NY Approach

Home Stretch

This morning I scheduled to retake my IFR written exam next week at a testing center here in NYC.  I've been studying daily for nearly a month now and started taking practice tests about a week ago. There are still a few areas I'm rusty on and will continue studying through the weekend, but I'm consistently getting scores of about 80% on the practice tests (you need $70% to pass).  Ideally, I'd like to beat the 87% I got the first time I took the test back in the summer of 2007.

 

Last Thursday, I took an early afternoon and did some solo flying in the 182RG just to get away.  It was another one of those amazingly gorgeous days and I just wandered up along the Housatonic River to the CT/MA border, did a 180-degree turn and headed back.  It was just so relaxing, with great visibility.

 

I spent a good chunk of last Saturday sitting down with Dan to review all of the ground school materials.  We powered through almost all of the slides he had prepared for the 2007 ground school and it was extremely helpful.  On a couple of the practice tests, I've noticed that a comment he made here or there about a subject will pop into my head to help in answering--eg the ] next to a weather reporting station means what? (automated reporting). 

 

I also got a chance yesterday to chat with my assigned Sporty's instructor, Eric, talking through my experience so far, what I'm hoping to get out of the training (ie I'm planning to fly in actual IMC after this, rather than just use it as a rusty emergency tool), etc.  We're set to meet the morning of April 5th to discuss further and then probably take an assessment flight to see where I'm at so that we can better tailor the training for what I need.  Eric sounds like a nice guy and I'm sure we'll work well together.

 

A couple of other little logistic things to take care of over the next week, but all systems are go for my quasi-vacation.  Can't wait!

A Come-Hither Sky

Saturday was a truly glorious weather day—absolute CAVU (ceiling and visibility unlimited), with some light breezes.   It was one of those first hints of spring and one of those days that the sky just demands you come up and play!  So I did.

 

A good friend quickly agreed to fly with me and came to pick me up for a morning of flying.  During the week, he had agreed to serve as a safety pilot for me while I did some very basic instrument flying under the hood (a goggles-like device that limits your view to just the instrument panel).  I wanted to practice straight and level flight, standard turns, constant rate climbs and descents and constant airspeed climbs and descents.  As safety pilot, my friend would be responsible for watching for other airplanes while I was practicing.

 

We took off into a beautiful sky and headed east along the shoreline, climbing above some very light turbulence below 3,000 feet.   I donned the hood and spent an hour wandering along the shoreline, reversing direction a few times, making some 90-degree turns, climbs and descents at 500’ per min (constant rate maneuvers) and climbs and descents at 90-knots (constant rate maneuvers).  It was a good start—obviously still a lot of room for improvement on cleaning up my scan of the instruments and immediate corrections to the control.  Still, the practice went pretty smoothly—and my safety pilot said I had done well.   

 

After an hour, though, I couldn’t take listening to him talk about how spectacular the view was, so I took the hood off to soak it in myself.  We spent the next hour tooling around the sky a bit.  We headed up the CT River a little ways to see if we could spot bald eagles near Essex and Haddam.  Then we flew west and circled my parents home while my father waved a space blanket in the back yard.  I hadn’t realized how bright yellow the house is in the full sunlight—and the reflective blanket was easy to spot as it sparkled in the sun!

 

Heading back to BDR, we picked up the ATIS report on weather indicating a bit of a right crosswind for the landing.  The tower called for us to make an almost straight in approach to Runway 29.  Everything was looking great on final approach—speeds were good, descent profile was good, crosswind correction was good.  We crossed the numbers and I blew it by flaring a couple of feet too high….we slid along in ground effect (basically riding a cushion of air between the bottom of the wing and the runway) until we lost flying speed.  At the last second, both of us realized we were flaring just a tad too high and I started pushing in power as the bottom fell out and we thumped down.  It was not, by any stretch of the imagination, a pretty landing.  I was mortified—and know I’ll be taking some good-natured ribbing for a while about that one…..

 

In hindsight, it was the first time in a few months that I’d flown a Piper (low wing airplane), having spent most of the last 3-4 months flying the Cessna 182RG (a high wing airplane), which has a bit higher perspective, flares a little higher off the ground and doesn’t have quite the same ground effect that the low wing Piper does.  So note to self to watch for more closely next time.

 

But overall, it was a fantastic day—it was terrific to get some flying in with my buddy again and the weather was just too perfect, especially after all the snow and rain this winter season.

Accelerated IFR Training

Those of you who follow the blog know that we started it when I headed out to Colorado in August 2006 to get my private pilot’s license through an accelerated training program—flying every day for 3 weeks to go from 0 time logged to licensed private pilot.  I had a blast out there and really seemed to learn well in that type of a structured, accelerated environment where I can get away from everything and just focus on flying.

 

I had worked with Dan pretty extensively through the summer/fall of 2007 towards my instrument rating (IFR).  While he’s a great teacher and I learned a lot, I just couldn’t seem to get the skills down consistently enough to the point that I felt comfortable.  I failed the instrument checkride and decided against trying a second time just before my medical certificate issue.  Dan and I have spent a lot of time since talking about and dissecting where my learning issues were—unfortunately, we weren’t able to pinpoint specifics.  The frustrating thing is that it was never the same items I was missing—they always varied on each flight.  Dan always did laugh though that in actual instrument conditions, especially at night, I seemed to be dead on!

 

Now I’m preparing to tackle my instrument ticket again.  I’ve decided to do another accelerated program.  After research into various options, including returning to Colorado, I picked Sporty’s Academy outside Cincinnati, OH. (http://sportys.com/academy/)  Sporty’s is a large pilot supply company I’ve been using for years and they have a strong reputation in the aviation industry.  Their flight academy also gets good marks and they’ve got a number of recent model aircraft with an assortment of avionics (electronics) packages, including numerous steam gauges and a couple with glass cockpits.  They’ve got a number of NAFI (National Association of Flight Instructors) master instructors and FAA Gold Seal instructors (folks who have met certain FAA standards regarding their instruction). 

 

In April I’ll head out for two weeks of training.  It may not take me the full amount of time, depending on how quickly and consistently I fly, but particularly with instrument flying, I want/need to do it right so that I feel comfortable and certain of my skills. If I do happen to finish early, it may leave me an option to do some additional training regarding flying instruments on glass cockpits.

 

For now, it’s back to the books, studying all the various materials, including books, notes from my instrument ground school a couple of summers ago, Sporty’s video training dvds and the online Sporty’s content, including their online sample written tests.  I’m trying to get about an hour of study done each day on the train.  As I get closer to taking the test, probably in the third week of March, I’ll take the online practice tests to see what areas I need to study harder.  They were great practice the first time around.

A Little Night Music...

Last weekend, I got a chance to fly again—this time I wanted to work on regaining my night currency.  In the US, you’re not allowed to carry passengers at night unless you’ve completed at least three takeoffs and full-stop landings at night.  The FAA defines night a couple of different ways, but the best is the period beginning one hour after official sunset and ending one hour before official sunrise.  Sunset at Bridgeport a week ago Sunday was 1734h (5:34pm).

 

While I’ve flown at night a few times in the past few months as PIC, it was always with an instructor on board.  Since getting the medical certificate sorted out in September, I hadn’t done my night currency yet—and July 2007 was the last time I flew solo at night.  So it was definitely time!

 

I wanted to transition into the night landings, so I headed out to the 182RG at about 4:30 and did a very thorough pre-flight, ensuring that everything was working, including all of my nav, position, taxi, landing and strobe lights.  I also set up the cockpit just right, including having my headlamp and at least 3 other flashlights within easy reach—you can never have too many flashlights handy when flying at night!

 

I fired up the plane at about 5pm and proceeded to do 7 landings as the sun set.  It was a crystal clear evening—not a cloud in the sky and a beautiful sun setting red in the west.  Towards the last of the 7 landings, as I made the right turn onto final approach for runway 29, the skyline of Manhattan was silhouetted beautifully against a red backdrop—gorgeous!  Although it was a beautiful sunset, it was still windy up there, with a significant crosswind—again almost 40-50 degrees off the runway heading and a stiff 12-18kts.  Good thing I had practiced crosswind landings last weekend!

 

At about 6pm, I made a full stop and taxied back to Three Wing and shut the plane down so that I could stretch my legs and wait for full (and legal) night to fall.  At 6:30, I headed back out, did another walkaround pre-flight and ensured all of my flashlights were handy and started the Skylane back up.  By 6:45, now fully legally night, I was back up in the gusty air.

 

What a gorgeous view at night—all the lights below, traffic moving on I-95 and the Merritt, heavy jets making their approaches to Kennedy and LaGuardia….But flying the plane was first priority and heading out into the inky Long Island Sound while on the downwind leg to runway 29 was a bit disconcerting without the visual references.  You pay a lot more attention to flying by the numbers, and referencing the instruments (attitude indicator (artificial horizon), altimeter, airspeed), particularly when the airport is behind you out of site.

 

The strong crosswind wasn’t helping much, but I made three stop-and-go landings and then a final full stop landing and none of them were too ugly.  The landing light playing across the runway really shows you how much you can bobble with the wind though!

 

I went home feeling as though I’d been through a couple of rounds in the ring because of the wind, but also feeling good about regaining my currency and getting some solo night time in.

A Little Catch-Up Music Please...

A couple of weekends ago I practiced some cross-wind takeoffs and landings in the Cessna 182RG.  On a gusty chilly morning, Keith, one of the Three Wing line guys, was extremely helpful in pre-heating the engine for me while I pre-flighted and watched the pre-heat operation.  (Essentially, it’s a propane tank attached to an ignition source and a blower, connected to two large flexible hoses that are inserted into the air intakes on the cowling.  With a padded blanket on top of the cowling, warm air is circulated throughout the engine compartment to heat the engine block and the oil.)  

 

After an easy engine start (I LOVE this airplane), I let her continue to warm up, monitoring the engine gauges for pressure and temperature.  It gave me a couple extra minutes to get the GPS and comms set up.    Then it was taxi to Runway 24 and launch into a bright sunny morning. 

 

All told, I did 10 touch and go landing and 1 full stop over 1.3 hours.  Virtually all of them had some cross-wind component, generally about 30-40 degrees off the runway.  Over the course of the practice, the wind kept shifting, from WSW to WNW, so halfway through my session, the tower had me change over to landing on Runway 29.  All the landings were acceptable, though only one or two made me feel good.  But with gusty winds, I didn’t feel too badly about it.

 

Unfortunately, the late morning started to get a bit busy with pilots wandering into the area for some practice.  As a result, the controllers started getting frantic, particularly when one guy came in from Long Island and reported himself in 3-4 different positions from the airport, none of them right.  Another guy wasn’t listening whenever the tower called him, so it got a bit dicey and the tower started issuing warnings about listening up and playing nice.  At one point the tower called out to the three of us already in the pattern to “use extreme caution” as other aircraft were in the area and he didn’t have them under control or in sight.  That was my cue to call it a day and make a full stop landing.

 

Oddly enough, I got an email from my dad the next day asking if I was the guy doing landing practice in a retractable from about 10:30-11:30am.  When I told him it was, he explained that he had been with one of his buddies, duck hunting in the marsh area directly below the final approach to Runway 24.  Not that a shotgun would have likely done damage at that range, but good to note that at least it was experienced intelligent hunters below!  Lucky too that it was the last day of hunting this season.