Without a doubt, blogging has added another dimension to my flight training. I suspect many bloggers notice as well. Foreknowledge of writing about an experience at a later date affects the experience itself. Conversely, feeling compelled to write regularly about a subject can often put a strain on the Muse's structural integrity. So when in doubt, exploit small children. My most recent photo download included shots from today at the airport as well as from a party I hosted last night.
This is my friend Matthew's son, Barrett, showing me his toy plane and how it flies. He's two years old. He understands that there are machines like this that like birds, fly. He thinks they're cool, not as cool as trains perhaps but I suspect in the top five of all things cool. Granted he's smarter than the average cub. But still, good enough for me. At the very least his raw senses of wonder and simplicity are some things I should occasionally strive to keep more in the forefront of my mind.
I remember attending a welcome speech at Cornell back in 1987. The speaker, a senior, was quoting from a recently published book, "All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten." He included bits of wisdom like: share everything, play fair, don't hit people, etc... I think you get the idea. While effective rhetoric for incoming college freshmen, I've always remained a bit uncomfortable with some of the implied logic that glosses over the inherent complexities of most situations. Surely the subject is one for debate. Keeping simple rules in mind can often serve us well. I remember learning a design technique in computer science: KISS (keep it simple stupid). In fact, while flying I might do better to try and remember some of the simple rules. But the fact is, there are MANY simple rules that need to be remembered at the same time in a type of mental rotation. If you forget them you can (in the worst case) kill or severely maim yourself and other people. That's probably not a good thing to tell kids in kindergarten and I doubt Barrett would want to hear about what happens when a plane really crashes. I guess balancing the child mind with all its potential for awe and wonder with the adult mind that understands responsibility and consequence is at the very least an interesting mediation for me to consider practicing more.
I have no idea why I'm ending all my paragraphs with conclusions about things I "should" do or do more often. Maybe I'm feeling subconsciously that if I repeatedly tell myself the right thing to do, next time I'll do better. I guess blogs can be a form of self-help, literally. I suppose it's better than me telling people what "they" should do. Take it all with as large a grain of salt as you need.
Anyhow, my regular Cessna 172 wasn't available today. Seems like she's having some trouble with her nose gear. Blessing became fortune as I had to fly a newer (2004) model instead, a 172SP. She's newer, has more power, fuel injection, GPS, autopilot, and a spiffy modern cockpit.
She also has five drain plugs under each wing that need to be checked plus three under her belly. That's thirteen total fuel drains that need checking instead of just three on the older 172 I normally fly. Safety means more pre flight time filling and staring at a bottle of highly refined, light blue petroleum product. Perhaps Regan sensed that it was going to take me a bit longer to check out this bird since I was less familiar with her. Either that or he's just coming to accept the fact that I'm sometimes slow. Regardless, I had a few extra moments to snap shots of precisely the kinds of things that we check.
Here's a flap strut. Flaps extend the wing and generate more lift. They're used when flying at slow speed and for landing. You don't want any cracks in these struts and like everything else on the plane all nuts and bolts should be secure and snug.
Here is an infamous "piano wire" hinge. There are three on each wing of this particular plane. They attach the ailerons to the wing itself. It's important that the wire is visible, unbroken and bolted down at the end.
Lastly, although there are of course many more items on the checklist, here is part of the tail elevator assembly. I still haven't braved how to set manual controls on my camera, so please excuse the excessive shadow here.
After a slightly longer pre flight inspection I was raring to go. New plane, beautiful day, ground reference maneuvers here I come. I already know some of the issues involved with flying a new plane for the first time. Gauges and controls can be in different places. Engine horsepower varies. Like many things in life, however, nothing substitutes for the real experience. Regan has commented in the past about potential challenges related to flying different planes. Today I found out about some of them first hand in real life detail.
There was a modest crosswind which I managed to successfully deal with at takeoff. I think I have that one down now. You can simply feel the controls push back to a more neutral position. As always, a light touch on the yoke goes a very long way. This is likely to be a main area of work for me in coming weeks.
One particular maneuver Regan showed me today was steep banked turns. Basically you tilt the plane 45 degrees while turning a full circle. It's fine when you're doing it yourself. But when someone else is, the G forces don't seem to mix well with the chemicals in your stomach. I scrambled for some ginger gum but was a bit late. My adrenaline was up. So while I was more or less able to repeat the maneuver, I fumbled a relatively easy one we tried afterwards.
There are a couple of different types of stalls. One involves slow speed and not enough air over the wing. Another involves full power but too steep an angle of attack. IE., the plane is pointed too far upward. When we tried this maneuver before, I loved it. It's fundamentally a very simple one. Today however, some combination of my raised adrenaline plus the virtue of this plane's dynamics put evil ball in a bad place. So I overcompensated. Overcompensation can often lead to this negative, oscillating feedback loop where you struggle back and forth with the controls eventually leading to very uncoordinated flight. The thing is, a stall plus uncoordinated flight can lead to a spin. Spins are bad, very bad, 'nuff said.
In fact, my main problem was not applying enough right rudder pressure. All the fight instruction videos talk about this. You have to apply pretty constant pressure to the right rudder to compensate for the propeller, engine rotation and slipstream. The 172 I normally fly doesn't require very much. But this plane did. I'm still getting used to maintaining constant rudder pressure. It's a bit like your car's accelerator pedal, but there are two of them and they need constant adjustment. Even more tricky is that the tops of the pedals are the brakes when on the ground. Anyhow, lesson learned, hopefully. A bit more of a relaxed and constant control on the pedals will likely lead to more rewarding flight experiences in the future.
I'll have to ask Barrett what he thinks about all this, skipping of course the details of a spin and any other life threatening possibilities. Something tells me he wouldn't mind putting a plane into a full nose dive. Regardless, knowledgeable yet gentle, even playful control remains an almost zen-like objective for me. There, now my self help prose can go into the new age section. Whatever it takes, as the stakes go up from here.
Towards the end of today's lesson we practiced engine failure. Not something fun to think about but one I'll be glad to have at least rehearsed. First objective, keep flying the plane. Sounds simple right? You'd be surprised how even simple things get tossed out of your brain when you're in a plane at four thousand feet without power. Suffice it to say, there are procedures. I wish I had a video of me flipping through the emergency procedure checklist for engine restart while also trying to fly the plane at optimal lift glide speed and maneuver towards an open field where I would theoretically crash land. Some may have found it quite entertaining. If you were sitting in the passenger or back seat, however, perhaps not so much.
At this point I would imagine at least 50% of those who have expressed an interest in flying with me next Spring (or late Winter) are ready to bail. To them I say, "fortune favors the bold." Yet I also acknowledge that fortune also sometimes squashes the bold like bugs on a windscreen. There's that idea of balance again. Regardless, if we end up taking a road trip somewhere and you end up driving, I reserve the right to chuck water balloons (filled with a liquid of my choosing) from my plane down at you on the road.
Frightening as some of the aspects of flying might be it remains a fundamentally magical thing. I am sometimes very much like a child taking baby steps. So now this is me holding up an adult version of a toy plane for all of you to see.
Somebody had a very nice ride parked outside the flight school. I somehow doubt they even fly it. More than likely they pay someone else to. Ugh. I slap my hand to my forehead. But ...
Look, look, look, look! Jet engine impeller fins!!!!
Look! I said look! Are you looking!?!?!?! LOOK!!!!
This is my friend Matthew's son, Barrett, showing me his toy plane and how it flies. He's two years old. He understands that there are machines like this that like birds, fly. He thinks they're cool, not as cool as trains perhaps but I suspect in the top five of all things cool. Granted he's smarter than the average cub. But still, good enough for me. At the very least his raw senses of wonder and simplicity are some things I should occasionally strive to keep more in the forefront of my mind.
I remember attending a welcome speech at Cornell back in 1987. The speaker, a senior, was quoting from a recently published book, "All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten." He included bits of wisdom like: share everything, play fair, don't hit people, etc... I think you get the idea. While effective rhetoric for incoming college freshmen, I've always remained a bit uncomfortable with some of the implied logic that glosses over the inherent complexities of most situations. Surely the subject is one for debate. Keeping simple rules in mind can often serve us well. I remember learning a design technique in computer science: KISS (keep it simple stupid). In fact, while flying I might do better to try and remember some of the simple rules. But the fact is, there are MANY simple rules that need to be remembered at the same time in a type of mental rotation. If you forget them you can (in the worst case) kill or severely maim yourself and other people. That's probably not a good thing to tell kids in kindergarten and I doubt Barrett would want to hear about what happens when a plane really crashes. I guess balancing the child mind with all its potential for awe and wonder with the adult mind that understands responsibility and consequence is at the very least an interesting mediation for me to consider practicing more.
I have no idea why I'm ending all my paragraphs with conclusions about things I "should" do or do more often. Maybe I'm feeling subconsciously that if I repeatedly tell myself the right thing to do, next time I'll do better. I guess blogs can be a form of self-help, literally. I suppose it's better than me telling people what "they" should do. Take it all with as large a grain of salt as you need.
Anyhow, my regular Cessna 172 wasn't available today. Seems like she's having some trouble with her nose gear. Blessing became fortune as I had to fly a newer (2004) model instead, a 172SP. She's newer, has more power, fuel injection, GPS, autopilot, and a spiffy modern cockpit.
She also has five drain plugs under each wing that need to be checked plus three under her belly. That's thirteen total fuel drains that need checking instead of just three on the older 172 I normally fly. Safety means more pre flight time filling and staring at a bottle of highly refined, light blue petroleum product. Perhaps Regan sensed that it was going to take me a bit longer to check out this bird since I was less familiar with her. Either that or he's just coming to accept the fact that I'm sometimes slow. Regardless, I had a few extra moments to snap shots of precisely the kinds of things that we check.
Here's a flap strut. Flaps extend the wing and generate more lift. They're used when flying at slow speed and for landing. You don't want any cracks in these struts and like everything else on the plane all nuts and bolts should be secure and snug.
Here is an infamous "piano wire" hinge. There are three on each wing of this particular plane. They attach the ailerons to the wing itself. It's important that the wire is visible, unbroken and bolted down at the end.
Lastly, although there are of course many more items on the checklist, here is part of the tail elevator assembly. I still haven't braved how to set manual controls on my camera, so please excuse the excessive shadow here.
After a slightly longer pre flight inspection I was raring to go. New plane, beautiful day, ground reference maneuvers here I come. I already know some of the issues involved with flying a new plane for the first time. Gauges and controls can be in different places. Engine horsepower varies. Like many things in life, however, nothing substitutes for the real experience. Regan has commented in the past about potential challenges related to flying different planes. Today I found out about some of them first hand in real life detail.
There was a modest crosswind which I managed to successfully deal with at takeoff. I think I have that one down now. You can simply feel the controls push back to a more neutral position. As always, a light touch on the yoke goes a very long way. This is likely to be a main area of work for me in coming weeks.
One particular maneuver Regan showed me today was steep banked turns. Basically you tilt the plane 45 degrees while turning a full circle. It's fine when you're doing it yourself. But when someone else is, the G forces don't seem to mix well with the chemicals in your stomach. I scrambled for some ginger gum but was a bit late. My adrenaline was up. So while I was more or less able to repeat the maneuver, I fumbled a relatively easy one we tried afterwards.
There are a couple of different types of stalls. One involves slow speed and not enough air over the wing. Another involves full power but too steep an angle of attack. IE., the plane is pointed too far upward. When we tried this maneuver before, I loved it. It's fundamentally a very simple one. Today however, some combination of my raised adrenaline plus the virtue of this plane's dynamics put evil ball in a bad place. So I overcompensated. Overcompensation can often lead to this negative, oscillating feedback loop where you struggle back and forth with the controls eventually leading to very uncoordinated flight. The thing is, a stall plus uncoordinated flight can lead to a spin. Spins are bad, very bad, 'nuff said.
In fact, my main problem was not applying enough right rudder pressure. All the fight instruction videos talk about this. You have to apply pretty constant pressure to the right rudder to compensate for the propeller, engine rotation and slipstream. The 172 I normally fly doesn't require very much. But this plane did. I'm still getting used to maintaining constant rudder pressure. It's a bit like your car's accelerator pedal, but there are two of them and they need constant adjustment. Even more tricky is that the tops of the pedals are the brakes when on the ground. Anyhow, lesson learned, hopefully. A bit more of a relaxed and constant control on the pedals will likely lead to more rewarding flight experiences in the future.
I'll have to ask Barrett what he thinks about all this, skipping of course the details of a spin and any other life threatening possibilities. Something tells me he wouldn't mind putting a plane into a full nose dive. Regardless, knowledgeable yet gentle, even playful control remains an almost zen-like objective for me. There, now my self help prose can go into the new age section. Whatever it takes, as the stakes go up from here.
Towards the end of today's lesson we practiced engine failure. Not something fun to think about but one I'll be glad to have at least rehearsed. First objective, keep flying the plane. Sounds simple right? You'd be surprised how even simple things get tossed out of your brain when you're in a plane at four thousand feet without power. Suffice it to say, there are procedures. I wish I had a video of me flipping through the emergency procedure checklist for engine restart while also trying to fly the plane at optimal lift glide speed and maneuver towards an open field where I would theoretically crash land. Some may have found it quite entertaining. If you were sitting in the passenger or back seat, however, perhaps not so much.
At this point I would imagine at least 50% of those who have expressed an interest in flying with me next Spring (or late Winter) are ready to bail. To them I say, "fortune favors the bold." Yet I also acknowledge that fortune also sometimes squashes the bold like bugs on a windscreen. There's that idea of balance again. Regardless, if we end up taking a road trip somewhere and you end up driving, I reserve the right to chuck water balloons (filled with a liquid of my choosing) from my plane down at you on the road.
Frightening as some of the aspects of flying might be it remains a fundamentally magical thing. I am sometimes very much like a child taking baby steps. So now this is me holding up an adult version of a toy plane for all of you to see.
Somebody had a very nice ride parked outside the flight school. I somehow doubt they even fly it. More than likely they pay someone else to. Ugh. I slap my hand to my forehead. But ...
Look, look, look, look! Jet engine impeller fins!!!!
Look! I said look! Are you looking!?!?!?! LOOK!!!!
2 comments:
mmmmm... impeller fans... jets are so cool. too bad you have to fly crappy propeller planes :-). will you eventually learn to fly a jet, or is that a whole different class of piloting?
It's a way down the road. For me, likely after IR and dual engine certification. There are prop planes that do 400+ mph so jets are only marginally better there. Cirrus is working on a jet aimed at the private pilot market:
http://www.the-jet.com/
You've inspired the idea that I may need to put a paypal link on my site.
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