Today Chris attacked me with THE traffic pattern. This is before I had fully digested my Lawry's 9 oz prime rib from lunch. I realized that I needed protein prior to each flying lesson 'cause the process just killed too many brain cells. I was also jet-lagged from my recent trip to Japan and ran 40 minutes late. So as you can imagine I arrived not only protein-rich but completely frazzled.
The pattern was splashed across the drawing board in an elaborate drawing not unlike a battle plan. The pattern is a rectangular shaped pathway of which the airport runway represents one of the legs. General aviation pilots need to fly along this pathway in order to take off from and land at airports. This makes sense because it creates order. The pattern reflects and tests the key maneuvers in flying. Take offs, climbs, leveling off, turns, descents and landings. A good measure of whether I am ready to solo is when I have mastered flying in the pattern with him.
Today they switched me over to Cherokee 777VP. Its 150 horsepower engine makes it fly like a slug. Because the pilot seat is on the left side of the airplane, the pattern begins to the left, thus keeping the runway visible from the left window. So it is all left turns and I suffer from Left-Turn-Phobia. For the first six months after arriving in LA, I could not make left handed turns unless there was a stop sign or a traffic light. I would turn right and right until I found a light. Indeed. I AM The Asian Female Driver!
Take offs are easy compared to landings. Knock on wood. Although I constantly forget to tap the right rudder to reduce the left yawing tendencies of the plane during climbs. No wonder I kept "going" to the left and compensating by working the ailerons just led to more wobbling.
As I climbed and hit Lincoln Blvd I turned left into the Crosswind leg. Chris reminded me to keep the airport in sight at all times and watch my bank angle. My eyes would constantly dive towards the instruments seeking guidance when that very thing laid right outside. My wing should now lie perpendicular to the runway which it was not. Soon after I had to turn again into the Downwind leg and reached an altitude of 1400 MSL. My wings should now lie parallel to the runway which again it was not. I tried to adjust but it was too late.
Before you know it I was "abeam" to my target landing spot and needed to start my descent. This is when everything happened in rapid fire motion. I whipped out the pre-landing checklist to ensure that my plane was in landing condition. I then dropped power to 1500 RMP and laid down the first set of flaps. Turning into base leg, the second set of flaps came in and during the final approach the final set of flaps followed. With each set of flaps, the nose of the plane would pitch up and my arm would ache from holding it down to keep our descent. Chris had control of the power and rudder and told me to focus on handling the yoke. Thank goodness for Chris we landed the plane. He yet again rescued me when we broke the glide. This is when I always run into trouble. I have trouble gently setting the main gear down by holding the nose up ever so slightly. I would do something funky like jerk the yoke back too much or too soon. Sigh! My excuses are endless.
I've learned that subtlety is key and there lies the secret in discovering the art of flying. Due to time constraints I only practiced the pattern one more time. The result was not memorable and I feel a bit hopeless at this point.
Flight Time: 36 mins
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
2nd Class - Airplane Oil
Today during the pre-flight check I learned how to add airplane oil. So far everyone has been so polite and encouraging, insisting that there are no stupid questions. I may ask all I want. Well, there are stupid questions. In fact, there are ones so stupid that they are beyond moronic. Just like how someone says, "It is not you. It is me!" Translation. It is you, you dumb ass! So today I asked what you change airplane oil with? It is airplane oil, you dumb ass!
To defend myself I must say that prior to coming to Los Angeles in 2005, I lived in Singapore, Boston, Tokyo and New York, cities with great public transportation systems. My driver's license sole purpose was to get me a drink. Talks about engines, cylinders or horsepower will only draw blank stares from me. The same kind that a man levels upon you when presented with Black vs. Very Black mascaras. It is sad really sad. To put an end to my mechanical illiteracy I ordered Rod Machado's Private Pilot Handbook as soon as I got home. Am considering getting Cars for Dummies too.
Today we again flew along the Malibu coast and practiced climbs, descents and turns! In the climbs, we reviewed the steps of leveling off of a climb. Similarly, I practiced leveling off of a descent. And flying straight and level flight sounds easy but it is not. It is confusing when your horizon changes e.g. from the straight line of the ocean's edge to the zigzagging outline of the Santa Monica mountain ranges. I have a tendency to pitch up. Chris kept reminding me to keep my eyes outside of the cockpit. But it is human nature to keep looking at the instruments because it made me feel safe. However, I was reminded that there exists a lag in the instrument readings and they are not always accurate. Relying on the instruments at this stage will prevent me from "bonding" with the plane and developing my mojo. So like my weighing scale I am only allowed to look at the instruments every so often.
We also practiced turns and did plenty of them at varying bank angles. The air being much smoother today made it easier. Chris gave me a quick review of the Heading Indicator and would call out various headings for me to turn into. I kept forgetting to look in that direction outside of the window prior to turning towards it. Again I would turn using the Heading Indicator. I also failed many times to check my bank angle via the wings. It was basically one screw up piled up right after another!
Not that things could get anymore frustrating, Chris declared that he was going to demostrate a stall. From what I have heard of them I would rather go to the gynecologist's office. Stalls basically mean that the wings of the plane have exceeded its critical angle of attack and as such lost its lift. The plane nose dives and your head hits the roof of the cockpit. Not pleasant sounding at all. But surprisingly, Juliette Whiskey refused to stall so I escaped unscathed. Phew! Onto the next subject please (I know that I will need to revisit this in the future as I need to know how to recover from a stall)
Landing today was one word: Horrible As Hell. Alright. That was three words. I came in swaying right and left and Chris who had control of the rudder and power had to take over off the yoke when we broke the glide 'cause I basically veered the plane towards the right and we landed with a loud thud. It was so horrible that everything feels like a haze right now. I am so sorry Juliette Whiskey!
Flight Time: 1 hr 30 mins
To defend myself I must say that prior to coming to Los Angeles in 2005, I lived in Singapore, Boston, Tokyo and New York, cities with great public transportation systems. My driver's license sole purpose was to get me a drink. Talks about engines, cylinders or horsepower will only draw blank stares from me. The same kind that a man levels upon you when presented with Black vs. Very Black mascaras. It is sad really sad. To put an end to my mechanical illiteracy I ordered Rod Machado's Private Pilot Handbook as soon as I got home. Am considering getting Cars for Dummies too.
Today we again flew along the Malibu coast and practiced climbs, descents and turns! In the climbs, we reviewed the steps of leveling off of a climb. Similarly, I practiced leveling off of a descent. And flying straight and level flight sounds easy but it is not. It is confusing when your horizon changes e.g. from the straight line of the ocean's edge to the zigzagging outline of the Santa Monica mountain ranges. I have a tendency to pitch up. Chris kept reminding me to keep my eyes outside of the cockpit. But it is human nature to keep looking at the instruments because it made me feel safe. However, I was reminded that there exists a lag in the instrument readings and they are not always accurate. Relying on the instruments at this stage will prevent me from "bonding" with the plane and developing my mojo. So like my weighing scale I am only allowed to look at the instruments every so often.
We also practiced turns and did plenty of them at varying bank angles. The air being much smoother today made it easier. Chris gave me a quick review of the Heading Indicator and would call out various headings for me to turn into. I kept forgetting to look in that direction outside of the window prior to turning towards it. Again I would turn using the Heading Indicator. I also failed many times to check my bank angle via the wings. It was basically one screw up piled up right after another!
Not that things could get anymore frustrating, Chris declared that he was going to demostrate a stall. From what I have heard of them I would rather go to the gynecologist's office. Stalls basically mean that the wings of the plane have exceeded its critical angle of attack and as such lost its lift. The plane nose dives and your head hits the roof of the cockpit. Not pleasant sounding at all. But surprisingly, Juliette Whiskey refused to stall so I escaped unscathed. Phew! Onto the next subject please (I know that I will need to revisit this in the future as I need to know how to recover from a stall)
Landing today was one word: Horrible As Hell. Alright. That was three words. I came in swaying right and left and Chris who had control of the rudder and power had to take over off the yoke when we broke the glide 'cause I basically veered the plane towards the right and we landed with a loud thud. It was so horrible that everything feels like a haze right now. I am so sorry Juliette Whiskey!
Flight Time: 1 hr 30 mins
Sunday, March 9, 2008
1st Class - Wonder Boy
Today marked my first official class. The day I went for my demo class with Justice Aviation, my mom's blood pressure shot up to 159. She highly disapproves of my new sport. So far it has worked with using eharmony as my alibi. But what do I say for a Sunday morning 9:00 a.m. lesson? Farmer's market.
I woke up this morning to a foggy looking sky. I made a mental note to schedule future classes in the afternoon to allow time for the fog to burn out. I still headed over to the flight school to get some ground work done.
I will be training under Chris, my new CFI, and he is a mere 24 years of age. First the 19 year old CEO and now a 24 year old CFI. I did not feel like grandma at this point. I AM grandma! How is he going to get me to shut up and listen? With his ferocious looking uni-brow? But then again, they do call him "wonderboy" around here. We shall see.
While we waited for the fog to burn out, Chris gave me a METAR tutorial. A METAR is a surface observation of the weather from the airport taken at the end of each hour. It relays information about the wind direction, wind speed, visibility, weather/sky conditions, etc. Basically information that will determine whether you can fly under Visual Flight Rules ("VFR").
By 10:00 a.m., visibility had improved significantly and we can finally go flying. I literally flew out of the classroom but my excitement was soon torpedoed by the extremely detailed pre-flight checklist. I spent the next half hour crab-walking around the plane lifting, prodding, pulling on various parts of its body while learning the correct vocabulary. My head began throbbing in the cockpit when I death-stared the dials that death-stared right back at me. Chris patiently reviewed gauges purpose. I had done this before but now I have to actually memorize. There is a ton of information to learn and it can feel a bit overwhelming. I guess this explains why the drop out rate runs as high as 70%.
Next my CFI proudly announced that I will be communicating with the air traffic controllers today. I choked. To show me that he was serious, he quickly jotted down a script and handed it me. He told me that there exists a formula with talking to the air traffic controllers and it goes as follows:
1. Tell them who you are
2. Tell them where you are
3. Tell them what you want to do
4. Repeat their instructions back at them.
5. NO YAPPING!
I rehearsed the lines a few time, pushed the little button found on top of the left handle of the yoke and blurted it out as quickly as I could. They repeated something back at me and I jerked my head towards Chris with woeful pleading eyes screaming RESCUE ME. He did and got us cleared to taxi up to the run-up area.
I wore flats today hoping that it'll improve my control of the rudder pedals but the plane still snake danced up to the run-up area. It is thus not the shoes. It really IS me. We went through the Run-Up check and Before Take Off check and I was later instructed to communicate with Santa Monica Tower to request for clearance to take off. This time I did not fudge. I do not know why they make me so nervous.
To be finished....
Flight Time: 1 hr
I woke up this morning to a foggy looking sky. I made a mental note to schedule future classes in the afternoon to allow time for the fog to burn out. I still headed over to the flight school to get some ground work done.
I will be training under Chris, my new CFI, and he is a mere 24 years of age. First the 19 year old CEO and now a 24 year old CFI. I did not feel like grandma at this point. I AM grandma! How is he going to get me to shut up and listen? With his ferocious looking uni-brow? But then again, they do call him "wonderboy" around here. We shall see.
While we waited for the fog to burn out, Chris gave me a METAR tutorial. A METAR is a surface observation of the weather from the airport taken at the end of each hour. It relays information about the wind direction, wind speed, visibility, weather/sky conditions, etc. Basically information that will determine whether you can fly under Visual Flight Rules ("VFR").
By 10:00 a.m., visibility had improved significantly and we can finally go flying. I literally flew out of the classroom but my excitement was soon torpedoed by the extremely detailed pre-flight checklist. I spent the next half hour crab-walking around the plane lifting, prodding, pulling on various parts of its body while learning the correct vocabulary. My head began throbbing in the cockpit when I death-stared the dials that death-stared right back at me. Chris patiently reviewed gauges purpose. I had done this before but now I have to actually memorize. There is a ton of information to learn and it can feel a bit overwhelming. I guess this explains why the drop out rate runs as high as 70%.
Next my CFI proudly announced that I will be communicating with the air traffic controllers today. I choked. To show me that he was serious, he quickly jotted down a script and handed it me. He told me that there exists a formula with talking to the air traffic controllers and it goes as follows:
1. Tell them who you are
2. Tell them where you are
3. Tell them what you want to do
4. Repeat their instructions back at them.
5. NO YAPPING!
I rehearsed the lines a few time, pushed the little button found on top of the left handle of the yoke and blurted it out as quickly as I could. They repeated something back at me and I jerked my head towards Chris with woeful pleading eyes screaming RESCUE ME. He did and got us cleared to taxi up to the run-up area.
I wore flats today hoping that it'll improve my control of the rudder pedals but the plane still snake danced up to the run-up area. It is thus not the shoes. It really IS me. We went through the Run-Up check and Before Take Off check and I was later instructed to communicate with Santa Monica Tower to request for clearance to take off. This time I did not fudge. I do not know why they make me so nervous.
To be finished....
Flight Time: 1 hr
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Intro Flight on a Piper Cherokee
After my demo flight on Tuesday, February 26, 2008, I quickly scheduled another demo flight with Proteus Air Services. They only train in Piper planes. The idea was to try out a low wing plane and check out another school before making a final decision. I scheduled it for Friday afternoon, February 28, 2008. Unfortunately, the fog rolled in and it had to be canceled. I kept trying and finally hit upon good weather today.
Remember the 19 year old CEO at Proteus? Well, he is not really the CEO. I found out that it was a joke and actually did the demo flight with the owner himself who has a bucket load of flight hours under his belt. My CFI, the owner, skipped the pre-flight check as he had done it already and wanted to get me up in the air as soon as possible. He wanted to focus more on the flying experience itself.
With the memory of the Cessna 172 - Garmin 1000 still fresh on my mind, the Piper Cherokee was certainly rustic looking in comparison. It could use a fresh coat of paint and had this tacky red velvet interior. But for some odd reason I was glad that the mechanical gauges were back. Seriously, aren't I suppose to start from the basics anyway? Her name is Juliette Whiskey for 400JW and is not entirely shabby with a 180 horsepower engine.
After take off we followed the same flight route as my demo flight with Justice Aviation. I had a feeling that most of the training was done along the Malibu coast as there was less traffic in the area. It was certainly a bumpy ride today especially when we flew passed the canyons where the wind came barreling out of the valleys. I felt my stomach lurch with every bump and grew increasingly nervous as I braced myself for the next bump. I am a teacup person and would never voluntarily board one of those freak free fall rides found at amusement parks. That was when my CFI told me to grab onto his arm and instructed me to watch him. He didn't flinch one bit with any of the bumps. It was like a Shaolin monk stance.
We soon started practicing the basic maneuvers. He wanted me to perk up to my senses and focus on the feel of the plane and how it responds to slight changes in the controls. We ascended, descended, turned right, turned left. Pointed the nose up and down, increased and decreased the power and basically played with the control variables. At one point he even pulled the plug on the engine and the plane just chugged along swaying with the wind. I wanted to throw up. Nevertheless, the idea was to start familiarizing me with the concepts of thrust, lift, drag and weight. I also learned how to trim.
Upon our descent into SMO, it dawned on me that with a low wing plane I could not see below me and thus the tarmac when I land. I still landed with the obvious help of my CFI and it felt a bit trickier but definitely possible. For some odd reason I liked the low-wing plane better. I liked the way it handled and felt more at one with the sky since the wings were not strapped over me. At this point I made the decision to train in a low wing plane.
So with American Flyers out of the picture, the decision was between Justice and Proteus and I picked the latter. I enjoyed my second demo flight more and liked the personalized attention I received from its staff. I can't wait for my first class. Yum!
Remember the 19 year old CEO at Proteus? Well, he is not really the CEO. I found out that it was a joke and actually did the demo flight with the owner himself who has a bucket load of flight hours under his belt. My CFI, the owner, skipped the pre-flight check as he had done it already and wanted to get me up in the air as soon as possible. He wanted to focus more on the flying experience itself.
With the memory of the Cessna 172 - Garmin 1000 still fresh on my mind, the Piper Cherokee was certainly rustic looking in comparison. It could use a fresh coat of paint and had this tacky red velvet interior. But for some odd reason I was glad that the mechanical gauges were back. Seriously, aren't I suppose to start from the basics anyway? Her name is Juliette Whiskey for 400JW and is not entirely shabby with a 180 horsepower engine.
After take off we followed the same flight route as my demo flight with Justice Aviation. I had a feeling that most of the training was done along the Malibu coast as there was less traffic in the area. It was certainly a bumpy ride today especially when we flew passed the canyons where the wind came barreling out of the valleys. I felt my stomach lurch with every bump and grew increasingly nervous as I braced myself for the next bump. I am a teacup person and would never voluntarily board one of those freak free fall rides found at amusement parks. That was when my CFI told me to grab onto his arm and instructed me to watch him. He didn't flinch one bit with any of the bumps. It was like a Shaolin monk stance.
We soon started practicing the basic maneuvers. He wanted me to perk up to my senses and focus on the feel of the plane and how it responds to slight changes in the controls. We ascended, descended, turned right, turned left. Pointed the nose up and down, increased and decreased the power and basically played with the control variables. At one point he even pulled the plug on the engine and the plane just chugged along swaying with the wind. I wanted to throw up. Nevertheless, the idea was to start familiarizing me with the concepts of thrust, lift, drag and weight. I also learned how to trim.
Upon our descent into SMO, it dawned on me that with a low wing plane I could not see below me and thus the tarmac when I land. I still landed with the obvious help of my CFI and it felt a bit trickier but definitely possible. For some odd reason I liked the low-wing plane better. I liked the way it handled and felt more at one with the sky since the wings were not strapped over me. At this point I made the decision to train in a low wing plane.
So with American Flyers out of the picture, the decision was between Justice and Proteus and I picked the latter. I enjoyed my second demo flight more and liked the personalized attention I received from its staff. I can't wait for my first class. Yum!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)