JEP FI-1: Preflight, basic maneuvers

[Updated to fill in the parts that were ungraciously obliterated... Also, I realize that this format is probably very dry for anyone who's not me, Husband or Chuck, or probably for them, too, so I'll work on it moving forward... In a past life I was a writer, but I digress.]

My first lesson! Yay!

My first log book entry! Yay!

My student pilot certificate! Yay!

My first lesson was great, despite the lack of sleep. Chuck is a super instructor. He leads me through the topics by asking questions that guide me to answers and lets me figure them out and make deductions (as opposed to just lecturing) and that style works extremely well for me. We covered quite a bit of stuff, but most of it, thankfully, I'm familiar with from being up with Husband so much.

To title my lesson-related posts, I'll use a slightly modified form of the notation that Chuck will use in my log book to sign off on training lessons: JEP FI-1. That's Jeppesen curriculum, flight (as opposed to ground) stage one (Roman numeral I), lesson 1, and a few keywords describing what we did.

The bulk of this lesson was on preflight. We discussed:

• human factors, such as:
  
  • pilot fatigue
  • use of medications, including self-medication like NyQuil or beer (FAA says no flying within 8 hours of alcohol consumption)


• aircraft requirements:
  
  • Airworthiness certificate
  • Registration
  • Operating handbook (a.k.a., POH or the Pilot Operating (Operations, maybe?) Handbook)
  • Weight and balance -- this is the official aircraft set of numbers, such as empty weight, the arm lengths, etc., not a specific calculation with specific passengers/baggage.


• aircraft logs, equipment (see homework for first-aid kit and fire extinguisher)


• fuel types:
  
  • 100LL (blue) - that's what 35388 uses
  • 100 (green)
  • 80/87 (red?)
  • 130 (also green?)
  • AvGas (clean kerosene, straw colored, makes the engine cut-off)
  • MoGas (regular old unleaded, requires a special expensive certification of the engine to be legal and some airports won't allow it)


• other... I need to check the syllabus to jog my memory....
  

We did a very thorough preflight and I won't go into the details of that other than to say that ELT means Emergency Location Transmitter and that's what sends out distress signals when it detects unreasonable G-forces, or when it gets bored at 4 in the morning. From here on out, preflight is my responsibility during training. Husband is delighted to have an "aide" to do the preflight for him!

We had some trouble with the radio, but I should have been able to prevent that. Husband reminded me when I told him of the trouble that he had previously told me the radio wasn't working and that we should use the GPS radio. He had given me detailed instructions on how to use the GPS radio, too! I don't know the systems well enough yet to realize that's what the problem was. The symptoms were that Chuck and I could hear each other intermittently, and between getting the squelch adjusted properly and flipping the little COM/NAV patch switches (to go to headsets or the dome speaker), I just didn't think of the radio; after all, we were just talking to each other, not radioing out or listening for outside comms. In any case, it seemed to resolve itself after a few minutes and worked perfectly for the rest of the flight.

We taxiied around the airport, practicing steering with the rudders and using the throttle to moderate speed, aiming for a brisk walk. The brakes are applied in "taps" to slow down if we get going to fast and also on the rudder of the turn if we need to make a sharp turn. We brake at intersections (taxiways, parking areas, etc). This is far and away the area where I need the most practice so far! (The basic flight maneuvers went well, but we'd be in big trouble if staying centered on the ground was a matter of life and death!) It'll get better with more practice. Room for improvement.

At the end of runway 31, we taxiied to a halt with a good view of the left-hand traffic pattern. Here we did the engine run-up checks; first Chuck did them, then me. They are pretty "by the book;" I'll need to get my brain adjusted to the various tick-marks in the various instruments -- for some reason I was just having difficulty quickly assessing the RPM drop for the magneto swaps. And other than fudging the throttle down (should have been 1700 RPM to 1000, but I pushed the rod in and got up to ~2000 before my brain snapped-to and I corrected it), it was ok. Husband gave a good rule of thumb: anytime you want more, push forward -- loosely, if you want to go forward, push the throttle forward. It'll get better with more practice and I hope quickly will be instinct. Or at least muscle memory. :)

Take-off was handled by Chuck. Minor digression: Before we hopped into the plane, and as we were searching the ages old POH (this is a 1968 plane and the manuals just might be the originals) for stall speeds and related data, he briefly explained Vx and Vy. Be it information overload or "mental marshmallow" from no sleep, those terms and their definitions didn't sink in (thanks IFR Pilot for the links -- what follows is still from recall, but I will do my homework and learn more about them forthwith!). In any case, those had to do with optimal climb rates and possibly speed. As we (Chuck) accelerated down the runway, I believe it was ~65 MPH (not kts in our trusty antique) that the nose came up and at ~75 MPH that we (Chuck) climbed out and executed the JGG noise-abatement procedure to avoid the school. This was a demo take-off; when I wonder if I could have done it, I imagine doing a cowgirl-style technique of just "flooring" it and letting it come up when it was ready.... We'll see if that's what it's actually like in another lesson or two (I hope!) :)

We exited and headed westward up the James River to practice some basic maneuvers. Straight-and-level flight came first. Chuck reached a desired altitude and power setting, then trimmed up the plane to maintain. He used a phrase that I've requested more explanation of during our Monday preflight review session: "trimming for desired (air?)speed." My amateur thought process goes something like this and I can make up an explanation to connect the dots, but I'd like a more scientific basis:

trim -> pitch -> angle of attack -> airspeed

Much like middle school algebra, some things you just accept for the purpose of the lesson. The point here was that, once trimmed and balanced out properly, the plane wants to stay that way, even if it has to self-correct sometimes. We were trimmed and level, then both stayed off the controls. 388 was stable, then gained a little altitude, then came right back down to our baseline. Point made, although the theory behind the empirical results has yet to be laid down (maybe the early chapters of the pilot handbook about the fundamentals of flight will provide this...).

Next, rudder control for minor heading corrections was employed. We picked a visual target and headed for it. Using only minute application of each rudder, I was amazed to see just how effective it was for those tiny redirections. After wrestling those danged things on the ground, this was both easy and responsive! (Planes are happier in the air, yes indeed...)

In preparation for larger heading changes, we practiced tipping the wings to see beyond our high wings and to check for any traffic or other obstacles. What other obstacles at 1700 MSL? Ah, I just threw that in there in a moment of safety-conscious rambling. Weather balloons? Car dealership balloons? Backyard rockets? As Chuck said, the most safety-conscious answer is not a wrong answer. Back to the tipping... my technique here needs work, too. As an engineer, I would like ultimately to do crisp tip-up/tip-downs without even the slightest course deviations -- I think of Husband's descriptions of his aerobatic demo flight and seeing the Red Bull obstacle course with the 1/4-stop barrel rolls. I doubt that's really reasonable, and even if it was, it also kinda seems perhaps too regimented and not relaxed enough. Yes, I am a woman of two minds.

Tip the wings, check for traffic, and a nice big swooping medium-bank turn! The goal was to get about half-way between level and a standard-rate turn according to the turn coordinator, then look up and get a visual feel for the turn and maintain it as we came around. This was nice and gentle, and I lucked out in having the elusive visible Virginia horizon.

As we headed back down river after coming out of the turn, we experimented with climbing and descending. The throttle was the primary parameter we adjusted to make major changes in altitude; throttle in = go up, throttle out = gown down. Once the power got us pretty close to the target altitude, minor yoke forward/back adjustments could be made. When climbing by power and then leveling out, some yoke-back tension needs to be held to counter the plane's tendency to nose-down. (That doesn't make as much sense in words as it did in my head, so I'll review again later.)

Across Jamestown Island (or as it was called in the olden days, "Olde Jamestowne") and back toward the airport, another opportunity for "positive exchange of flight controls" occured. What this means is that the pilot in control says "Your airplane," then the pilot assuming control says "My airplane," and then the new pilot in control jiggles the yoke to demonstrate that he/she is the one controlling the plane. Chuck took the plane for the landing from here. (It will definitely be a few more lessons before I'm ready to manage that many changes at once... especially with the infamous JGG swamp monster.)

We returned to the airport with the intent of landing on 31. What I didn't mention earlier was that prior to take-off, UNICOM said the favored runway was 13, despite the winds that were from maybe 320 or 330. We agreed that taking off into the winds on 31 was the right thing to do, and so we approached the airport with care in case someone else down there was in the process of using 13. Rather than entering the pattern for 45 downwind (did I get the phrase right? I know what it is, but the words don't seem right) we swung out far to get a good view of the 13 end of the runway and run-up area, where no one was in sight, and then just entered fairly straight-on for downwind and a normal pattern.

The landing is the part of the process by which I'm intimidated. Ever since Husband took me up, as friends, for the first time in a small plane way back in college, I thought that hard paved strip was coming up awfully fast and big and that we puny meatbags in a little spindly metal box had drawn short straws. (Even back then I wasn't scared -- Husband has always instilled confidence just by being obviously good at it -- but apprehensive.) I know I'll get to it, and I know I'll learn the pieces and they'll fit together when the time is right, but it's the only part of it (that I know of so far!) that I'm just not positive I can do. Well, I guess there're emergency landings, too, but I'd just rather not think about those at the end of my first official day as a student pilot (see a previous post, anyway, for the off-the-record training to-date).

Chuck cleared the runway, came to a stop and turned it back over to me. We went through the landing checklist and taxiied back to the tie-down space to shut-down and secure the plane.

Chuck indicated that I should be able to solo before we leave for a flight home to see some family on Oct 12.

Summary

• Safety/fit-to-fly of the pilot and aircraft
• Preflight -- checklists are good
• Positive exchange of flight controls
• Taxiing and ground-based movement (rudder controls, brakes, throttle)
• Engine run-up and pre-take-off checks -- checklists are good
• Take-off acceleration and climbing
• Straight-and-level flight
• Trim
• Climbing and descending (by yoke or throttle)
• Rudder control for heading correction
• Wing tipping
• Medium-bank turns
• Landing (and checks after clearing the runway)
• Shut-down and securing the aircraft -- checklists are good

Homework

• Find the VOR checks (docs that should be in the plane and are probably in the on-board binder)


• Find citations in the FAR/AIM that define whether a first aid kit and fire extinguisher are required equipment for legal operation.


• Prepare for the next lesson (Monday, 9/25 at 4 pm) by reading the sections identified in the syllabus for more ground operations (including airport markings and lighting) and the next set of basic flight maneuvers.


• (personal assignment): Look into the meaning of "trimming for a desired (air?)speed" and also into Vx/Vy.


• Get some sleep!