Captain YS's Flight Log Book |
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12/28/2007 Last flight of the yearI flew yesterday for the last time of this year. I was planning to fly once more tomorrow, but the weather does not look good, and I postponed it for January 3rd. So, the yesterday's flight became my last flight of the year. I was planning to fly over a light-up event called Celebration of Light, which is held in Hartwood, to the north of Pittsburgh. I drove through last year, so I try to see it from the air this time. If I drive through, I need to pay $12. If I fly over, I do not need to pay $12, but I need to pay for airplane rental. So, it's not a saving at all, but I expect to see a magnificent scene below. To prepare for over-flying the Celebration of Light, I decided to go for one more night-landing practice. The weather forecast predicted that the cloud will be clearing to the evening. However, the low clouds stayed until late afternoon. I postponed the decision of go or no-go and headed to the airport anyway. I was thinking to fly only if the ceiling (broken or overcast cloud) was more than 2,000ft. Minutes before take off, the ATIS reported few cloud 1,500ft and overcast 3,600ft. The ceiling was way above 2,000ft, and I decided to go. Sunset time was about 5pm. To make it night-landing practice, I waited until 6pm before starting the engine. I did 3 stop & goes, and 2 touch & goes, and came back. My night currency will be good through late March. During the flight, the radio comm button on the control yoke stopped working, but I managed to communicate with the tower by using the comm button on the co-pilot side. It gave me 0.7 hours of night-flying time. Last year I earned only 33.7 hours. This year, I earned 72.4 hours. I earned a lot more flying time than last year because I was working on my instrument rating. My total flying time is now 203.7, of which PIC (Pilot In Command) time is 135.6 hours. Since U.S. Federal Aviation Regulation allows a private pilot to log PIC time even when the pilot flies with an instructor, 135.6 hours includes dual instruction time after I received my pilot license. By my calculation, I actually acted as a PIC (flew without an instructor as a private pilot) for 48.3 hours. If things go as planned, I will be instrument rated by the end of January. After that, I would not fly as much as this year, but I hope I can fly 50 hours or so. Most of the flights of this year were training for instrument rating. I'm planning to fly purely for fun for a while after getting instrument rated. I want to go many places where I have never been.
12/15/2007 Going for IFR Stage-3 Check soonI was not able to update this page for a while due to a sudden surge of my work. Nonetheless, it does not mean I was not flying. I was continuing flight training. In addition to the IFR training, I did my first solo night flight on 11/16. I have experienced night flying during my private training with an instructor. Once when I was doing touch & goes by myself, the environment got dark and it became like a night landing. However, I have never flown solo during the night time as defined by the federal aviation regulation, between one hour after sunset and one hour before sunrise. Federal Aviation Regulation requires a pilot to do at least three full-stop landings at night within preceding 90 days to carry a passenger at night. So, for the first four times, I did stop-and-goes, instead of touch-and-goes. The main runway of Allegheny County Airport is 6500ft long. A Cessna 172 requires less than 3000ft for takeoff and landing. So, with a permission from the ATC, I can stop on the runway, and take-off again without taxiing back. Now I can carry a passenger at night until mid February. As for my Instrument Training, I finally finished my long cross-country on 11/25. I flew Allegheny County -> Erie International -> Cleveland Burke Lakefront -> Allegheny County. It was a 4.3-hour flight. I had never felt my right hand holding a throttle lever tired. But, after holding a ball-point pen and the throttle lever together for more than four hours, my right hand started hurting. But, I finished the flight with no incident, and I'm ready to go for the Stage-3 Check. I have a reservation for the Stage-3 Check for next Monday, but the weather does not look good. Hopefully I will finish my stage check and FAA exam by mid January. The following video is from a cross-country flight I flew on 11/28. I flew to Franklin, did one touch & go, and came back.
10/06/2007 Passed IFR Stage-2 Check Ride!I passed the IFR Stage-2 Check Ride! Not only just passed, but the examiner told that it was excellent, rock solid, and the best check ride he had ever given! The check ride began with VOR 21 approach at Wheeling. I had practiced VOR 21 approach at Wheeling several times, but in this one, I had to fly a full approach. A full approach is a procedure that a pilot needs to fly in case of radio failure or radar outage. In most cases, I fly a radar-vectored approach, in which an air traffic controller guides me close to the final approach segment. However, I must be able to fly a full approach to prepare for radio failure or radar outage, and I must be able to demonstrate it to the examiner. No wonder in a full approach I need to follow a little extra steps. But, once before, I practiced holding over Wheeling VOR and then made a VOR 21 approach to Wheeling airport. So, immediately I thought I should do the same this time.
Wait a sec. This holding pattern was for missed approach. Can I do the same in a full approach? I got curious. So, I asked the examiner if it was what he was expecting. I was lucky to ask. What he meant was to fly outbound from Wheeling VOR, and then perform a procedure turn to reverse a course, and then make VOR 21 approach.
A course reversal is required when I cannot make an abrupt turn to track the final approach course. I once fly outbound, and then turn back to the approach course. But, I was not certain was how I turn to the outbound course. I thought if I make a right turn, I will be to far away from the final approach course, so I thought I should turn left and intercept the outbound course as depicted in figure (a) on the left. Actually, the examiner told me to make a right turn and fly a course like figure (b) on the left. After knowing what to do, following it was not too difficult. But, I need practice more on full approaches. I read about those full approaches in the text book, and study regulations, but flying it in real requires some practice. After VOR 21 approach, I did ILS 3 approach to Wheeling. It was done with radar vectoring. So, it was not difficult. Then, the examiner put a pieces of papers on the attitude indicator and the heading indicator. It is called partial panel, simulating a gyro failure. I practiced partial panel several times, and I do not screw up too often, but I was not very proficient in partial panel either. Controlling pitch without attitude indicator was not too difficult, but controlling heading with magnetic compass was a headache. Due to the phenomenon called magnetic dip, the heading indicator leads in northerly heading and lags in southerly heading. So, I need to take those lead and lag into account when I make a turn. The problem is due to this lead and lag, magnetic compass swings left and right whenever an airplane is shook by a slight turbulence. But, the examiner suggested me to use GPS instead of heading indicator. I was surprised because I was thinking I was not supposed to use GPS for other than GPS approach. The examiner said: "It is aviation 2007. You should use all the resources available to you for better situation awareness." It made things a lot easier. I made a GPS 28 approach at Allegheny County Airport, and completed the Stage-2 check ride. Although I made some mistakes, the examiner said I did excellent. I was happy to hear his comments, but I also got curious about at what skill level an ordinary IFR trainee go for a Stage-2 check ride. But, in fact, it's not something I need to worry about. I happily proceed to Stage 3, the last stage of IFR training. Stage 3 consists of minimum of four cross-country flights before Stage-3 check. Then I will go for Stage-3 check ride, and then the final exam to be instrument rated! I don't think I will finish Stage 3 in minimum flights. I definitely need some preparation for the stage check and final exam. So, probably I will fly six times minimum. I expect I will go for the final exam sometime late November. 08/08/2007 IFR Stage 2 Start!The second stage of the three stages of IFR training has begun. I have finished the first three lessons of Stage 2 so far. The first three lessons focus on holding procedures. In holding, I have to fly to the holding fix, then turn 180 degree, and fly straight for a minute. Then make another 180 degree turn and fly back to the holding fix, and repeat it. One minute is for when there is no wind, and I need to make adjustments depending on the wind. It sounds easy, but when there is a cross wind, finding an appropriate correction angle on the fly is not too easy. Also, gyroscopic heading indicator diverts from the correct indication (this phenomenon is called a precession,) and I'm supposed to adjust the heading indicator every 15 minutes to the magnetic compass. But, some old airplanes' heading indicator precesses a lot faster, and if it happens during the holding, holding pattern gets screwed up. So, there were some difficulties. From the fourth lesson, I'll start practicing instrument approaches. In addition to IFR trainings, I did some landing practices by myself last month. It is said that the landing skill rusts during IFR training because a pilot does not practice landings many times. In fact, when I was flying under VFR, I always did one or two touch & goes when I came back to Allegheny County Airport. But, in IFR training, usually I just make a full-stop landing when I come back from the practice area. So, I decided to do some landing practices before starting instrument approaches. I went for the first practice on 07/11. I flew about an hour and did 10 landings (9 touch & goes + 1 full stop). Rental fee was $120. So, $12 per landing. Not too bad. However, I was not quite satisfied with my landings probably due to slightly gusty wind. In some landings, I was lifted up when I was expecting the airplane to settle on the ground followed by a not-so-smooth touch down, or an airplane suddenly settled when I wanted to keep it afloat for several more seconds. They are a typical effect of a gusty wind, but I was not sure if I was inadvertently applying or reducing the force on the yoke, or it was really a gusty wind. At least the ATIS was not saying anything about the gust. I reviewed my cockpit video, but I couldn't get any useful information from that. So, I went for the second practice on 07/23. This time, there was virtually no wind. I flew from 8pm to 10pm, and the last landings were just like night landings. According to the regulation, a landing is considered a night landing if it was done between one hour after sunset and one hour before sunrise. These landings were not considered night landings. Nonetheless, runway lights were so beautiful. I was initially planning to do 9 touch & goes, but I changed my mind and did one more touch & go. Below video is from the 10th touch & go and the last full-stop landing. (You need Flash plug in to play the video.)
All 11 landings were satisfactory. Although they were not perfect, all of them were nice and smooth landings. I will resume IFR training on Friday. 07/08/2007 IFR Stage 1 Check Pass! Two more stages to go!The original plan was to fly a check ride on Friday, which was postponed to Sunday. I was supposed to fly N9417L. However, when I checked the PFTC reservation web page yesterday, N9417L was down for 100-hour inspection, and N430U was assigned to me as stand-by (I could fly only if the student who originally reserved N430U cancels the flight.) Considering the good forecasted weather, I never expected the student would cancel the flight. Anyway, unless I went to the airport, I would not be able to fly even if the student had cancelled the reservation. So, I left my apartment at 7am, drove to the airport, finished the pre-flight inspection of N430U, and waited, hoping the instructor came early and I could go up early and come back early enough for the next student. That way, I could fly even if the student did not cancel his reservation. Amazingly, the instructor who was going to give me the stage check showed up at 7:30am! (PFTC opens at 8am FYI.) And, he told me that the next student who was going to fly N430U was going for a cross-country, and he should need 30 or 40 minutes for preparation. It was ok as long as we come back by 8:40 or so. Cool! Early bird gets a worm! I was able to fly N430U, which is a way better airplane than N9417L for my first stage check! Pre-flight was already done. We waited for a fuel truck to top off N430U, then took off at 8am. We flew straight to Allegheny VOR. VOR Orientation is one of the items included in the stage check. Actually, I forgot the wind aloft forecast that the weather briefer told me, but I felt the airplane was pushed to the left. So, I made about 15 degree wind-correction angle, and the VOR needle just stayed a little off to the right. I maintained that heading, and suddenly the needle started moving to the other side. I didn't think the VOR station was not too close, and had a bad feeling. It could have been interpreted as a failure to track the VOR. However, the TO/FROM indication of the VOR flipped, indicating that the airplane has just passed over the VOR. Next we headed to the practice area and did turns, climbs, and descends in normal condition, and stall recoveries, etc. Then, the instructor told me to fly to the NDB station (ADF tracking). ADF Tracking is not as easy as VOR tracking. However, lucky to me, the ADF needle (which points the relative direction to NDB station) was vibrating by more than 60 degrees. So, precise tracking was impossible. So, all I could do and needed to do was just flying to the general direction pointed by the needle. Lastly, the instructor called Pittsburgh approach and requested practice ILS 28 approach to Allegheny County airport. I could handle radio communications after that, and flew an approach to runway 28 by ILS. The round out and flare was a little rough, but overall, I did ok. I passed the stage 1 check! I'll start the second stage of Instrument training. I'll practice holding and approaches in the second stage. 07/06/2007 IFR Stage 1 Check Ride postponed to SundayI was supposed to go for the Stage 1 Check ride for my Instrument training. The flight was planned from 8am to 10am. However, when I woke up, the weather was bad. Visibility 1/4 mile, and ceiling 100ft. It was even below minimum of Instrument Landing System. Nonetheless, the TAF (Terminal Aerodrome Forecast) was predicting the sky would be clear by 9am. According to the instructor who was planned to fly with me for the check ride told that one hour is minimum required for the check ride. So, if the weather recovered as forecasted, I should have been able to fly. I came to the airport, did pre-flight inspection of the airplane I was assigned, and waited. However, at 9am, the weather was still not enough. Cloud ceiling was 1200ft above ground. Since Stage 1 Check includes some maneuvers including steep turns and stall recoveries, I needed to fly in Visual Meteorological Condition (VMC.) To stay VMC, I am required to stay away from the cloud, 1000ft above, 500ft below, and 2000ft horizontal. Steep turns and stall recoveries are done at about 1500ft above ground. To keep 500ft below the cloud, the cloud needs to be at least 2000ft above ground. 1200ft was not enough. I was almost giving up, when the student who was supposed to fly 10am to 12am with my instructor had to cancel the flight due to the weather. Then I had two more hours to wait for the weather recovery. After waiting for another two hours, the sky condition recovered to 1900ft scattered. The cloud was no longer overcast. It was sort of marginal. However, the airport near the practice area was calling 1600ft scattered. The sky above Allegheny County Airport was almost clear. But, I had to cancel my flight. I will try again on Sunday morning 8am to 10am. But, I need to do it in the second oldest Cessna of PFTC, N9417L. Actually, I'm not getting along with N9417L very well. Always I feel I need to apply slight rudder to keep the airplane straight, even in level flight. Its heading indicator does not have a heading bug, and I need to memorize the assigned heading instead of just setting the heading bug to the assigned heading. The needle of its tachometer is always vibrating, and it is difficult to precisely adjust the engine RPM. I'll see how it goes on Sunday. 06/14/2007 Safety PilotEven after I acquire Instrument Rating, I need to continue practice, or I would lose my instrument currency. If I fly in Instrumental Meteorological Condition without Instrument Currency, it would be a violation of Federal Aviation Regulation. It is same for any instrument rated pilot, and the instructor also needs to do recurrent practice to maintain instrument currency. To practice instrumental flight under Visual Meteorological Condition, the regulation requires to have a safety pilot on board the airplane. A private pilot can be qualified to serve as a safety pilot, and therefore I'm qualified to do it even though I'm not yet instrument rated. Today, I served as a safety pilot for my instructor.
The photo on the left was taken when we were on short final of runway 10R of Pittsburgh International. It was a practice approach, and the instructor executed missed approach (low approach) before actually landing on the runway. (We did not want to pay landing fee to Pittsburgh International.) On missed approach, I saw F-16s of Thunderbirds and B-52 for static display parked in the air show area! After landing, I checked the picture, and those airplanes were at least visible although they were really obscure. I really should have carried my SLR.
06/07/2007 IFR Training UpdateAlthough I haven't updated this page for a while, I've been continuing Instrument training. Instrument training consists of three stages, and so far I finished 8 hours of Stage 1 training including simulator time. The focus of Stage 1 is to be able to fly an airplane with rely solely on the instruments. I'm now pretty confident in flying an airplane without looking outside. However, when I need to control radio or navigation device, I often go up and down, or left and right. Something that can easily be done on the ground is not so difficult while concentrating on the instruments. Only practice can improve this tendency. I'll have two hours of simulator training next Tuesday, and two flights in the week after next. If things go well, I'll go for the Stage 1 check end of this month or early next month. If I pass the Stage 1 check, I'll proceed to Stage 2. Stage 1 check consists of a practical test and an oral exam. So, I'm studying for it every day. By the way, in the previous of the last flight training, again I had to land by ILS. The weather forecast was predicting an improving weather condition. The cloud and visibility was supposed to be getting better. In fact, when I arrived at the airport, I saw scattered cloud and the visibility was already pretty good. So, I took off with my instructor, flew to the practice area, and did what I was supposed to practice. When we headed home, we realized that the airport was covered by low cloud. I forgot explaining about the Federal Aviation Regulation (FAR) in the last article, but the FAR tells that unless I obtain an IFR clearance, I'm not allowed to fly into a cloud. More precisely, the practice area is classified as class E airspace, and within 5 miles of Allegheny County Airport up to 3,800ft is classified as class D airspace. In both airspace, (below 14,500ft) I need to have 3 miles visibility and stay below 500ft, above 1,000ft, 2,000ft horizontal from clouds. However, if the air traffic controller gives me a Special VFR clearance, I can fly in 1 mile visibility and stay clear of cloud. So, if it had happened when I was solo, I would have requested Special VFR, and I should have been able to come back to the airport safely. Although the cloud layer was low, it seemed to have enough space below. Or, I could have stayed in the practice area waiting for the weather to improve. I topped off the fuel before leaving, and I was able to stay afloat another three hours at least. But, since I was with my instructor, we requested ILS approach to runway 28, flew through the cloud, and landed. Flying close to the cloud was fun :-) And, Pittsburgh Flight Training Center made a deal with Pittsburgh Approach Controller, and we can use a call-sign "Phantom" + last three letters of the registration number. So, in the last two flight trainings, my call-sign were "Phantom 30U" and "Phantom 6CS". It felt as if I had been flying a fighter jet. That was nice, too :-) 04/24/2007 IFR Training into Actual IMC"VFR flight into IMC" is a common cause of a fatal accident. VFR stands for Visual Flight Rule, and IMC stands for Instrumental Meteorological Condition. "VFR flight into IMC" means that a pilot flying under VFR, i.e., relying on visual references, unexpectedly flies into an Instrumental Meteorological Condition and loses outside visual references. Today, something similar happened to me, which was IFR Training into Actual IMC. I was supposed to go for my 6th flight training toward my Instrument rating today. The flight was planned 8am to 10am. It was my instrument training and was wearing my foggle on. However, the flight needed to be conducted under VMC (Visual Meteorological Condition : opposite of IMC) because I needed to do some maneuvers, and my instructor was responsible for watching outside. The weather was supposed to be clearing up through the day, and many airport around Allegheny County Airport was reporting good-enough ceiling and visibility. So, I took off with my instructor, and flew to the practice area. However, when we came to the practice area, the instructor told me to take my foggle off. I took my foggle off and saw plenty of clouds surrounding my airplane. The instructor made a decision to return to the airport. But, it needed to be done under IFR because the weather actually got worse. Don't worry. My instructor was instrument current. So, he contacted Pittsburgh Approach and received IFR clearance to Allegheny County Airport. I asked him to do radio communications, and I put my foggle back on and flew according to the ATC (Air Traffic Controller) instruction. Couple of times my instructor told me to take my foggle off and he allowed me to see the sea of clouds. That was a nice view. After a while, the ATC cleared us for ILS approach to Runway 28 of Allegheny County Airport. I tracked the ILS, and landed safely. I could not do what I was supposed to do in today's lesson, but I enjoyed the ride much. No matter how precisely I plan the flight, nobody can predict the weather 100% accurately. If I am instrument rated, and I encounter the VFR-into-IMC situation, I will contact an approach controller and request IFR clearance with confidence. Otherwise, all I can hope is the ATC direct me to an airport under VMC. Today's flight showed me the advantage of instrument rating. By the way, I uploaded a longer movie of a video from my touch and goes on 03/09/2007. You can play the video below. (@nifty video) You need to install Adobe Flash Player 7.0 plug-in to play the video. Click here to install the plug-in.
04/21/2007 Cross-Country Flight to Meadville (KGKJ)The weather in Pittsburgh was a perfect condition for flying this weekend. The sky was clear everywhere, and there was little wind. I flew a cross-country flight to Port Meadville Airport, which is about one-hour flight to the north from Allegheny County Airport. This was my second time to fly to Meadville. I flew there last June with my instructor for the first time. This time, I was flying by myself, with two passengers. I flew a Cessnan 172, tail number N172RQ. I took off at 16:12 and arrived there at 17:12. The runway at Meadville is 7-25. The wind was a little stronger than forecasted and blowing almost perpendicular to the runway, but it was slightly favorable for runway 25. I chose to land runway 25. KGKJ is a non-towered airport, and I can choose the runway at my discretion. There is an annoying tower nearby the airport (shown in the photo below). When I choose to land runway 25, the tower seems to be very close when I turn to base. Last time I flew to this airport, I didn't like to come too close to the tower and ended up with turning base too early. I was too high on final as a result. Thanks to the long-enough runway I landed safely. This time, I tried to be a little lower on final than last time. It was somewhat successful, but still the final approach was a little higher than ideal. You can also see the landing video at the end of this article. The main attraction nearby Port Meadville Airport is Eddies' Foot Long Hot Dog. It sells a very long hot dog. We had an early dinner there, and headed to home.
The wind was virtually nothing on the way back. In fact, Allegheny ATIS (automated weather reporting) was reporting calm wind. I did two touch and goes and landed. The setting sun right in front of me on final was a little bothering, but they were easiest landings in several months. By the way, I start using @nifty video sharing service (something similar to YouTube) for uploading my flying videos. If the service works well, I will upload the videos by this service from now on. This way I can upload a little longer video. (@Nifty Video) You need to install Adobe Flash Player 7.0 plug-in to play the video. Click here to install the plug-in.
03/25/2007 Cross-Country Flight to DuboisI flew to Dubois (KDUJ), about 70nm north east of Allegheny County Airport. North west of Allegheny County airport is covered by Pittsburgh Class B airspace, and I need to go around the airspace if I fly under VFR (unless an approach controller gives me a clearance to fly through the airspace). Allegheny County Airport is almost south end of Detroit sectional chart. If I fly farther south, I need to buy a Cincinnati sectional chart, and I've been reluctant to fly south. Easier options are to fly west, north, north east, or east. I've been mainly flying north. This time, to get used to north east of the airport, I chose to fly to Dubois. Some patchy fog was still hanging around when I took off. It felt just like flying above clouds. The Federal Aviation Regulation tells that I need to fly at least 1000ft above the top of the cloud if I fly above the cloud. But, what about fog? Fog just looked like a cloud, so just for safety, I climbed up to 4000ft before reaching above the fog. It is a good idea to stay higher over the fog because in case of emergency, I need to glide to a safe emergency-landing site not covered by fog. I need high-enough altitude to do so.
N430U had a GPS unit, and the navigation was easy. I was prepared for flying with VOR in case of GPS failure, but GPS guided me all the way to Dubois. When I fly to a new airport, I always look for a landmark for finding the airport for a future visit, and I found a good landmark for Dubois. I saw a tall white tank (water tank?) near the airport terminal. Next time, I can use this tank for finding the airport.
Dubois airport has one runway, 7-25. There is ILS for runway 25, but no ILS for runway 7. Apparently, runway 25 was mainly used. In fact, when I took off from Dubois airport, an airplane landed on runway 25 although the wind was favorable for runway 7. When I was approaching the airport, I overshot the runway a little when I turned to final, but I landed safely. Below is the video from the landing. (Click to play)
At the airport, an airport personnel called me on the UNICOM and guided me to the ramp.
After having lunch at the restaurant, I headed back. I missed the course a little to the north and ended up with seeing the other side of the dam that I saw on the way to Dubois. The air was very smooth, and it was a nice easy flight.
By the way, I received a certificate and a wing badge of FAA Wings Program. As I wrote before, FAA Wings Program gives a certificate to a pilot who attended a Safety Seminar of Air Safety Foundation and received four hours of flight training. I attended a seminar last year, and finished four flight trainings last month. I sent the application couple of weeks ago and was waiting for the certificate. The certificate I received was Phase 1 Wing. I can apply for Phase 2 Wing after receiving Phase 1 Wing. I'll go for the second wing next year.
03/09/2007 Sunset LandingPast few weeks, it was cold, cloudy, or windy (or all of these) in Pittsburgh. But, today, the weather finally cleared up. No cloud, calm wind, and warm air. As far as I remember, this was the best condition in these three months. I couldn't resist my temptation. I reserved N172RQ for 5pm to 6pm, left my office at 4pm, and headed to Allegheny County Airport. I was stuck briefly in a traffic jam, and I arrived there at 5:06pm. But, I started the engine at 5:12pm. The pre-flight inspection took less than 6 minutes. When I re-started flying in Pittsburgh two years ago, pre-flight inspection was taking more than 10 minutes, maybe 15 minutes or so. I could understand what the checklist was saying, but I needed to search for a particular instrument or device that corresponds to an item on the checklist. Now, I don't need to search because I remember where they are. That's why it doesn't take long time any more. Here's one advice to a student pilot. To make maximum use of limited time for a flying lesson, you need to minimize the time you spend before taking off. If you lose 10 to 15 minutes for pre-flight inspection, you are wasting 0.2 to 0.3 hours of precious flying time. If you are flying every day, like you are taking lessons during the summer holidays, you'll soon get used to the pre-flight check, and the time for the pre-flight will soon become not a factor. However, probably most of you are flying once a week, or once every two weeks, then you may not get used to the pre-flight check because you practice only once in each flight. I recommend to take a photo of the instrument panel by your digital camera and get a copy of the pre-flight checklist. If you have a photo of the instrument panel and a copy of the checklist, you can practice in-cabin check portion of the pre-flight check by yourself. I don't think there's much things outside the cockpit that is hard to find but needs to be checked in the pre-flight check. By getting used to in-cabin check, you can shorten the time for your pre-flight inspection considerably. If you get copies of engine run-up and before take-off checklists, you can practice these checks by yourself at home. And, when you come to the flight school, if the airplane you reserved is already back and parked outside the flight school, just go to the airplane and see if it has enough fuel before going inside the school. If it doesn't have enough fuel, call fuel truck before picking up the key. By doing this, you don't need to go back and forth between the school and the airplane, and you can save time before taking off. This year, my main goal is to get instrument rating. So, I'll not enjoy scenery during the flight as much as last year. I heard a rumor that the landing skill will rust during the IFR training. The reason is that in the IFR training, I will not practice landing many times. In the IFR training, I practice IFR approach. However, after performing an IFR approach, what I need to practice is missed-approach procedure. Instead of landing an airplane, I just go around. So, my plan is, to fly with my instructor twice a month, and once a month I fly by myself for a short time (like 0.6 to 1.0 hour) and practice landing. Today I flew for 0.9 hours, but at this late afternoon, many airplanes were coming back from the practice area, and the traffic pattern was crowded. I could do only four touch and goes. I guess I should choose a different time for the next landing practice. But, runway 10 was in use, and the sun was almost behind me. The clampod video shows the shadow of my airplane projected on the runway in front of the airplane. So, the shadow looks as if another airplane was approaching toward me from in front of my airplane. You can see the video by clicking the below picture.
03/08/2007 Start IFR Training!I finally started flight training toward instrument rating. I had practiced a lot beforehand in a PC simulator, and it worked! In fact, it is very difficult to trim in a PC flight simulator (including YSFLIGHT,) and I have to constantly push and pull the stick by the small amount. (I think trimming in YSFLIGHT is relatively easier than doing it in other flight simulators.) In a real airplane, trimming is done easily by applying a pressure on the control wheel, and rotate the trim wheel until the pressure vanishes. So, in fact, I felt that flying a real airplane steadily was easier than flying an airplane in a PC flight simulator. By the way, I have to wear a thing called "foggle" to practice instrument flying. A foggle hides upper half view so that the pilot can only see instruments. In today's flight, I took off, and at about 500AGL my instructor took control of the airplane, and I tried to wear the foggle, when I heard a cracking noise, and one rod of the foggle broke. I had to put it on by holding the broken rod by the ear pad of my headset. But the fracture cross section of the rod gave me a big pain because unsmooth surface was pushed against my right temple. I had to fly with this pain for an hour. The toughest part of the first IFR lesson was the pain from the broken foggle :-P
What I learned in the lesson was, first I was told to swing the nose left and right while taxing to check the gyro based instruments (turn coordinator, heading indicator, and attitude indicator) behave as expected. This was something what I was not doing. In flight, I did basic attitude flying mainly. My instructor told me heading and altitude, and I controlled the airplane so that it maintains the given heading and altitude. I wore the foggle until coming to the final leg for landing. I still went up and down by about 100ft or so while I was looking away from the basic instruments for checking something else, for example setting radio frequencies. Probably, I was pushing or pulling the control wheel unintentionally while doing so. This will be one of the things I have to practice in the coming flight lessons. 03/02/2007 Ready to Start IFR Training!I'll start IFR training soon! As I wrote on 12/23/2006, a non-US-citizen starting a flight training toward a new rating or a new airman certificate needs to get approval from Transportation Security Administration. The approval process is concisely written in the AOPA web site. I was guessing the process would take long, like months. However, it turned out just about 20 days. On January 31st, I told PFTC that I was willing to start IFR training. On that day, PFTC gave me two fingerprint forms. I needed to have fingerprints taken on both two forms, which needed to be sent to TSA. On February 4th, I created an account on Flightschoolcandidates.gov. I could submit all the information except fingerprints online. On February 7th, I received an E-Mail from them telling that two years duration was too long. Duration had to be one year maximum. I had to change the duration to one year on the web. Due to my budget, I can fly only twice a month, so I was not sure if I would be able to complete the training in one year, but if I cannot I would simply extend. I'll try to get it done in one year. I visited Carnegie Mellon University's campus police on February 7th to have fingerprints taken. Apparently, I was the first person who had fingerprints taken for flight training application at CMU campus police. They took my fingerprints all right, but they initially told me to send the forms by myself. TSA rule does not allow me to have custody of fingerprint forms after fingerprints are taken, so I had to ask campus police to send the forms to TSA. I was not certain about if campus police could send my fingerprint forms to TSA for me, so I called them the day before and asked if I needed to give them a pre-paid envelope, but they said no. It turned out that they simply did not know about the TSA rule (That's why I guessed I was the first person who had fingerprints taken for the flight training application there). So, I gave money to the police and asked them to send the forms out. The person who took my fingerprints kindly agreed to do so. Probably, I should have purchased the pre-paid envelope of UPS or FedEx (I don't know where I can buy such a thing though) to make things go smoother. After waiting for 15 days after having fingerprints taken, I received an approval from TSA by E-Mail. The whole process took about 20 days. However, 7 days of them were during a snow storm totally paralyzed Washington D.C. So, if it had been not for the storm, the whole process could have ended earlier. Now, I'm cleared to start flight training toward Instrument rating. Starting this month, I'll fly twice a month toward Instrument rating. But, I also heard that if I do only instrument training, my landing skill rusts. So, what I'll do is to fly twice for the instrument rating, and fly once by myself to maintain my landing skill. Soon this page will become "CaptainYS's Instrument Training Diary." :-) 01/31/2007 Cross-Country Flight to Harrison County AirportAfter three consecutive cancellations, I finally could fly. I was originally supposed to fly 10am to noon before I go to my office. The forecast of the last night was predicting a strong wind, but the visibility and ceiling both looked ok for VFR. However, when I called WX-BRIEF in the morning, at the time of calling, the briefer said VFR not recommended. He also said the weather may get better by the time I take off. I just crossed my fingers and headed to PFTC. When I came to PFTC, I saw some scattered cloud. The scattered cloud is not considered a ceiling. If the cloud is broken or overcast, it is considered a ceiling, which the regulation requires to be 1000ft or higher to fly VFR. If the cloud is just scattered, it is not legally a problem. Nonetheless, I have to stay away from the cloud in a VFR flight. The cloud looked as low as the traffic pattern altitude, and I might have to dodge with the clouds in the pattern. To be safe, I called WX-BRIEF again only to hear a bad news. New forecast predicted 3 miles visibility, occasional unrestricted visibility. If the current condition was an "occasional unrestricted visibility," there was a possibility of being trapped in 3 miles visibility. You may think 3 miles visibility is not too bad. In reality, less than 6 miles visibility is pretty bad in the air. For example, if the tower asked me to extend the downwind (see 10/07/2006 for the traffic pattern illustration), I might fly more than 3 miles from the airport and lose the airport position. I changed my reservation to the afternoon, and came back home once.
I had to come to Oakland area where CMU and University of Pittsburgh are located at around noon. I headed back to PFTC after that. In the afternoon, the weather finally recovered. I was thinking to do just touch & goes, but I decided go for a cross-country flight because the weather looked good enough. But, the weather report was discouraging again. According to WX-BRIEF, the runways of Franklin were covered by snow, and the weather at Du Bois could deteriorate any time. Only possibility seemed to be somewhere to the west. That time, I bumped into my instructor, so I asked him where to go. He recommended Harrison County Airport (3G6). I called WX-BRIEF again to get information around 3G6, and made sure there is no problem, and decided to fly there. Today's high was -7 degree Celsius (20 degree Fahrenheit). My airplane (N172RQ) was kept inside the hangar to avoid direct hit from the cold outside air. Due to the cold air, I did pre-flight inspection in the hangar. I asked the mechanic if I need to pre-heat the engine. He said I shouldn't need pre-heating because the airplane was kept in the hangar and the engine temperature was high enough. So, I pulled the airplane out, and started the engine as usual. I took off from Runway 28. The airplane climbed rapidly due to cold air. Cold air means high air density. In dense air, the wing performs better than in thin air. I avoided Pittsburgh Class B airspace, and headed to Allegheny VOR first, then headed 277 degree to Harrison County Airport. I had to dodge with some isolated cloud, but the flight went smoothly. N172RQ is equipped with a GPS, so I didn't have to worry about getting lost. However, I couldn't find the airport until I come really close. Harrison County Airport does not have a control tower, no large hangar, and the runway was narrow and looked just like a road. I realized that narrow road was actually a runway when I was 2 miles from the airport. The runway of Harrison County Airport was 13-31. Forecasted wind was 270 at 10, which is favorable for runway 31. I flew above the field at 3000ft and checked the wind cone. The wind cone rather looked almost perpendicular to the runway. This much cross-wind and this narrow runway! It was a cross-wind-landing challenge. I flew about 2 miles after flying over the field. Then, joined left downwind runway 31 by right descending turn. I made a nice traffic pattern, and did one touch & go.
One touch and go at Harrison Airport, which is 50 nautical miles away from Allegheny County Airport, qualified the flight as a cross-country flight. I headed back to Allegheny County Airport.
I chose to fly straight to Allegheny County Airport using GPS. But, for some reason, I flew too much south. I realized I was too much south when I saw a power plant on my left, which was supposed to be on my right. I came too close to the boundary of Wheeling Class D airspace. I turned north, got back on course, then continued on to Allegheny County Airport.
Forecasted wind at Allegheny County Airport was be 230 at 8, slight cross wind from the left. When I came back, actual wind was 210 at 12, strong cross wind. I also felt a little gust in the traffic pattern. There was patchy thin snow and ice on the runway, but it was not a problem. I did five touch & goes and landed. It was a good cross-wind landing practice. After landing, I came back to PFTC. When I tried to park the airplane, I got a problem. Cessna 172 cannot move backward by itself on the ground. It's not like C-130 or C-17. I need to use a tow-bar to move the airplane into a parking spot. So, I attached a tow-bar to my airplane, and tried to push it. But, the surface under my feet was utterly frozen, and when I pushed the airplane, my body moved backward instead of the airplane. Fortunately, I could still pull the airplane. So, I chose a different spot that I do not need to push an airplane without stepping on a patch of ice. A parking spot usually have two strings for tying an airplane down. So, I tried to tie the airplane down, when I figured that one of the two strings was totally inside solid ice, and the other was sticking out but unable to bend because it was frozen. I asked a dispatcher at PFTC what to do, and she said I can leave the airplane without tying down. I hope wind will not be too strong tonight.
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Previous Articles [2006 and before] |
The
picture on the right is a simplified picture of the VOR 21 approach to
Wheeling. Dashed lines indicate a course that a pilot should
follow during missed approach. Stroke lines show the approach
course. What I practiced before was joining the holding pattern
over Wheeling VOR, which is designed for missed approach, and then
continued on to the VOR 21 final approach course.
I
was thinking that he would
do three instrument approaches to
Allegheny County Airport, but he did the first one
at Pittsburgh International
Airport. Actually, the
Although
I couldn't get a clear picture, I had a rare opportunity to see the
Thunderbirds airplanes from the air. After I acquire my Instrument
Rating and gain confidence of instrument flight, I shall do a practice
approach to Pittsburgh International the day before the air show and
will take photos of air-show airplanes from the air some day.
By
the way, FedEx donated one of Boeing 727s to Pittsburgh Institute of
Aeronautics, which is located next to Pittsburgh Flight Training Center.
I took a photo of the donated B727 today. The photo on the right
is the B727 parked near PFTC.
<= Annoying tower nearby KGKJ (But, it serves as a landmark for finding
the airport though)
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