Pearson Field video

USD Media produced this great video about historic Pearson Field, the fabulous facility that I fly out of.

Rained out...again.

My instructor just called to cancel todays flight. We had planned to just fly in the pattern around Pearson Field if the weather was poor, as long as conditions remained within VFR (cloud deck at 2000 feet AGL and visibility greater than 2 statute miles). No such luck today, visibility is down to 4 statute miles and falling this morning, and the winds will be picking up significantly by the time the visibility improves.

I was looking forward to making a whole lot of touch and go landings. I'm approximately halfway to my first solo attempt and I want to practice landing more than anything else. If I can get the weather to cooperate and get the hours in, I hope to solo by my birthday at the end of June. Between now and then we will practice landings and soon will go through some emergency procedures. Then, with a passed FAA medical examination in hand I will get a check ride from the head instructor at the field and they will determine if I'm ready to solo. If they say OK then...I'm flying and landing all by my lonesome...it does make me a bit nervous to think about it.

A No-Fly Zone?

So February turned out to be a bust when it came to logging any flight hours. The weather would just not cooperate - my first scheduled flight (2/14  9:00am) was cancelled due to high winds. My second scheduled flight (2/28 9:00am) was rained out, but was hopefully pushed back until later that day. However, the overcast ceiling dropped down to 1,300 ft and it was a no go. The month of March was looking up, weather-wise, right until my car went in for some routine maintenance and ended up costing my entire flying budget for the month. Now my only hope for flying this month depends on whether or not my tax refund check arrives before the 31st. Oh well, here's looking forward to April.

Work and volunteer commitments, along with the remainder of Ground School (which just wrapped up a couple of weeks ago) has kept me too busy to keep up with this blog. I'm hoping to finish writing up the Ground School lessons (as much to keep this blog complete as for practice for my written exam) over the next few weeks. My plan is to take a lot of practice tests online and take the test for real in the fall. It's good for two years, meaning I'll need to get my private pilots license within two years of passing the written exam, otherwise I'll have to take the test again. Test will cost approximately $150 each time.

In the meantime, I now have a CH Flight Sim Yoke controller to go with my CH Pro Flight Pedals for use with my various flight simulators; the extra controls available make for a very realistic experience. Trimming the aircraft is much easier and it really makes a big difference in recreating the working environment of a Cessna cockpit. Another mod to the work station allows me to have my laptop handy to use skyvector.com for aviation maps - giving my instant access to all of the FAA Sectional maps as well as WAC (World Aeronautical Charts) and Terminal maps for the United States.

The last couple of weeks of Ground School covered navigation and how to use weight and balance tables - providing all the basic tools for VFR navigation and flight planning. Now I can use the simulator to combine practicing my check lists and basic flight maneuvers (landing mostly) with realistic navigation, and flight planning calculated with actual passenger and fuel loads. Creating virtual flights to local airports (at least those within range of a C-150) that will be practice for my own cross country solo flights that will happen towards the end of my flight training.

A flying goal update...

On May 24th of this year, I have the opportunity to give a 30 minute presentation about the organization that I work for. Unfortunately, it's all the way out in the city of Pasco, WA. a 281 mile drive from Vancouver or a 4.5 hours drive each way. Can you see where this is going?

I talked to my instructor and inquired if it was feasible for me to perform a solo cross-country flight to the Tri-Cities Regional Airport within that time frame. Turns out that the school has an approved list of destinations for cross-country excursions and Pasco is not on that list. There is some difficult terrain between Vancouver and Pasco and it is complicated by being, well...complicated. There are eight runways in a cross configuration and a passenger terminal.

However, Theresa did think it would be a great idea for a dual-received cross-country flight. The flight time is around 2 hours each way. This ought to be pretty cool. Fly in, tell my professional peers how awesome Empower Up is, buy my instructor lunch and then fly on home in time for dinner.

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.

Ohhhh...the weather outside is frightful.

So no flying for a while...all the good flying days in early November didn't coincide with my days off work (Sundays and Mondays) and in the latter half of the month the weather has pretty much sucked all the time. With the cost of ground school looming and the weather just getting worse, it looks like no more actual flying this year.

Ground school starts in January and I'll be posting what that's all about. I am thinking of renting some time in a real flight simulator, because the thought of waiting a couple of months before flying again makes me a little unhappy.

At the aerodrome today.

This morning while walking my dog by the airfield I spotted this sleek 9 passenger single prop plane on the tarmac and wandered over for a looksie. Turns out to be a Swiss made Pilatus PC12, powered by a 1,200 hp Pratt & Whitney turboprop. Cruising speed is 312.5 mph with a service ceiling of 30,000 ft. It's designed for the alps; can land in less than 1,000 feet and take off in less than 1,500 ft.  Later, just before dusk, Doc and I were walking by the field again...and lo and behold, there are people getting ready to take off in that bad boy. We sat down on a picnic bench and filmed the take off. Afterwards, I chatted with the owners wife for a bit and learned that he started flying when he was 68 years old. He is my new hero. I'm invited for a tour to check out the interior later this week.

Update: I stopped by the airfield last night and got to meet the pilot and co-pilot and received a quick tour of the cabin...very cool avionics - glass panel style. Leather chairs and seating arranged for just 6 passengers, so it's pretty roomy inside. The plane is in town all week...they're gonna call me if there is room for me on a tour up the Gorge later this week. Fingers crossed.

First take-off!

My instructor let me take-off by myself already! Homer says "Woohoo!" Gotta get back to work now...I will post details & pics of todays lesson later on this evening...just kinda excited about today's flight and wanted to share.

Flying Goals

The current list of things I'm looking forward to achieving in civil aviation:

• Private Pilot's License - hopefully by the end of Summer 2011. Wish me luck!
• Instrument Rating - allows me to fly in zero visibility and at night. Maybe sometime in 2013?
• Float Plane Qualified - not even sure how you go about this, but how frakin' awesome would that be!

This looks to be quite the fun adventure. I'm looking forward to my first vacation that I fly myself to.