your aircraft."
"Tell me about the engine in your aircraft."
"Describe the electrical system in your aircraft."
"What are the required inspections needed for your aircraft and how often do they need it?"
"Tell me the V-speeds for this aircraft."
"Define density altitude."
"What's advection fog?"
"What's hypoxia? How can you tell if someone has it and what do you do about it?"
"Carbon monoxide poisoning... same questions."
"Describe wind shear."
"What's P-factor?"
"Define adverse yaw."
"Show me on the map where a Mode C transponder is required."
"What's the minimum visibility requirements for VFR flight in class G airspace at night?"

And on... for two hours.

When I was twelve, I competed in the San Diego County Spelling Bee. I couldn't tell you what words I spelled correctly, but I'll never forget the word I tanked*. Similarly, I'll always remember the one question that I completely missed on this day.

"Is participation in separation services mandatory in a Terminal Radar Service Area?"

Turns out that it's not. I still passed.

I drew a lucky card in getting 441CA, the bird that got me through my first set of good landings and my first solo. A call to weather services confirmed what I was a little worried about... the nearby front had shifted the winds and instead of taking off from the usual runway 1-6, I had to depart from 3-4, which I hadn't done before. No big deal, really... but I'm starting to wonder if there were any more curveballs coming my way.

Good takeoff and smooth air heading south toward Hillsboro. About halfway there, K.B. asks me to divert to Lancaster. Christ... Pennsylvania? California? I hadn't even heard of the Texas one. I whipped out my sectional chart and found it... just beyond good ol' Mid-Way Airport, where I'd been a hundred times, and was within sight at my 8-o'clock. I turned and headed that way, which put us on a perfect course for Lancaster. After I convinced him that I knew what I was doing navigationally, he had me demonstrate some maneuvers. Steep turns, check. Slow flight, check. Power-on stall, check. Power-off stall, check. Emergency landing, check.

"Never mind Lancaster. Take me to Mid-Way and show me some landings."

Along the way, K.B. hands me a things-that-can-go-wrong list. "What would you do if you experienced each of these?"

• partial or complete power loss
• engine roughness or overheat
• carb icing or induction icing
• loss of oil pressure
• fuel starvation
• electrical malfunction
• vacuum/pressure and associated instrument malfunction
• pitot/static malfunction
• landing gear or flap malfunction
• inoperative trim
• inadvertent door or window opening
• structural icing
• smoke/fire/engine compartment fire

I fight the urge to offer the funny answer, which is of course, "All at once? Crap my pants." Instead, I think out each one and answer well enough to keep going.

Short-field and soft-field takeoffs and landings at Mid-Way (also on the runway opposite the one I'm used to) go well. Keep in mind... a pilot on a checkride is waiting to hear the words "take me back to our airport". The earlier it's said, the worse the news. It's about this time that I hear it from K.B., and I'm only mostly sure that it's good news. A well-executed short-field landing and a taxi back to our ramp later, K.B. breathes.

"Congratulations. You've passed this test." I'm a pilot.

More paperwork and some congratulations from my mates back at the classrooms, and I'm off for the rest of the day. Celebration dinner and beers at Dave & Brittany's, where I'm asleep before midnight. I've got tomorrow off to let it all sink in.


* Jacamar. Not J-A-C-K-A-M-A-R.

Friday, August 1st

Well, it was shaping up to be another day in class, grounded by unfavorable atmospheric conditions. No thunderstorms today, but now the issue is haze and crosswinds. Even though I've done a ton of crosswind landings with a pilot in the right seat, school policy won't let me solo with a crosswind component greater than 7 knots. KCRS (Corsicana) reported crosswinds of 9 knots at 0800. Grumble.

By 1100, that crosswind was reported at 8 knots, and by 1pm... 4 knots. Go time for my 50nm cross-country. Visibility listed at 10 miles, but Matt warns us (having just flown) that he suspects less through the haze, so be careful. Daniel, (flying his 150 miler), Mike (first solo this morning, first cross-country this afternoon), and I preflight our planes. Today my flavor is 9485 Zulu, a steady mount that has treated me well before.

Oh, and it's 106 degrees on the ramp. Around here they call it 'balmy'.

We finally got a pretty good taste of the fun yet to come in next phases of this program... preflighting, taxiing, and flying together as a team. Daniel got a sizable headstart on us, since he had further to go and not much time to waste, but I stayed behind Mike all the way to Corsicana. Mike had already done a touch-and-go by the time I arrived, and Daniel was climbing out to head for Cleburne. I also landed, came to a full-stop, and taxied back around to do it again. One more and it was time to head home. Once again, Mike got ahead of me by about 10 miles but we kept a close 'radio eye' on each other. Along the way, I made my YouTube debut.



This was over Bardwell Lake, which doesn't show up. That's the Texas Motorplex (a drag strip, not to be confused with Texas Motor Speedway) just ahead of the right wing strut.

I wish I could really explain what I love about this. Amongst the noise and stress of watching traffic and gauges, there's an amazing sense of peaceful solitude up here. As I get better and better at this, I'm sure that sensation will amplify, and I can't wait to get there.

My first solo landing at Arlington wasn't exactly textbook. Approach procedures were perfect to the letter, but as I was on a 45-degree entry for left downwind, the tower and another Cessna miscommunicated and I wound up flying next to her on the remainder of the downwind, which was an odd predicament. Tower thought she was departing to the south, but she re-entered the pattern instead. I couldn't do a 360-degree turn to space us out, since traffic from Grand Prairie Airport was just off to my right. Tower requested an immediate short approach from the other plane, she complied and disappeared onto the runway, and I continued downwind, base, and final. Forgot to retract the flaps before my taxi back to the ramp, but other than that, I think we can chalk this flight up as a success.

It's Daniel's birthday. Burgers and beers at Cheddar's (next to the apartment), then home.

Next... the 150nm cross-country and checkride preps!

Saturday, July 12th

"Hotter'n donut grease," my lead instructor Matt remarks with his native Kansas twang.

It's 102 degrees here in the Dallas area, which means that it's about 122 on the concrete/asphalt surfaces of the airport. There's only one good thing about heat like this... my preflight inspection goes faster and better, because I just can't wait to start that huge fan in front of me.

Lucky for me, my first flight today started at 0800, when the thermometer merely read 90. Did a steep turn maneuver before heading out to Mid-Way Airport again for touch-and-goes. Did 9 of them over 2 hours with a moderate crosswind. After #5 or so I started nailing the landing checklist procedures and a perfect glideslope on final. Working on fighting the urge to float too far down the runway before landing, but I understand landing requires the most finesse of nearly any flight maneuver, so I'm trying not to beat myself up too bad about it. Sean's handling the radio calls during the pattern work (uncontrolled airport, so we gotta call out our position all the time), but I'm gonna try to take that over tomorrow.

Afternoon flight was interesting. Sean and I headed southwest to do more maneuvers. Slow flight, stalls, more steep turns, and some new ground maneuvers... precision steep turns around a fixed point on the ground, S-turns along a road, and rectangle patterns... all while maintaining altitude. Sean took the next one. Emergency landing was next, which involved cutting the power and spiraling slowly down to find a good landing area. Found a freshly-mowed obstacle-free hayfield below us and got down low enough to where I really thought we might actually land. Exercise over... full power, flaps up, climb out. Yeehaw.

During that slow spiral down, I looked down from about 1000ft and spotted our plane's shadow on the ground, then a similar plane's shadow right next to it. Wait... either we've developed another sun, OR...

It was Matt and classmate Mike... about 1000 feet above us, doing similar maneuvers. We were calling out our position to the area and got calls from other aircraft, but got no answer from them. Later they told us that they made several attempts to call us, so we were deaf to each other for some reason. Nobody's pointing fingers... and they were watching us the whole time.

A note about yesterday... instructor Mikey says that the incipient spin wasn't caused by wind, but by a rudder overcorrection on his part. Another note... I botched that flight's radio call for taxi request... "Arlington Ground, Cessna 7265 Zulu at the main ramp, request taxi to the main ramp with weather". WINCE. GROAN. Request taxi to the runway, rookie. The nice encouraging men in the tower that I met the other day are now laughing their asses off at me but spared me the shame of broadcasting it. I didn't make that mistake today and probably won't again for a while.

Cold front coming in tomorrow, which is expected to drop the temp about 10-12 degrees and shift the winds enough to reverse the pattern at the airport, meaning we'll be taking off to the north on runway 34 instead of to the south on the usual 16, if thunderstorms don't ground us completely. Stay tuned!

Weekends? What weekends?

Tuesday, July 8th

1st day of class yesterday. Check-in details at 8am (passport, medical certificate, etc.), then introductions and orientation. As expected, I'm the old fart. The remaining 5 in my class range from 21-25. Hell, the oldest instructor I've met is 28. Afternoon spent watching Flight 101 videos. Homework is chapter 2 of the text which I've read about 5 times already.

2nd day today. Review of chapter 2 (aced) and chatted about maneuvers and expectations for the program and from their students. We all got a visit and stern talkin-tuh from the chief pilot, who warned us of the hazards of falling behind (25% washout rate!) and breaking/bending the ATP code-of-conduct. Shouldn't be an issue (as I sit here with a Heineken in my hand).

Airborne by 3pm... first flight in the Cessna 172R, ident N920TA. I missed the opportunity to snap a picture of her, since her next flight was to ATP's Houston location, but I have attached a pic of her twin sister. I'll start bringing my camera to class.

ANYWAY... preflight checklist, taxi and takeoff clearance, and full throttle up done by yours truly. Takeoff roll and climb done with help, but I was given the controls back at about 200ft and was tasked with taking us to 2500ft and on south to the practice area above Venus, Maypearl, and Alvarado TX . Completed some basic maneuvers, including a 180-degree turn. Not much traffic... just two Southwest 737s above us (both on approach to Dallas Love Field) and a fellow classmate behind and below me in another Cessna. Moderate turbulence (hot day, gusty winds, thermals). Got us back to Arlington and into the landing pattern before instructor Sean took over the base and final legs for landing. He says the next landing is all mine. Sean's a good and patient instructor... he's a veteran of the same program. Finished the day soaked with sweat (heat, not nerves), and feeling pretty satisfied with 1.5 hours in my logbook. I'm happy with the Dallas location choice for several reasons (heavy traffic area, Dave nearby), but there's another reason I hadn't considered... there's no terrain here! These flat Texas horizons make maintaining orientation difficult, and that challenge will make me a pretty good pilot, methinks.

Tomorrow is chapter 3 review, steep turns, and ground reference maneuvers (staying oriented while making different types of turns). They don't dawdle, these guys.