17Dec00 Contact Week 6
Not much to say this week, I only flew once
on Tuesday since the weather has been poor. I don't like flying every
day, but I also don't like flying only once a week. Sure, I had a lot of
free time, but I want to get this over with and get my wings! So much
for soloing before Christmas. Anyway, Tuesday I went up with a Navy guy
who didn't seem too competent. I did two stupid things during ground
ops. One I skipped the step where you move the condition lever out of
feather into full RPM. The next was I forgot to turn off the
auto-ignition switch during the test for it. Luckily he didn't notice
this second error, because he had turned on his auto-ignition switch to
see if I was doing a good instrument check. You see, when you turn this
thing on, your fuel flow shows much higher than it really is due to
electrical interference with the fuel flow instrument. He asked me what
the fuel flow should be at and I told him 125 while it was at 250. I got
my switch off before he did so he didn't notice. We flew over to area
one and started off with some basic maneuvers. He knocked me for not
asking if he wanted me to do turns in the middle of the level speed
change. In the book it says as required by instructor. I've never had to
ask before so whatever. The other maneuvers went well. He said I did the
turn pattern exceptionally well, but to this day I still don't know what
they are looking for in it. After those maneuvers, he demo'd a skidded
turn stall. That was AWESOME. He put the right wing down, gave it right
rudder, pulled the power back and pulled up a little. At the stall, the
plane snapped into a roll giving me a really tickly feeling. I loved it!
It was then a good time to practice a HAPL so he pulled my power and I
tried it out. I still need to get used to judging heights and distances
better on the emergency landing pattern. Coming up from the HAPL, we
then did a couple of LAPLs. Things happen a lot faster here and you
really need to go through those procedures quickly. But you also need to
remember to fly the plane to low key or wherever you are trying to
intercept the ELP. On my second LAPL, I just went for the 90. One thing
to remember during your training, is that you are kind of in control
over what you do. If you want to do any maneuver again and again and
again, tell the IP. Do it until you feel comfortable with it. After 3
LAPLs, he demos a PEL and I had to correct him on being on the wrong
side of the runway. On the PEL, the ELP is the same as in a HAPL, except
that you do it over a runway. We were at Barin and when he landed I
thought I my head was going to come out my rear. That woke me up. It was
a really windy day and the plane was getting knocked around a lot so I
kind of expected it. He then gave me the controls and I did a few
bounces a lot smoother than that carrier landing. I didn't like how the
plane handled in the wind. I learned to land in winds 18 gusting to 24
in Miami and the TB-9 Tampico I flew seemed much more stable in
comparison. The winds at Barin on Tuesday were in the low 20s and about
twenty degrees off to the right. It didn't require too much correction
but I still touched all three tires at different times. You are supposed
to touch the wind side tire down first (since you are wing low on that
side) then the other main, then the front. You then should hold in the
aileron correction and pull up still holding the correction the whole
time. After my 4th landing, my IP was getting anxious for some reason
and he wanted me to get us back home. He told me to leave the power at
1015. We cruised back home at almost 200 knots and I explained every
step of the course rules to him before I got to it. I did a super smooth
landing at home field and as I parked he jumped out and hurried over to
aircraft issue. I guess we were late or something. I met him later at
the line shack and he gave me a short but positive debrief. I was proud
that I hadn't done anything stupid in the air this time. He was still in
a hurry so he told me he would do my grades when he got back from his
next flight and put them in the box. Well next day came around, no
grades, the day after that, no grades. I finally found him on Friday and
after waiting half a day, he got around to printing them out and to my
amazement he gave me MIF on all the grades. That's the minimum grade to
pass for this stage. He didn't remember anymore how I did and I guess he
decided to take the middle ground. He gave me a 3 on landings. I landed
better than he did. Whatever, I just hope I don't fly with him again.
How discouraging.
Next week I will probably do a couple more
flights and then I'm heading home on Friday. We have from the 22nd to
the 3rd off and I'm taking the whole time off. I won't fly everyday this
week because they don't want me to come back and have my checkride right
away after being out of the cockpit so long.
23Dec00 Contact Week 7
Monday I finally
had my Fam-7 which went pretty well especially since I got to fly with
my on-wing again. The thing I screwed up on this flight was the
instrument checks right before take off. My on-wing had moved my
condition lever (prop RPMs), flaps , RMI (heading indicator) and he had
pulled the attitude gyro circuit breaker. I just wasn't paying attention
that time and I missed them all. I'll definitely be sure to check each
and every part of the whole panel next time. We went over to area
2 this time and we started off with a spin which was fun as usual.
Remember to pull your power to idle as soon as you get to 30 degrees
nose up. He didn't like that I hesitated. We then did some stalls which
were non eventful and after the approach turn stall he pulled my power
and I did a HAPL. The key to the high altitude power loss is to
visualize where you should be over the ground. Pick a point on the
ground you think would be 1/4 wing tip distance from the intended
landing point for high key and then while there, look one wing tip
distance out and that should be around where low key will be when you
get to the other side. I will get used to these distances when you start
flying. The best way to get to high key is bow ties or slipping and
s-turns. I wouldn't bother with the ELP on top of the ELP and don't do
360 degree turns because you never want to lose sight of your intended
landing area. I made the field but I had to do a lot of correcting
during the pattern. I was way too tight from the beginning. The airplane
didn't fall as fast as I calculated it would and I realized I could go a
lot wider and still be able to make the field. Its just something you
have to get used to with practice. I'm still working on it after 3
attempts. After the HAPL, He pulled my engine again after climbing to
1800 MSL. I had 300 ft to go through my checklist and find a new place
to land. at 2400 FPM until you get the prop feathered (simulated, he
actually just puts the power at 200 ft lbs), it goes fast. We then went
up to Evergreen and I did a PPEL in which I made the runway nicely but
my pattern was still a little off. In the midst of things I also forgot
to go through my landing checklists. But hey, it was my first time
trying it instead of just watching. We then did some bounces and a
couple of PPELPs. I then headed back to Whiting on course rules as usual
and it was the first time I actually felt completely comfortable coming
home from area 2.
Tuesday I was the assistant to the flight duty
officer from 1400-2000 which wasn't too bad. Wednesday I got cancelled
due to lack of airplanes which gave me a nice day off, and
Thursday I was the SDO again. Thankfully it was the morning shift so its
8 hours instead of 11.
Friday I was about to fly. There was a delay at
first since the places were all iced over. The temperature was like 20
degrees. It was so cold, my car door was frozen shut. Anyway, after it
got warmed up, my IP took another student first since he had to start
driving home at 1400. Since I didn't have to leave until 1600, I got
shafted with the second flight. It was almost 1400 when my IP was ready
to take me up. We were going to do a short flight since I had to be back
to get my airline flight home. I didn't like the idea of losing out on
valuable practice time, but they didn't want me in the mandatory warm-up
window (15 days). That would be more expensive for them. I started up
the plane and my IP was having some problems with his microphone. I
noticed as I repeated things 50 times to him until he noticed. When I
got to the run-up area he decided flying without intercom would be
counter productive so he told me to call ground and request to taxi
back. I did and he took the controls and we went back to shutdown.
Normally, we would just have someone run out and fix his connector, but
I had a ride home to catch. So there was my week. I've flown twice in
the past 2 weeks. It seems to be either too much or too little. Oh well,
no biggie, I'm not in any rush anyway. Now I get a warm-up when I get
back on the 3rd which means a free non graded no pressure flight for me. I wish you all happy holidays and go out and have the
time of your life this new years! I know I will in Miami =)
