It’s been three weeks since I flew last time and I was feeling that I have to take the Cherokee up even if it’d be just a circle around the pattern. Iza wanted to go take some nice pictures of our club’s airplanes. We went to the airport and took Cherokee for a short spin. It turned out that it was really short hop. Originally we wanted to go to Iowa City but there was a TFR in place for Hawkeyes’ game so I decided to try and go to Washington. Unfortunately in the middle of the flight weather started to deteriorate quickly and it looked like that we may be grounded in Washington even if we get there. After checking weather reports I simply turned around and went back to Green Castle. As a nice finishing touch I did one of my nicest landings. Looks like I consistently land very well when Iza is on board 
. Anyway, it was one of the shortest flights I’ve ever made but I still feel nicely recharged – even if it was just 0.5h I was up there flying.
0.5h/0.0h inst : 1 to/ldg logged
67.7h/3.1h inst : 327 to/ldg total
I know what I’m going to do next. I considered all my options and it turned out that the best thing I can do is ‘informally’ start process of getting instrument rated. I’m saying informally because as a foreigner I can’t really start formal training without TSA authorization. The thing is that this authorization is valid only for 12 months. So if I got one I have only year to finish. And there is no way I could pull this off right now. But there is plenty of things I can do on my own, at home in my own peace. I can study the theory, I can try flying my X-Plane simulator, and (probably the most important) I can work on filling out the requirement of 50h PIC cross country time as a regular private pilot. There is no difference how I made them. This way I can fly ‘for the cause’ no matter if it’s vacation trip or just a _not_so_short_ hop for a lunch. As it happened today.
The original plan was to fly on Saturday but due to weather conditions including very gusty winds and reported turbulence we switched to Sunday. Today winds were way lower and the weather was generally nicer. We took off around 12 and headed for Pella. The beginning of our trip was simply awful. Location and configuration of the Green Castle Airports makes take offs very challenging when the wind is blowing from the headings between 160 and 210 degrees. As you already figured out it was 180 degrees today. Flying is still a stressing experience for Iza so I tried to make it as smooth as I could. Yet today it was still very turbulent. I tried to escape it climbing up as soon as possible and in fact just after passing 3000 ft. MSL air became very smooth. One can’t get everything so for a bit of smooth air we had to pay the price in 30 knots headwind. Well it was worth it. The rest of the flight was very uneventful and even the descending through turbulent air below and landing were quite nice.
Pella which is also called as small Holland in the middle of Iowa is a small town with a climate. It’s best known for it’s Tulip Time festival that happens every May. Fortunately it’s climate stays in the town even when tulips are gone.
The brick building on this photo is the airport terminal. Inside is even better:
It more resembles home than airport terminal. Friendly guy at the counter loaned us their courtesy car and we headed downtown to find something to eat. It turned out that here we had to pay another price of switching days. As it happens in many small town in rural Iowa almost all businesses are closed on Sunday. We managed to find one open local restaurant. There were some other chain places open, but we didn’t fly so far to eat in place we have around the corner, did we?
After lunch and small walk during which Iza shot one of the best HDR pictures I’ve seen lately:
we headed back to the airport. Short preflight with a bit of posing time:
and we headed back home. The air was just a bit nicer to us in lower layers, and the wind was now blowing from the back so our short hop home became even shorter 28 minutes. For comparison Google Maps says that it would take us 1h56m if we went by car. WOW!
On a very positive note Iza is slowly getting used to flying and we already have some nice places lined out within her current time aloft limit of 45 minutes one way. And I can get needed XC time for my instrument rating.
1.7h/0.0h inst : 2 to/ldg logged
67.2h/3.1h inst : 326 to/ldg total
Today was the very first day after my checkride where I had time (during daylight) to actually try and fly. I was a little excited because it was going to be my first flight as a private pilot (I don’t count the short hop back home from the exam). Additional excitement came from he fact that it was also supposed to be another first – first flight with my wife. That wouldn’t be probably so interesting if she liked it. But she’s scared of flying and she more or less panics over the very least sign of turbulence in the big irons. The thing is that flying small personal airplane comes with such shaky behavior by design. Especially on clear sky autumn day with moderate winds – it’s just a little choppy all the time up there (at least below 5000ft). So you see why I could be a little nervous.
To add even some more to the excitement we were going to fly the Skyhawk. “My” Cherokee was rented out for the whole weekend so I had no choice but to get familiar again with Cessna. I flew it for about 6h back in March and never really got a hold of it (it was more or less in the middle of my training then). So I decided that it would be wise to do some pattern work with it to get myself familiar with it again. I spent 5 minutes on the ground studying POH to get all needed speed, left Iza on the ground and departed. It quickly turned out that it was wise decision indeed. First two approaches were completely botched. Used to Cherokee’s brick like characteristic I was cutting base way to close to the runway and ended way up both times. The next two tries were quite OK. I landed without much trouble. But when I just started to think I got it, fifth approach came way too high again. Doh! After sixth approach I landed and taxied back to pick up Iza.
Here the fun part begins. We took off and I instantly knew she wasn’t very happy. But she hold herself together. We flew south around Kent park, a little bit east to show Iza North Liberty, Coralville and Tiffin from the air. Then we climbed out and headed west for few minutes. It was less shaky up there and I could see Iza was very, very slowly relaxing. After about 20 minutes of flight she had enough so we headed back to Green Castle. Landing was one of the worst I’ve ever done in Skyhawk, fishing for the runway for quite some time, but I managed.
Back on the ground Iza asked me if I’m not disappointed that we didn’t go anywhere because of her. I wasn’t. I knew more or less how it’ll end up, and I have to say I’m very proud of her for the determination to stay up there as long as possible. It was 40 minutes this time, it’ll be much longer next one. I’m sure we’ll be going places in no time.
1.3h/0.0h inst : 4 to/ldg logged
65.5h/3.1h inst : 324 to/ldg total
October 24th, 2009 in
Just going places | tags:
C172,
casual flying,
Cessna,
Cherokee,
first flight,
go around,
landing,
pattern,
touch and go,
turbulences |
No Comments
And now I’m officially a private pilot. Wow. I’ll write some more later when I gather all my thoughts together. But it indeed was a strange feeling when I flew back from Cedar Rapids as a full, regular pilot. Wow again.
What should I do next? Instrument? Tail wheel? Complex? Hm…
The numbers count only for flight to and from checkride. Those numbers will be in another post.
0.7h/0.0h inst : 2 to/ldg logged
63.3h/3.1h inst : 317 to/ldg total
October 10th, 2009 in
Checkride | tags:
Che,
Checkride |
No Comments
I was late. One day. During the whole month of September there were just about 3 days not flyable and maybe 2 more that I wouldn’t like to take a checkride on. All the rest, including the 30th, were beautiful. I flew 20.7 hours total on 13 different days during September. And yet, the very moment I was scheduled to take my checkride on the very first of October the weather came in with overcast at or below 1000ft AGL, massive rain showers and even some thunderstorms. So no joy.
My designated pilot examiner works as an airline pilot in his ‘day job’ so he is available only on limited numbers of days when he’s actually in town. Next such possibility happens next Thursday, the 8th. Now all I can do is wait and hope that current forecast for it will hold up.
