Back in the Saddle again!

So today was the day I'd been waiting for. After a little over 4 months, I have started flying again. Before the lesson, I was very excited, and anxious to get back up. During the takeoff, and climb to 3500 feet, I looked around and enjoyed the view. I really missed flying. Once we got to the practice area, we started to shake my rust out. First thing on the agenda, stalls. We did both power on stalls and power off stalls. I was quite pleased with myself with my power on stalls. Sure, I had to be talked though the maneuver (You would too if you hadn't done it for a while), but all in all, I managed to control the airplane well. No unintentional spin entry, and only had to be told once or twice to put in more right rudder to keep the plane in coordinated flight. Power off stalls were pretty similar. Nothing major other then being told to stop lowering the nose so quickly.

The one thing that I had forgotten was my finesse. Little adjustments as opposed to big ones. I'll get that back, I'm sure.

After stalls, it was time to review slow flight. The first time I tried to do this, Heather wasn't happy with it at all. So she took over and showed me what to do. On the next time I tried it. It was much improved. Obviously, I need a little more practice which is what is on the agenda for the next lesson on Friday. I did feel overwhelmed and behind the plane. Which is normal for having the break that I did. It was nice too, to resume training and get back up. Total time for this lesson was 1.1 hours with 4 landings. Total time life time is 18.6 hours and 77 landings (67 day, 10 night)

Also, last week, I got caught up with my mentor, Kevin. We hadn't talked for some time but I got to sit in his brother's Cessna 340, which is a twin engine, 6 seater. Really cool.. Lots of instruments and switches. I was going to get a ride in it as well, but it had to have some work done on it which grounded it until the work was done. Hopefully, I get a ride in it soon.

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

While I haven't done a lot of flying yet (I am still a student). I have seen my share of flying. Some good (nay excellent flying) I have seen come from the fine men and women in the employ of the United States Armed Forces. These men and women when they aren't risking their lives on the front line show us their prowess at air shows across the country. The maneuvers that they perform for our entertainment are simply outstanding, just like the planes they perform them in. Catch an air show, it's definitely entertaining.

I've only heard of some bad flying. One of those incidents was a previous entry about the pilot who called Pontiac Tower and told them that he was inbound for landing. When Pontiac Tower had him ident, to identify his position using radar, it turned out that he was no where near Pontiac. Even though the Tower was patient and helped him find his position, this should not have happened.

I have not been a witness to any ugly flying. With luck, I won't ever see any.

Long time, No post.

It has indeed been a long time since I've posted anything here. And that's because I haven't been flying lately. The start of winter was pretty warm and allowed me to fly as much as I could afford. However, because the snow's on the ground, my instructor's availability has gone down as well, and it has become difficult to book time with her. You have to schedule a month in advance because the time fills up so fast. So I have been not flying, and concentrating on cramming my head full of aviation knowledge. My goal is to take the written test sometime in late April or Early May and pass only missing 1 or 2 questions. I'm also going to try to fly more once it gets lighter in the evening. At least twice a week, once during the week after work and another on Saturday or Sunday. So that's my plan.

Winds Calm

Nice beautiful day to fly, even if it was hazy.. We showed up early, my niece and I. I started preflighting the plane, turned on the master switch and hit the switch to lower the flaps. They wouldn't go down. I tried again, with no luck. I checked the fuse panel to make sure there was no popped ones and there weren't. So we went back in to tell Heather about it and she got a mechanic to look at it, fix it and I finished the preflight. In the meantime, my niece decided to not go up with me so Heather and I went up. Because of the late start, we stuck around Pontiac and just did pattern work. So after about an hour later, we came down. Total time in the plane today was 1.2 hours with 11 landings to bring my lifetime total to 17.5 hours and 73 landings (63 day, 10 night).

Winds 160 at 11 gusting to 18

This post is almost a week late. My last lesson was this past Saturday. Same lesson plan as last week. We flew out to Lapeer and did some landings then came back to Pontiac. We took off and landed on the new runway though. Runway 17/35 was finally opened up for use and Saturday with the winds off the left of runway 17, I made a request to the tower for that runway and they let us use it. The approach was fun. It was pretty hazy on the way back and we really couldn't see the runway until about 2 miles out. I'm now on page 3 in my log book. We continued to work on landing consistency. Trying to get the kinks and rust out and get me ready to solo. I'm probably not going to have a lesson until after the new year because I have family coming to stay with me. Total time in the plane was 1.2 with 16.3 total hours and 62 landings!

Winds 240 at 15.

I had no luck last weekend with the weather. It was rainy and my instructor had the weekend off. It's only recently turned cold and we barely have any snow on the ground whatsoever. We're pretty much still in the transition from fall to winter here. Today was a good chance to see how it's going to feel like flying in cold weather. With the wind out of the Southwest like it was, the wind chill was brisk. I put the hood up on my coat so at least when I was facing away from the wind, my head was warm.

I met Mary Carpenter today too. She is the examiner that passed my sister. She was nice and friendly and when I mentioned that my sister had her for the checkride, she asked how she was doing and then asked what got me interested. So I gave her the short story about me. It was nice talking to her

Today's flight was a little hop to Lapeer and back. It was an interesting flight, with the wind. Even when we were pointing straight north, we were still moving to the northeast. Pretty neat how that works. It took about 20 minutes to get to Lapeer. It's a nice airport, similar to Romeo State. They both have north-south runways and are uncontrolled. It was choppy below about 2800 ft and on the way to Lapeer, we went up to 3500 ft and it smoothed out. You can imagine how much fun I was having doing landings in the chop. So 4 landings later, we left Lapeer and headed back to PTK. We only climbed to 2500 ft. and it was choppy. Not too bad but enough to make me feel like I did when I first started flying, overwhelmed. My altitude was way off, up or down and I'd correct for it and then it would be below 2500, etc. I'm still not flaring enough. I'm not discouraged because I know that with more practice, my ability to control the airplane will improve.

Today's time was 1.3 for a total of 15.1 (13.5 day, 1.6 night) with 57 landings (47 day, 10 night).

Winds Calm

What a beautiful night to fly! When I got to Flight 101 tonight, the plane I was supposed to fly wasn't back yet. I went in and said hello to my instructor who said that tonight we were going to take a trip to Lapeer, do some full stop landings there and then come back. But the plan changed by the time the plane showed up. It was half an hour late and then when the previous student parked it and pushed it back, he hit the wall with the right elevator and damaged it. So we weren't taking that plane up to fly. By the time we got to a different plane, got it fueled up and preflighted, there wasn't enough time to go to Lapeer and come back. So more pattern work. I am starting to get it. I had a couple of landings that were better then any I've done. Hopefully, the good weather will spill over into next weekend and I'll actually be able to fly two weekends in a row. That would be neat!

Total time is 13.8 (12.2 day, 1.6 night) with 51 landings (41 day, 10 night).