Sometimes stories don't have a nice consistent theme. It feels much harder to write about flying when the relevant aspects of it are somewhat scattered. I'm getting towards the middle of my training, so lots of things are becoming important to learn and master. Yet being nearer to the front end of that timeline, I'm still much more the novice.
I've been switching planes around between my good old 172 and the newer 172SP. The latter is harder for me to fly. I'm still not used to the tighter controls. The older plane is much more broken in (some might call her loose) which makes her feel easier to fly. But I'm trying to work up to flying faster, more powerful planes. Shane told me I need to pick one and stick with it. So I think I'm going to ask around for the best way to lay out a road map that puts me in high performance planes sooner than later. I'm suspecting that getting the maneuvers down first might be the way to go. Then I can try them in a fancier plane later. At least that's my current thinking.
This past Sunday I went back to practicing turns around a point, "s turns," and stalls. I'll confess, I wasn't in the greatest shape to fly. My lesson was a bit earlier than usual and I had some friends over for dinner and a late night music jam recording session on Saturday. Somehow I managed to drink an extra glass of wine or two. It was very windy flying on Sunday so the extra bounces really didn't go well with the particular type of hangover wine provides. I did my best, but I'm learning that there is sometimes little room for mistakes when flying. Panic and fear are enemies. They can cause you to react incorrectly to a given situation. So as I practiced my power on stall, applying full power and tilting the plane skyward, I noticed evil ball slipping to starboard. So I applied port rudder which is totally the wrong thing to do. I continued to apply more incorrect rudder until Shane had to take the controls. Granted, it's not an uncommon novice mistake. I'm not willing to chalk it all up to being hung over as I wasn't that terribly so by the time we were actually up in the air. But the art of flying can at times run on a very tight margin of error. So even a slight bit of sub par physical or mental state can arguably put those statistical odds just a percentage or two out of favor. It would appear that a new area of training for me is to show restraint the night before I fly. Shane had a different way of phrasing it.
I'm learning more and more with each lesson is that flying requires a level of mastery, not just proficiency, over a number of skills. Looking out the window and sensing what the plane is doing is an obvious one. You can make a strong case for that skill being composed of different types of spatial awareness: feeling how the plane is pitching, yawing or rolling as well as noticing the wing's angle in relation to the horizon. The same goes for balancing all the "looking outside the plane" chops with taking a second or two to scan your instruments inside the cockpit. What are those instruments telling you? How do they match up with what you're seeing and feeling? Harder still is the performance not being a solo one. Your band mate, mother nature, has a complete mind of her own and rarely shares what key she's going to start playing in. Her voice is much stronger than any amp or PA system. In addition to all these sensory disciplines, the ability to make the plane do what you want often in response to what you're seeing and sensing is yet another set of skills to master. All of this needs to be parsed and executed often in just a second or two. Perhaps I should check and see if there are performance enhancing drugs for pilots. I suspect, however, that the optimal state for flying has more to do with a clear, rested, limber, well trained, attentive, focused, balanced body and mind.
My steep angle turns were fine. Flying around a point was very hard as the wind was blowing us all over the place. Getting back out into the practice area was fun though as all I've been doing the past several lessons was flying the traffic pattern from takeoff to landing. That's also fun but I definitely needed to get back to other flight maneuvers if for no other reason than to practice. My s turns were a bit difficult too due to wind and the fact that we picked a road to turn across that wasn't exactly straight. All in all I did pretty well. My radio chops are still weak, so I picked up another textbook devoted to the topic.
Next week, I do my first cross country flight. That simply means I'll be flying from one airport to another. The plan is to fly out to Louisa, which has no control tower. So I need to bone up on the rules for landing on an airstrip. It's a valuable skill. There are lots of beautiful, remote places around the world that only have airstrips. I'm gathering that access to these places is one of the fringe benefits of becoming a pilot.
I suspect one other thing that waking up earlier, bright eyed and bushy tailed will help with is remembering to bring my camera. As I spend a bit more time around pilots and instructors, I'm noticing that the ability to identify planes is somewhat of a universally respected skill. So I'm going to continue practicing that as well. There was an interesting bird parked on the runway as I walked over to do my pre flight but sadly I wasn't able to snap a photo.
The Cessna Skymaster is a twin engine plane with propellers arranged in the front and rear in a push-pull configuration. It's an interesting design. I continue to be amazed at the diversity of aircraft species. Human engineering plays such a crucial role in their evolution and natural selection. The same is true for automobiles. But in the case of planes it feels an entire order of magnitude more pronounced.
I should mention that the weather was gorgeous this weekend with clear skies and near sixty degrees. Being alone with all the planes is definitely more fun when it's not below freezing and windy. There really is something so calm and serene about it. Walking amidst such otherwise noisy machines with such awesome potential (ie., to fly) as they lie dormant and silent is still almost magical for me. I guess I'll see if it's magical enough next week.
I've been switching planes around between my good old 172 and the newer 172SP. The latter is harder for me to fly. I'm still not used to the tighter controls. The older plane is much more broken in (some might call her loose) which makes her feel easier to fly. But I'm trying to work up to flying faster, more powerful planes. Shane told me I need to pick one and stick with it. So I think I'm going to ask around for the best way to lay out a road map that puts me in high performance planes sooner than later. I'm suspecting that getting the maneuvers down first might be the way to go. Then I can try them in a fancier plane later. At least that's my current thinking.
This past Sunday I went back to practicing turns around a point, "s turns," and stalls. I'll confess, I wasn't in the greatest shape to fly. My lesson was a bit earlier than usual and I had some friends over for dinner and a late night music jam recording session on Saturday. Somehow I managed to drink an extra glass of wine or two. It was very windy flying on Sunday so the extra bounces really didn't go well with the particular type of hangover wine provides. I did my best, but I'm learning that there is sometimes little room for mistakes when flying. Panic and fear are enemies. They can cause you to react incorrectly to a given situation. So as I practiced my power on stall, applying full power and tilting the plane skyward, I noticed evil ball slipping to starboard. So I applied port rudder which is totally the wrong thing to do. I continued to apply more incorrect rudder until Shane had to take the controls. Granted, it's not an uncommon novice mistake. I'm not willing to chalk it all up to being hung over as I wasn't that terribly so by the time we were actually up in the air. But the art of flying can at times run on a very tight margin of error. So even a slight bit of sub par physical or mental state can arguably put those statistical odds just a percentage or two out of favor. It would appear that a new area of training for me is to show restraint the night before I fly. Shane had a different way of phrasing it.
I'm learning more and more with each lesson is that flying requires a level of mastery, not just proficiency, over a number of skills. Looking out the window and sensing what the plane is doing is an obvious one. You can make a strong case for that skill being composed of different types of spatial awareness: feeling how the plane is pitching, yawing or rolling as well as noticing the wing's angle in relation to the horizon. The same goes for balancing all the "looking outside the plane" chops with taking a second or two to scan your instruments inside the cockpit. What are those instruments telling you? How do they match up with what you're seeing and feeling? Harder still is the performance not being a solo one. Your band mate, mother nature, has a complete mind of her own and rarely shares what key she's going to start playing in. Her voice is much stronger than any amp or PA system. In addition to all these sensory disciplines, the ability to make the plane do what you want often in response to what you're seeing and sensing is yet another set of skills to master. All of this needs to be parsed and executed often in just a second or two. Perhaps I should check and see if there are performance enhancing drugs for pilots. I suspect, however, that the optimal state for flying has more to do with a clear, rested, limber, well trained, attentive, focused, balanced body and mind.
My steep angle turns were fine. Flying around a point was very hard as the wind was blowing us all over the place. Getting back out into the practice area was fun though as all I've been doing the past several lessons was flying the traffic pattern from takeoff to landing. That's also fun but I definitely needed to get back to other flight maneuvers if for no other reason than to practice. My s turns were a bit difficult too due to wind and the fact that we picked a road to turn across that wasn't exactly straight. All in all I did pretty well. My radio chops are still weak, so I picked up another textbook devoted to the topic.
Next week, I do my first cross country flight. That simply means I'll be flying from one airport to another. The plan is to fly out to Louisa, which has no control tower. So I need to bone up on the rules for landing on an airstrip. It's a valuable skill. There are lots of beautiful, remote places around the world that only have airstrips. I'm gathering that access to these places is one of the fringe benefits of becoming a pilot.
I suspect one other thing that waking up earlier, bright eyed and bushy tailed will help with is remembering to bring my camera. As I spend a bit more time around pilots and instructors, I'm noticing that the ability to identify planes is somewhat of a universally respected skill. So I'm going to continue practicing that as well. There was an interesting bird parked on the runway as I walked over to do my pre flight but sadly I wasn't able to snap a photo.
The Cessna Skymaster is a twin engine plane with propellers arranged in the front and rear in a push-pull configuration. It's an interesting design. I continue to be amazed at the diversity of aircraft species. Human engineering plays such a crucial role in their evolution and natural selection. The same is true for automobiles. But in the case of planes it feels an entire order of magnitude more pronounced.
I should mention that the weather was gorgeous this weekend with clear skies and near sixty degrees. Being alone with all the planes is definitely more fun when it's not below freezing and windy. There really is something so calm and serene about it. Walking amidst such otherwise noisy machines with such awesome potential (ie., to fly) as they lie dormant and silent is still almost magical for me. I guess I'll see if it's magical enough next week.
1 comment:
Absolutely the greatest light twin ever built is the Skymaster. The USAF proved that the aircraft was a multi utility, stable, and strong. We Michigan Flyers love them and have the disease
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZA9qx8SyxQ&feature=channel_page
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