Thursday, January 26, 2006

An unusual day in the air

Today started like most days out at the airport.  I got there a good 7 minutes late or so, got an airplane, froze my ass off doing the preflight and got ready to takeoff.  I’m in the CFI course at 9:00am, so I’m in the Cessna 152 2 seater airplane that we use for private pilot and the flight team competition.  These days I’m flying from the right seat so I can learn to fly it when a student screws up.  We started to take off like normal and everything seemed normal, but just as we were in the air the airspeed indicator dropped to 30 knots (which is below the stall speed) and me and my flight instructor were staring at it with jaws wide open.  There was no stall warning horn, and the airplane was totally not stalling.  Far from it actually, I had lowered the nose to get airspeed and we were cruising around at like, 100 feet.  So we’re all like “K, we gotta land I guess” so we raised the flaps, turned crosswind and then downwind.  By this time, the airspeed is reading 0, and the altimeter was about 700 feet low.  My instructor offered to land the plane, but I was all like “no, I got it”.  The airspeed moved a little bit up from 0 as I was descending for landing, but it never got to the real airspeed so I had to ignore it.  First time I ever had to land with no helpful instruments.  Since we didn’t know our airspeed, we came in for landing a little faster than usual to prevent a stall but it was a pretty uneventful landing other than that.

Later in the day, I flew the Piper Seminole twin engine for the first time.  Holy Crap what a difference two engines make!  I actually felt pushed back in my seat.  The airplane climbed to 5,000 feet before I could realize it.  It was more work but a heck of a lot more fun than the 152.  The Cutlass 172RG is good, but not as good as this.  If we fly to Dallas, we are totally taking the Seminole.  I have to get around 100 hours of multi-engine time before I can apply to an airline, so I will probably be offering rides at some times in the next two years. 

Sunday, January 22, 2006

KSUFlightTeam.net

Finished the flight team website and got it up and running without any help from jo! OMG!

http://www.ksuflightteam.net

Thursday, January 19, 2006

Early Estimates for QuakeCon Flight

Piper Seminole Twin Engine @ $225/hr
6 hours one way

$1350/3 people = $450
$1350/4 people = $337
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Cessna 172RG Cutlass @ $140/hr
7 hours one way

$980/3 people = $326
$980/4 people = $245

Very Rough Estimates. I planned it pretty conservatively as if we were going pretty slow, with a headwind or something. Both estimates include one fuel stop. Everyone would be able to sit up front at least once. If I get hired as a flight instructor, I might be able to take some of that cost off, though not sure and probably not. I know it's pretty steep, but a good tailwind would knock a lot of that price off. I'm not flying with only 1 other person. Will says he wants to fly but it's all about the dollars in the end...

Thursday, January 12, 2006

A Commercial pilot!

Today was mostly a day of waiting.  I waited for my flight instructor to show up so we could fly in the morning, he was only half an hour late.  We did almost a whole practice checkride and I had some of my better landings so I was in a good mood.  I was supposed to go on the ride at 3pm, but the examiner finally got there and we were ready to go at 4.  Started the ride off with the landings.  I did a normal landing, then a soft field landing, then a short field(had to land within 100 ft), then a no-power landing(200ft).  After that I started the cross country part and headed north over streetsboro.  We broke off from that, and started the manuevers.  Steep turns followed by Minimun controllable airspeed, then power off stall, power on stall, 1 lazy eight, 3 chandelles, a steep spiral, eights-on-pylons, an engine failure at 1000 feet (very low), followed by a simulated gear failure, alternator failure, and wing fire.  After this, we headed back to the airport at 3000 feet, had the engine “failed” and did a steep spiral to land on the runway.  The last one was a very ugly landing, but I got it down.  1.5 hours after I started, he held out his hand, I had passed!  It was very nerve wracking and I was sweating a lot (he was cold) but now I am KSU’s newest commercial pilot.  Very much happiness!  I feel awesome about this because he said he was never in doubt and that I had excellent control of the airplane at all times.  He complimented my landings even though some were kinda close to the limit.  The best part about all of it is that I earned it.  Flight team felt good because we all came together as a team to win, but this is mine.  I worked hard to do well in this and I succeeded!  I wish I could write a better summary than this, but I am hyped up on adrenaline and exhausted at the same time.  Maybe tomorrow. 

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

It’s Time to Kick Ass and Chew Bubblegum

again..

The weather actually looks good tomorrow for my commercial checkride.  I’m actually feeling confident and looking forward to being finished with it.  I’m flying in the morning with my instructor to get back in the swing and at 3pm going for my ride.  Most of my nervousness before came from the crappy weather, but it’s forcasted sunny and a tropical 45 degrees.  Hopefully my next post will be a post of joy.