No-go

After all that preparation, the check ride didn't happen yesterday. Not really a big deal; I think the most frustrating part was that if the storm had come in only 4 hours later or so, then I could've easily gotten it done. Oh well! So, April 17 is the new date, three weeks from now. If the weather ever gets sunny, then maybe I'll be better at my maneuvers by then anyway. Speaking of the weather, I heard that this March was the wettest March EVER in the area's recorded history. Way to go, Mayank, that's the way to time it...

So, I've been doing lots of ground review, just keeping myself interested. I've been fantasizing (again) about becoming an owner or part-owner of an airplane. And, I've been exploring aviation related websites. I thought this one was hilarious!

Bringing general aviation to the American public, in the '50s! Wow. The plane is just like a minivan! In reality, that's a pretty crappy little minivan, with only 4 seats and a 4-cylinder 160HP engine.

This one is interesting; it hooks up private pilots and potential passengers for pro-rata pay (heh!). Private pilots are not permitted to accept payment from passengers, but they can split costs as long as they pay their pro-rata share.

So, back to ground study, and hopefully the occasional solo flight. Now that I'm signed off to go to Reid-Hillview, I'll probably do some laps of Palo Alto - Reid Hillview - Livermore and back, and do some slow flight/steep turns/stalls on the way back. More fun than just hanging out in the pattern -- and more expensive, but at this point it's a drop in the bucket.

Prep Flight

Today Kevin and I had a prep flight for tomorrow's check ride. We went through the routine, got more practice at RHV (and they gave me practice, too, switching me back and forth between runways on both of my approaches). It was good. We filled out all the forms, and got all the paperwork done.

One problem -- extreme unlikelihood of there being a check ride tomorrow. The forecast for the early afternoon is trending worse. I'm probably just going to make the call in an hour or two and call Lori the Examiner to reschedule.

In any case, it's not such a bad thing. More time to practice, right? Today's flight was lots of fun, and I'm looking forward to whatever comes next!

Half A Milestone

Today I had the ground portion of my final phase check, with Chris. It was too cloudy and windy to fly, so he just drilled me on ground knowledge. It was pretty intense. I did very well; I still need to review things like minimum equipment lists and a little bit about how flight controls work.

The schedule for Monday is looking pretty sketchy. I'll probably fly tomorrow with Kevin, but Monday looks to be windy, and even if it is nice, I'll be squeezing in the flight portion of my phase check the morning of the check ride. Smart? I don't know, I can't really tell.

We'll just see what happens. I'm pretty at peace with the whole thing; if it happens, it happens. If not, it'll happen next week sometime. What I'm annoyed about is that 6521J is scheduled from Wednesday to (at least) Saturday for maintenance. Makes me wonder what's going on.

Whatever. The thing is, I'm already a pilot. I can fly, I can be safe, I can make good decisions and I can deal with unexpected situations. Sure, not as well as someone with 500 hours, but a piece of paper isn't going to change that. So, whatever.

Pessimist, or Realist?

Kevin and I went out yesterday for what was ostensibly Check Ride Prep #2. We only flew for 0.9 hours, and out of San Carlos (SQL) no less. But we practiced some short field landings, slow flight, steep turns, stalls and some hood time. At this point, I am 0.9 hours short on hood time, and I still need to take my phase check. I talked with Chris, who is doing my phase check, earlier today, and he had me plan a trip to Fresno. I thought this would be good practice for my check ride, but since my check ride starts at Reid Hillview in San Jose, the route is pretty different. I went ahead and did the planning, but we couldn't fly today as the clouds and rain came in.

At this point, I don't think there's any way I can be prepared for a check ride on Monday, even if the weather on Monday itself is good. I'd need for the weather to be good tomorrow, which is not likely, so Chris and I can do the phase check. Otherwise, I guess Chris and I could fly on Sunday, and Kevin and I could potentially go for one last flight on Monday morning, early. Crazy. And that's IF the weather's good on Monday. Forecast says rain showers.

This is so frustrating. I guess it's part of the lesson, right? There'll be times when I've spent lots of time planning a trip, and then just can't go because of the weather. Hopefully the Examiner's schedule is not booked up for the next three months.

Busy, Busy!

I went out and got some more practice today, after I convinced myself (with, again, a little help from Kevin) that the 10 knot wind directly along the runway wasn't going to shift and become a direct crosswind. The coolest thing about today was that, given the incredibly nice weather and the high chance of rain tomorrow and for the rest of...the year, I think...it was really busy out today, so it was a challenge to my radio work, and I did very well.

I did have to wait a while to get my initial call in to ground control. But when I did, I rattled off my request like a pro. Someone stepped on me, so I did it again. On my way out, another plane was coming in -- usually the plane coming in has right of way, but in this case I guess I was directly blocking their path, so after a momentary standoff, I went ahead and taxied all the way around the "terminal side." More on that later.

I did my runup, and edged my "ready for takeoff" in amongst a lot of chatter. Based on the traffic level, I'd decided that I'd be best served to leave the airport and work on maneuvers, so I took a right Dumbarton departure (he offered me a right crosswind if I wanted it, but I wanted to go with what was familiar so I declined) and flew out to Sunol. Over the San Antonio reservoir, I did a clearing turn and started practicing steep turns. After a few balky attempts, I realized that I was so concerned about other traffic running into me that I was not concentrating. So a couple of times I tried really concentrating and not worrying about other traffic, and that went much better. I thought about trying slow flight and stalls, but...well, I'd just done about 7 steep turns, and I was feeling like getting back.

So I headed back in to Palo Alto, again with excellent communication, and entered the pattern. I was having a really hard time seeing traffic today for some reason -- I blame my sunglasses -- so I had to be vectored in behind some other aircraft, and had to have my base turn called for me a couple of times. I did a total of 6 landings. The 4th and the 6th were really, really good! The 5th was the worst; it wasn't bad but just not smooth at all, so I went for one more after that. All in all, a good day's work!

Later in the afternoon, my girlfriend and I were driving around looking for something to do, and we ended up in Palo Alto. She suggested that we could go out and watch planes (something we like doing), which we'd done at the departure end of Runway 31 before, but I figured maybe it'd be easier to get to the arrival end of the Runway. Anyway, we wound up seeing a lot of my usual air landmarks from the ground, which was really interesting! We watched 6521J do its runup and do some pattern work; we checked out the "duck pond" which I'm always afraid I'm going to land in, but from ground level you get a good feel for the fact that planes on a normal approach are still pretty far off the ground at that point. I also saw the Palo Alto Airport Terminal, which for some reason I never really realized existed (I'm not sure what I thought the "terminal side" meant!). One of these days I'll have to go in and check it out!

So now the week of intense concentration begins. Let's hope and pray that the weather cooperates. I just need good enough weather to get my work done on Tuesday, and then Friday thru Monday. Sunday is officially my birthday, but I'm delaying it until the following Saturday (which is my birthday according to the Indian calendar).

Five Landings

I managed to get out and do some pattern work today, for the first time in 20 days. There were clouds; the ceiling was about 4000 feet, but I was only going up to 800, so it didn't matter. I ran into Kevin on my way out, and asked him how it was. He agreed that pattern work would be fine, which was nice because I was not too confident in my decision, so it was good to have the affirmation.

Runway 13 was in use, which always weirds me out. My preflight, taxi and runup all went well, no surprises. Then came the pattern work. I'd resolved to time my departures and arrivals, which I wound up doing at about an 80% rate of success. Not bad. I'd also resolved to keep my controls into the wind properly when on the ground, which I did well pretty much all the time except immediately after touchdown. Gotta work on that.

My first pattern was disconcerting -- I went up, and probably would've just kept climbing if I didn't get a hint from the tower, telling another aircraft to watch for "a Cessna turning crosswind at 800 feet" even though I was already at 900. I reacted quickly and corrected.

There was a strong updraft on short final -- every time, I came down right on the glide slope, then next thing I know I'm high, so I cut power and go full flaps -- and then it feels like I have no lift at all and I'm headed for the ground. The first couple of times I panicked and added lots of power, the second time so much that I had to go around. It was good to go around, I have to practice that anyway. The last few, I just resolved to land farther down the runway. My landings were a little rough; I had a couple of small bounces and a couple of slightly hard landings. I think I do need to hold it off longer; I was being a little wimpy on the controls, which happens when I lose my touch. Rudders, too -- I finally started getting the rudders on my 5th and final lap.

So, I did it. Good thing, too, since we have another week of storms forecast!

I'm Never Flying Again

Or at least, that's what it feels like. The weather's still been bad. I thought this afternoon might be a possibility, but with a ceiling that's descending and thunderstorms in San Jose, no thanks.

My next flight is scheduled for Tuesday morning, which will be an even 3 weeks since the last time. Of course another storm system is supposed to come in by then, so let's just say I'm not holding my breath. My girlfriend thinks that this is the beginning of a new Ice Age, which from my perspective would be extremely bad timing. "Can you believe that? I was about to finish my private pilot training, and BAM! Ice Age. Just my luck!"

On the up side, I've been doing lots of visualization exercises. This might be a good opportunity to break some old bad habits, and get into some new good ones! I've already resolved to time every lap around the pattern and write it down, so I get in the habit of noting my time off and my time in. The other things I need work on are taxiing in the wind, and making sure to always use my checklists. I could just go out and taxi around for a while, but I think ground control would get annoyed fast :-)

Still Grounded

Wow, it's been over 2 weeks since I last flew. The weather's not been cooperating at all; it's been rainy and/or low-overcast and/or windy. Today I was supposed to go, but I looked at the METAR from PAO:

KPAO 091554Z 27012KT 15SM FEW025 BKN150 09/02 A3002

The visibility is good, clouds not a factor, good temp/dewpoint spread...but that 12 knot wind at 270 is a problem; that comes out to an 8 knot crosswind component. My endorsement is only good up to 6 knots (and besides, I think I can handle an 8 knot crosswind but not when I haven't flown in 2+ weeks). So, no flying.

Good thing the check ride's not till March 27! That worked out extremely well, as it turns out. Hopefully next week the weather will improve and I'll get my flights in.

In the meantime I'm lusting after used aircraft. I don't think I'll actually be in a position to purchase any time soon, but they're fun to look at. West Valley has a pretty wide selection of planes to rent, and my first goal will be to get checked out on a couple of different models. Especially the Piper Warrior and the Cessna 172SP -- the Piper for a different maker, and the SP for the higher performance and availability for longer rentals. I'm thinking that flying is like swing dancing -- just as dancing with lots of different partners makes you a better dancer, flying different planes should (I hope) make me a better pilot!