Ground School

Private Pilot Training Kit

Ground school starts on Monday. I dropped by the flight center to pick up my class materials and pay off the balance for the class. The school credited me for the log book that I purchased earlier, but otherwise shown to the right is everything in the kit I received:

• Private Pilot Manual
• Private Pilot Maneuvers Manual
• Private Pilot FAA Practical Test Guide
• Private Pilot Airmen Knowledge Guide
• Pre-Solo Written Exam
• Student Slide-Graphic Computer (E6B)
• PN-1 Navigation Plotter
• Pilot Logbook (credited for one I purchased for my first flight).
• 2011 FAR/AIM Manual
• Map Holder
• Flight Bag

School consists of 16, two and a half hour classes held Monday and Wednesday nights for the next 8 weeks. Total cost for classes and materials $538.49 (includes $50 deposit and $13.49 for Log Book purchased earlier). Now I just need to read the first two chapters of the Pilot Manual before Monday's class.

Flight Four - Ground Reference Maneuvers (cont.)

The weather decided to cooperate and more flight training was possible this morning. Our cloud ceiling today was over 4,000 ft. (my instructor won't let us go up if the ceiling is under 1,500 ft.) and the winds were not too bad (4-7 knots, gusts up to 12 kts). We spent a bit more time on the weather during pre-flight and used the animated radar maps to make sure there weren't any columns of bad weather moving in that could affect visibility when we approached to land later this morning.

Duct tape? Really?

Pre-flight walk around is going much faster. The left wing tip light housing apparently hit something...the maintenance crew duct taped it...cool. I'm flying a plane that is actually held together with tape...why this amuses me more than it disturbs me? No idea.

My taxiing is also improving. I'm still not comfortable with talking to ATC at PDX, so I still let Theresa handle all the radio calls. She is drilling me on it every call though. "Location and action". Where am I? What to I want to do? Apparently there is a section during ground school that will help me feel more comfortable with getting the format right.

Take-off was from runway 08, with enough wind to make it much more interesting than the first few flights. The aircraft really bounced around...really felt like flying now! Headed north to the fair grounds and started with todays lesson - more ground reference maneuvers, this time flying a 1/2 mile radius circle around a fixed point at 1,000 ft. AGL. Theresa was really pleased we had some wind for these maneuvers. Flying a level circle in the wind is kinda hard. The wind is pushing you places you don't want to go and it's varying constantly as the bearing to the wind changes.

Theresa demonstrated this once and then I was in control and did real well as the turns were counter clockwise - or rather on the pilots side of the plane. Not easy, but manageable. Then we started the circle in the other direction and it was much more difficult. On my first attempt I lost sight of my ground reference point before I started my first turn. It got better, but was really challenging.

Over Ridgefield, WA

On the way back to Pearson, Theresa showed me how to perform 180 s-turns over I-5. I finally had more than a brief few seconds of non-busy time and actually took another picture (the camera in my phone sucks). By this time we were getting close to our time limit, so I took the controls and headed us southwest towards Vancouver Lake and started descending for our approach. Theresa let me land this time (sort-of, she really has a her hands and feet on the controls and corrects any lame flying I attempt in the process).

After we landed, Theresa asked me if I was really as calm as I seemed during the flight. I am. This feels so natural to me. Anyways, she's so pleased with my progress/demeanor that we're going to get into more complex maneuvers involving more radical power changes next time...as a prep to really landing by myself.

It was good to get back in the air again after missing out last month. Maybe Santa will pay for a another lesson before the year is out.

Hours of flight logged this lesson: 1.0 Dual Received (DR)
Cost of this lesson and down payment for class: $202.41

Monday! Monday! Monday!*

* blaring out of loud speaker system like a TV ad for a monster truck show.

The weather report for Monday is looking good enough to fly. Cloudy, high of 46 degrees...the afternoons the past few days have been pretty nice over the Vancouver/Metro area. Hopefully an early afternoon flight will be possible. Last Monday afternoon there was some beautiful weather prompting my instructor to e-mail me: "wanna fly?" but alas, Monday was the day BEFORE payday...so no flying.

With the overnight lows still in the mid-30's, morning flights will be difficult to schedule this time of year, due to the flying schools practice of not using the C-150's if they're covered with frost. An unfortunate engine design allows for significant ice buildup in the carburetor. The cure for which is to redirect some engine exhaust to melt the ice. Great cure, but it robs the C-150 of some horsepower, and the availability of full power at take-off is crucial to have for students like myself (you know...noobs).

While I'm on the subject of icing, the carburetor icing problem with the C-150 occurs in flight too. As you descend, there is a tendency for ice to build up in the carburetor throat. However, descending long enough for that to occur is usually at the same time your making an approach to an airfield. This makes a small loss of power irrelevant because you'll be decreasing the throttle anyway. Just one of the many little things you need to keep track of and remember while flying. There is no warning devise or alarm that sounds...if ice is allowed to build up too much...the engine dies, and it cannot usually be restarted in flight, because you need exhaust heat from a running engine to unfreeze things. So maybe not so little...upside: apparently the C-150 glides real good.

I think I'll go and reserve myself a plane right now.