No Progress

Things have gone frustratingly slow. I wanted to fly on Saturday, but (a) I was tired, (b) it was hazy, and (c) the plane had an oil leak and my booking was cancelled. I wanted to fly this morning, but it's miserable and pouring outside. I'm booked tomorrow morning, but I'm not convinced it'll be any better by then.

I've been unable to book an examiner before March 27, which is a MONTH from now. I'm not really happy about this, as it means I'll need to maintain test-readiness for a really long time. Or I could just forget everything and spend my birthday studying. Either way, not great; I was hoping to fly to a gig in Monterey on March 15, and I was also hoping to fly someplace with my girlfriend for my birthday. Neither trip will happen, barring something unexpected. We'll see what Kevin has to say when he gets back on Wednesday. I guess at least I'll have lots of time to perfect my special landings and my maneuvers, and study for the ground exam.

Check Ride Prep #1, and Written Exam

I passed my written exam this morning! With flying colors (heh) no less! 97% -- I missed 2 questions out of 60. It wasn't without its share of turmoil; I'd forgotten my log book at home, but they were nice enough to let me take the test if I faxed them the endorsement later today, which I did. The test was done on a computer, but thankfully they had a hard copy of all the figures to refer to (looking at charts on a computer is hard). I'm not sure which 2 I'd missed; between my Gleim FAA Test Prep book and the awesome website 4VFR.com, I'd seen all the questions before except one. I probably missed that one. Doesn't matter, as Kevin says, if I get 100%, the FAA examiner will think I'm "some kind of wise guy."

Yesterday I had my first check ride prep lesson. Looks like things will be pretty straight forward; the hardest part (other than short field landings) was learning operations at Reid Hillview Airport, where I will park and pick up the examiner. We reviewed stalls, slow flight and steep turns -- my maneuvers are always so much better with Kevin in the plane. I'm going to go out this weekend and practice a bit though, just to get it back in my brain.

In another stroke of extreme luck, I was assigned my final phase check instructor today -- I got Chris, the instructor who had subbed for Kevin when he was gone! This is great; I really trust Chris to be honest with me and not be a jerk about it.

Things are in motion. My next check ride prep will be _next_ Thursday; scheduling is not working out until then but it's just as well as I could use the time for solo flying.

Long Solo Cross Country: Done.

After a week of bad weather, I showed up at Palo Alto yesterday, eager to get my long solo cross country requirement done. The requirement is 150nm total flight (that's nautical miles, not nanometers), two landings, each 50nm away from my home airport. In addition, I need 5.0 hours total of cross country flight, so it would behoove me to make this flight 3.3 hours or longer (my first cross country to Salinas and back was 1.7 hours).

I came with a plan to fly to King City and then to Modesto, and then back to PAO. But in looking at the weather in the valley, it looked like the fog wasn't going to lift, so Kevin told me I should just fly to King City and land in Salinas on the way back, and if I didn't reach 3.3 hours I could do another flight over to Salinas today.

So off I went. Left Dumbarton departure, cleared for takeoff, off I go, and a left turn, and....what are all those clouds doing there? There weren't supposed to be clouds!! I looked..where did they come from? Can I turn around? What's the best way to turn around, and what do I say? Well...maybe I can get over them. Yeah, it's looking like they're a ways lower than me actually. OK, no problem. Over to the south, looks like somewhat less clouds. Alright, let's do it.

So I got over the clouds, not quite making it to SLAC, turning early to avoid a cloud and heading for Lexington Reservoir, my second checkpoint. I had my GPS with me, and I relied on it rather heavily at this point. Note that I never did my climb checklist...

Finally I got up to 5500 feet. As I got to Lexington Reservoir, again there was a bank of clouds in front of me, but I saw a clear path by the coast, so I turned right, went around the clouds and reintercepted my course over Watsonville. I tuned in the local Norcal Approach frequency and considered asking for flight following, but every time I geared up to do so, I got distracted by something. So I never did, but at least I listened in; at some point they were alerting other aircraft to my presence so that was comforting.

I had cut back to about 90 KTAS (that's Knots True AirSpeed) after takeoff, so I puttered along and started looking for my checkpoints. I started my descent, and got to King City a little faster than anticipated. Note that I never did my descent checklist. I circled over the airport, my radio comm was great. I saw the windsock and decided to land on Runway 11. Announcing my intentions, I went off to the west and prepared to come in on the downwind, according to my drawing that I'd done in advance. As I started to turn towards the approach to the downwind, I got ready to announce my path, and...wait a minute, my path was putting me on RIGHT downwind, not LEFT!! I double checked the charts; no, it really should be left! My drawing was BACKWARDS!! So I climbed back up and went back to midfield ("King City traffic, Cessna 6521J one more time over midfield, altitude two thousand three hundred, King City"). By this time I was a little freaked out. I entered the left pattern, but as I turned base and final (note: no pre-landing checklist!) I was distracted by some power lines that were nowhere near me. So I ended up way high and had to go around. Full power and...why am I climbing so slowly? Uh...carb heat's on! ACK -- my fuel mixture's too lean; I never richened it on my descent! Gee, if only they made some kind of checklist....oh, yeah...

So I went around, my second approach was much better and I had a good landing. I taxied back, plotted my return course for Salinas, and took off. I got up to 4500 feet, again thinking about flight following but decided I was only 20nm out and I may as well just tune Salinas Tower. So I did after listening to ATIS (the pre-recorded weather info that tells you conditions and what runway to use) and they said runway 13 was active. Perfect, just what I was expecting. Now, complicating matters was the fact that my bladder was complaining pretty badly at this point. So I figured, I could park at Salinas, take care of things, take a break and head back. I contacted the tower 10 miles out. "Cessna 6521J," they said, " enter left base runway 26, report 3 miles." "Roger, 26 left base, 3 miles." Um...okay, where the heck is 26? Now, if I were not really tired I could've figured this out, and in fact I did figure it out. But as I got close, I got nervous, and basically had to ask for help. At 4 miles out I requested vectors, and I think the tower was confused because I was exactly on course. But always better to ask, right? And they're really friendly down there.

So I landed (ugly; I hit a little hard) and asked for directions to transient parking (thank goodness I knew that word). I parked, and as I did so a guy ran out and directed me into the space! I thought that was awesome, though I wished I'd reviewed my ground hand signals (he just used two, straight ahead and cut power, and I remembered those). I used the facilities and called Kevin. I told him where I was and that I only needed 1.2 more hours (since I'd taken up so much time messing around at King City, and flying slow). He recommended I could take the coast route, up to Half Moon Bay, and back over. I told him there were lots of clouds so I didn't have a lot of flexibility in my path, but that I'd give it a look.

I took off, feeling silly as I asked for a "northbound departure." But it did the job, they directed me to 13 and gave me a left downwind departure, which is what I expected. I took off and climbed to 2500 before realizing that I really didn't want to (a) go to 4500, because of the clouds, and (b) go over the hills past Lexington Reservoir, because of the clouds. I'm sure I could've made it, but it would've been really stressful. So I stayed at 2500 and went the coast route. If I weren't so stressed out, it'd have been beautiful. But I was worried, about possible emergency landing sites (some stretches of the coast are not very hospitable), about fuel burn (I had nothing to worry about, but still), and traffic (wouldn't everyone be flying at 2500 over Highway 1?). And clouds, of which there were a few to be avoided. Oh, and turbulence. Man, it was a bit rocky! I'm sure a more experienced pilot would just laugh at me, but I found it pretty uncomfortable.

I got near HMB and turned right, over the hills, steeling myself for what I was sure would be a bumpy ride. I was right, but I just kept repeating to myself, wings level, hold them level. I had plenty of altitude, and was happy to see San Antonio Reservoir and make the right down 280 to SLAC. I reported inbound, descended rapidly, and made my approach. They reported winds 360 at 8 (that's from the north, at 8 knots), which would've been a reasonable crosswind (50 degrees from parallel to the runway), but nothing unmanageable. As I got down, there was no crosswind at all. My flare was terrible, but the landing itself was fine, if a little long -- I missed the second taxiway, causing the Cirrus behind me to have to go around. Oh well, not my problem, and at least I didn't kill a squirrel this time.

Total time? 3.4 hours. I'm done with Cross Country, and moving on to check ride prep. I think I need to practice my left patterns at some point -- I'm much more comfortable in right patterns because that's what's normal at PAO, but they're not standard everywhere else. Today is check ride prep #1.

Solo Cross Country...and more waiting

I did my first solo cross country last Monday! It was great -- Modesto was still hazed in, but Kevin helped me quickly plan a flight to Salinas, so I went there instead.

The flight was totally easy. I took off from PAO, went over SLAC, and turned south. One cool thing was that for the first time I brought my GPS. That really helped me avoid the San Jose Class C airspace, and also helped me identify my checkpoints. But I didn't have any trouble looking away from it -- I don't want to become overreliant on it, but I don't think it'll be a problem. For one thing it doesn't know the floors/ceilings of the airspaces, so even with the GPS I was referring to the chart all the time. For another thing, it's so beautiful outside, so I look there!

I flew over KWVI Watsonville, and then straight in to Salinas. I taxied back, asked for a left downwind departure (make your turn early, he says. Which turn?) and headed home. I took Kevin's advice and kept my airspeed low; after all, I need 5 hours of solo cross country time so there's no point in rushing. The flight was a lot of fun and totally smooth.

Since then I've been trying to get my long solo cross country in. Yesterday was far too windy. Today is still far too windy. This weekend a storm system is probably coming in. Next Thursday and Friday I'm out of town. Next Saturday thru Monday Kevin's out of town. So my goal of testing by the end of the month might not happen.

I have flights scheduled for Friday, Saturday, Monday and Tuesday, thinking that the weather will probably not cooperate. But we'll see what happens.

Long Week

It's been a long week, and I've consequently fallen behind my cross country goals. After my phase check on Monday, I met with Kevin briefly on Wednesday, hoping to do my solo flight to Modesto. But the paperwork was not complete yet, so we were out of luck -- I thought about going out to do some pattern work, but I didn't have that much time, and it didn't help that things at my job were exploding (CEO resigned, subsequent reorg) so I just went to work, thinking I could get my time in on Thursday and Friday.

On Thursday, work took over again and I wound up having to be at a meeting. I did think about doing some pattern work, so I got on my bike and headed for the airport. But about two blocks away, I realized I was too tired to ride to the airport, and therefore definitely too tired to be flying around, so I turned around and cancelled the flight.

Then Friday, I was really hopeful. I met with Kevin; the paperwork was complete! He was very complimentary and told me I did a great job. Apparently the phase check CFI said I did great when they talked in person, which was interesting since I had the impression that I did merely OK. I guess it's just that at this phase, there are naturally a lot of things that need polishing, so it seems like I'm still on the steep part of the learning curve, whereas in reality my basic skills are getting more and more solid.

Unfortunately, the weather was not cooperating; visibility was about 3SM at Modesto, and only about 7SM at Palo Alto. I keep wanting to type "Palo Alito" -- it's like now that I work for a subsidiary of Amazon, I can no longer type the word "amazing." Anyway, that was not the biggest of my problems; the bigger problem was that I'd misplaced my medical certificate. The phase check CFI had checked it before my phase check flight, and I hadn't seen it since. I turned my flight bag inside out, I checked everywhere, I called home and had my girlfriend looking for it...nothing. The process for replacing one of these is to write a letter to the FAA requesting a copy, which they'll send in their sweet time. Not something I wanted to be doing right now. So last night it finally turned up; it was buried in my flight bag (why I didn't find it the first two times I looked, I don't know) inside a book. So I'm certified again, which is a huge relief, and I finally took the advice of just about everyone and created a little pouch for it on the back cover of my log book.

I'm going to come up with an alternate flight plan for Monday morning; if Modesto's too hazy I want a better option. Kevin suggested that for my long cross-country, I should go PAO-MOD-somewhere in the central valley, but also plan out PAO-King City-Salinas-PAO in case the valley's still hazy. I'd love to fly into Monterey, but probably now's not the best time for me to complicate things with a Class C airport.

So, the current schedule is that I'm basically using all of my backup dates, and I should still be done by the end of the month. Let's hope for cooperation from the elements!

Phase Checked!

All I can say is, this phase check was a lot better than the last one. My phase check CFI (let's call him Mary; if he reads this he'll laugh) was a really nice guy and a really experienced pilot, which is a good thing -- you figure if someone's been flying for such a long time and is still alive, he's got to be doing something right.

We started with the ground session. It went fine, but I was definitely doing some guessing on the chart, and at times not guessing very well. I need to review the meanings of the designations on military routes. I also need to review the effects of loading; i.e. forward or aft CG means what for handling? And weather -- I still need to study weather. Types of fog, etc. But all in all it went pretty well.

So out to the plane. It's funny, most of the time, the planes I fly have full fuel and adequate oil when I get to the ramp. Today, of course, I had less than 1/2 fuel (when I need full for sure), and low oil. Naturally. Anyway, no problem, just additional time and stress.

We took off out of PAO on a right Dumbarton departure, using a soft field takeoff. The takeoff was a little rocky -- Mary told me later that I didn't correct for the crosswind, and therefore had trouble. But not too shabby. We flew out over Sunol, out past Tracy and to Modesto. I'd forgotten to mark down my departure time (big no-no) but he didn't ding me too hard for that one. I marked my time at Sunol, and was late to Tracy. So I did a back-of-the-envelope recalculation on the remainder of my trip, and wound up being exactly right! Funny how this stuff actually works. I was instructed to come in on Runway 28L, but as I was entering the downwind, another aircraft was instructed to use 10L, so I called in to verify. Not a bad thing IMO.

We did a soft-field landing in Modesto, and it was not my best. I should've gone around, actually - I forgot I was doing a soft field landing in the middle of my flare, and then remembered, but the power out then in disrupted my flare enough to make my landing not very soft. But oh well. On taxi-back, I had an embarassing moment where I almost drove the plane off the taxiway because I was looking at a chart or something. Ugh.

So we took off, tracked toward Manteca VOR, and then he asked me to divert to Byron. This didn't go so well; I had a lot of trouble estimating time, given speed and distance. Later he told me, I should really pull out my plotter and E6B computer -- but Kevin had told me I'd get crucified if I did that, and to use back of the envelope calcs as much as possible! Stylistic differences, looks like.

I got to Byron, overflew and circled a couple of times. My radio work started going to pieces, because I was getting tired. I made a decision to land on Runway 23 even though 30 seemed more central and more active. The wind favored 23. So I got into the pattern pretty well, but my base turn was early and my approach ended up high. So I went around. The second time was great, I landed perfectly.

After leaving Byron, we did some hood work. I did quite well with hood work; only once did he have to say "watch your heading" or anything like that. Not bad! And my unusual attitude recovery was good. Then, he told me to find out where we were. My VOR triangulation should have worked, but I should've used the sectional chart -- I think I completely misread the Oakland VOR, so my triangulation put us somewhere over Fairfield when I knew full well we were over the San Antonio Reservoir near Livermore! Oh well. That was bad.

Then, back to Palo Alto for a soft field landing. That was also a disaster, but I didn't bother going around because I was tired and didn't care.

In the review afterwards, Mary gave me some very good advice, especially about practicing making a very consistent pattern. Put in 10 degrees flaps on the 45 to the downwind, to control airspeed and make adjustments easier. Reduce power abeam the numbers. Look at the runway all the time. Don't put the flaps down during turns -- what if they don't come out evenly? Put in 20 degrees flaps on base, and descend if on path (or high) but just hold altitude if low. Put in full flaps when turning final. This is opposite to what Kevin had said...I guess there are just many ways to do it. In any case, consistency is the key, and I don't quite have that yet.

But, all in all, I'm doing things safely, and that's the important thing. So, looks like I'll be flying to Modesto all alone on Wednesday morning!

Ch-ch-ch-changes

I got a call from the CFI who was to be conducting my cross country phase check, and he got called in for jury duty. So I've been reassigned to a different instructor, who I have been unable to reach so far. I wasn't stressed about this, but now I am a little.

The weather looks like it will probably be OK; Modesto is hazy right now and there's an IFR AIRMET in effect until 1:00PM local covering the area around Modesto, but hopefully as it gets closer it'll be better.

Let's see what happens; let's get this show on the road! Or...in the air!!

Night Cross Country

Kevin and I went to Modesto last night. Pretty uneventful, really; we just flew out to Sunol visually and then tracked the Modesto VOR in. Easy. The hardest part was figuring out where to turn downwind for a runway that's not visible. But even that wasn't too hard.

Kevin says that I'm doing really well, way ahead of schedule. He says the national average number of hours before getting a PPL is about 85, and around here it's close to 95! I'll get it done in about 70. So that's pretty cool. He was very excited about my landing in Palo Alto; he said it was great. I, however, realized that I forgot again to turn the controls into the wind after touchdown. I'll get it...

I also finally updated my online log book, and found that my math skills are a bit lacking. I was almost 20 landings off in my written log book! Crazy.

Next step: Phase check, Monday. Step after that, solo cross country back to Modesto. The follow up probably won't be needed either; I can just do my cross country then. I need to schedule my written exam.

The schedule:

Date/Time         AC         Note
2/6 1330 - 1900 Mon 6521J C-172 PAO X-co phase check
2/8 0930 - 1200 Wed 9849L C-172 PAO Phase check follow 
                                        up OR solo XC
2/9 1100 - 1400 Thu 6521J C-172 PAO Solo XC OR long solo XC
2/10 1330 - 1800 Fri 6521J C-172 PAO X-co phase check backup
                                        /long solo XC if needed
2/13 0830 - 1200 Mon 6521J C-172 PAO Check ride prep #1
2/14 1500 - 1800 Tue 6521J C-172 PAO Check ride prep #2
2/16 1500 - 1800 Thu 6521J C-172 PAO Check ride prep #3
2/18 1230 - 1600 Sat 6521J C-172 PAO Check ride prep backup
2/20 0830 - 1200 Mon 6521J C-172 PAO Check ride prep backup

Postponed Again!

My phase check got postponed again! Man. I was all set to go, too, but the 1/4 SM visibility on both ends of the journey kind of put a damper on things. So we've rescheduled for Monday. The good news is, if my night flight happens tonight, I'll get some experience going to Modesto before my phase check, which will only help me.

I've created a schedule that should have me done by the end of the month. I figure there are 10 flights that have to happen, so I scheduled all of them (except the last two, which are the final phase check and the FAA check ride, which I can't schedule just yet). Here's the schedule:

Date/Time	AC	Note
2/4 1730 - 2100 Sat	9849L C-172 PAO	Night XC
2/6 1330 - 1900 Mon	6521J C-172 PAO	X-co phase check
2/8 0930 - 1200 Wed	9849L C-172 PAO	Phase check follow up
2/9 1100 - 1400 Thu	6521J C-172 PAO	Solo XC
2/9 1730 - 2100 Thu	9849L C-172 PAO	Night XC backup (if needed)
2/10 1330 - 1800 Fri	6521J C-172 PAO	X-co phase check backup if needed, else long solo XC
2/13 0830 - 1200 Mon	6521J C-172 PAO	Check ride prep #1
2/14 1500 - 1800 Tue	6521J C-172 PAO	Check ride prep #2
2/16 1500 - 1800 Thu	6521J C-172 PAO	Check ride prep #3
2/18 1230 - 1600 Sat	6521J C-172 PAO	Check ride prep backup
2/20 0830 - 1200 Mon	6521J C-172 PAO	Check ride prep backup

So that includes all the backups and everything I should need, so worst case I should be done with all that and ready for the FAA check ride by the end of the month, with plenty of time to spare. This does assume a LOT of flying, a lot of cooperation from my job, the weather, my girlfriend, the club's scheduling system and airplanes.

In the mean time, I keep re-reading everything hoping to cram bits of information into my head -- I think I finally got the cloud clearances in various airspaces thing mostly down!

Two Mile Final

I'm close. I can feel it, I'm almost there. Kevin tells me I'm on "short final" and I need to just stay focused, keep flying, keep neglecting the rest of my life for just a little while longer. But it's not really short final, it's longer than that -- like a 2 mile final. It's been really hard; my band has a CD coming out and I need to help promote it. My job and my home life both require attention..I think I may be completely out of clean underwear right now. But as Kevin said, I need to just stay focused and I'll be done soon. Once I have that piece of paper, I can take as long a break as I want.

On Tuesday 1/31 I went out in the morning for 1.4 hours and practiced landings, over and over again. Ten landings in all, mostly soft field but a few attempts at short field, one of which actually worked to some extent. I had some absolutely beautiful soft field landings! Then at night we went out on my first night flight; we flew to LVK and did a few landings there, then back to PAO and some more pattern work there. It was not hard, but that is in large part due to Kevin's 700+ hours of experience flying at night.

For instance, one of the things that I've read so much about is how hard it is to judge height off the runway at night. I found that to be absolutely true. Kevin's solution? Use soft-field landing technique, and if in doubt, flare a little high. Result? Nice soft landings, every time. We even did an engine out simulation (which of course required a normal landing technique rather than soft field), and I nailed it. I'm feeling really confident (but not overconfident, just that I know what I know and I'm pretty consistent with it) and ready for my phase check tomorrow.

I wish I'd gotten to go out today, for one reason -- Kevin corrected my approach technique on Tuesday night and I haven't really had a chance to practice. I've been engaging full flaps as soon as I turn final; this is not actually the right thing to do (except on a short field approach) and could be dangerous if I have an engine failure on final. On our final landing on Tuesday night, Kevin had me come in with 20 degrees of flaps, and just extend full flaps only about 1/4 mile (or less) before the runway. It was actually much easier to stay on glide slope, easier to control the craft with slightly higher airspeed (65-70 knots vs. 55-60). So, something to practice during my phase check -- and I'm not really worried since the new way is easier anyway.

I'm also scheduled for a night flight on Saturday; we're just going to go to Modesto and back. And after the solo x-countries are completed, Kevin says he needs 3 lessons with me and then I'm done.

So, by my count, I have 10 flights left:

10. Solo X-Country Phase Check
9. Brush up from solo x-country phase check (+ hood time)
8. One more night flight
7. Solo cross country
6. Long solo cross country
5. Lesson #1
4. Lesson #2
3. Lesson #3
2. Private Pilot Phase Check
1. Private Pilot FAA Check Ride

I'm sure I'll put in some solo time as well, but it looks like I'll probably be done right around 60-65 hours, which is pretty much exactly what I was told it would take. Amazing.