PPL'd, ppl*lol!

Look out birds, here I come!

Details tomorrow... tonight it's celebration with rest and relaxation. :)

Blowhard

It has been extremely windy here the past few days. And gusty. Husband and I were planning to go up this afternoon for one last pre-checkride flight, but alas, 13 gusting to 24 isn't good for me.

But check this out. Emporia, an airport a little farther inland southwest of JGG, is reporting something that looks pretty unbelievable to me:

KEMV 232035Z AUTO 22014G96KT 10SM CLR 11/M02 A3007 RMK AO2 LTG DSNT E

22014G96KT!

(For what it's worth, there are no radar returns in the area...)

Updated status - sanity check

Gotta be sure I'm all set with the requirements! There'll be another 0.3-0.5 solo time getting to the airport where the examiner is.

• Aeronautical knowledge
  • Passed the written on 1/19/07.


• Aeronautical experience (61.109a): For an airplane single-engine rating. Except as provided in paragraph (k) of this section, a person who applies for a private pilot certificate with an airplane category and single-engine class rating must log at least 40 hours of flight time that includes at least 20 hours (31.7) of flight training from an authorized instructor and 10 hours (14.7) of solo flight training in the areas of operation listed in §61.107(b)(1) of this part, and the training must include at least—
  
  
  • (1) 3 hours (4.8) of cross-country flight training in a single-engine airplane;
  
  
  
  • (2) Except as provided in §61.110 of this part, 3 hours (3.5) of night flight training in a single-engine airplane that includes—
    
    
    
    • (i) One cross-country flight (done) of over 100 nautical miles total distance; and
    
    
    
    • (ii) 10 takeoffs and 10 landings (10) to a full stop (with each landing involving a flight in the traffic pattern) at an airport.
  
  
  
  • (3) 3 hours (3) of flight training in a single-engine airplane on the control and maneuvering of an airplane solely by reference to instruments, including straight and level flight, constant airspeed climbs and descents, turns to a heading, recovery from unusual flight attitudes, radio communications, and the use of navigation systems/facilities and radar services appropriate to instrument flight;
  
  
  
  • (4) 3 hours (3.4, done this week) of flight training in preparation for the practical test in a single-engine airplane, which must have been performed within 60 days preceding the date of the test; and
  
  
  
  • (5) 10 hours (14.7) of solo flight time in a single-engine airplane, consisting of at least—
    
    
    • (i) 5 hours (5.2) of solo cross-country time;
    
    
    
    • (ii) One solo cross-country flight of at least 150 nautical miles total distance, with full-stop landings at a minimum of three points, and one segment of the flight consisting of a straight-line distance of at least 50 nautical miles between the takeoff and landing locations (Done); and
    
    
    
    • (iii) Three takeoffs and three landings (3) to a full stop (with each landing involving a flight in the traffic pattern) at an airport with an operating control tower.

Checkride scheduled!

I'm scheduled to be at AKQ (~15 minutes flight time from JGG) at 11 am to meet the DPE for my checkride!

JEP FIII-24: Checkride prep #1

Goals:

• Checkride prep flight #1!
• Practice maneuvers, keeping to standards.
• Get more of the remaining required instrument time in.

Flight:
Today we went up for 1.6 of the 3 required hours of checkride prep flights. Normal preflight, and for takeoff we rolled into a 12-kt headwind with rotation and climb-out at Vy to push through the expected mechanical turbulence as we rose above the trees. We turned out west and rose through the bumpiness to 2000', where the foggles came on.

We did a full half-hour of hood work, starting with turns to a heading in both directions, cruise climbs and descents while turning to headings, and slow flight maneuvers. The chop was challenging, especially the updrafts that would knock me around right as I was reaching a target altitude, but I did what I could do -- correct as quickly as possible. The chop was also challenging, and a little nerve-wracking, as we dangled off the prop during slow flight, but again, I just managed as best as possible with power and pitch.

Next we practiced stalls -- Chuck had read my post about how rusty my stall recoveries were -- again and again and again! It was good, and it was easy enough. We did power off stalls both straight-ahead and while turning, clean and with 20 degrees of flaps. My one goof was starting to pull in the flaps before I established a positive rate of climb, but the stalls with flaps after that one I did correctly.

We then headed down toward the intersection of the James and Chickahominy to do ground reference maneuvers. Remember me complaining (or revelling, depending on the day!) that there were never winds when I was learning turns around a point and S-turns? Well, today we got good noticable winds and the practice was very useful! We started with a right-hand turn around a point, but I was in too close to the landmark and grew frustrated as I lost sight of it -- not a good feeling when doing the maneuver for the first time in a long time and with winds for which I'd actually need to compensate! I asked to do a left-hand turn first, and Chuck assented, so I picked a point and headed for it. We estimated the winds to be from 280, and so the maneuver would start from 100 (after a false-start heading into the wind), and overall it went pretty well. I could see the point the whole time, and at the end I got in a little tighter, but not too bad. Then we did a loop to the right around a pair of very close cell towers, and it went a lot better. I did two loops here, the first being a little oblong and the second being much closer to round.

Next we did S-turns. My first attempt at an S-turn was pretty crappy. I did enter downwind as appropriate, but I started with waaaaay to much left bank, so instead of being a nice deep round half-circle, it was as shallow as a parenthesis! We didn't even bother with the second half, but instead did a big rectangle to get back into position for a restart at the same point over the railroad tracks. This time, Chuck advised me on a better target to keep in mind for the mid-point crossing of the tracks, and I did a much better job. Even the second half to the right to complete the S was pretty decent. As I concluded the first full S, Chuck instructed me to keep going for another S to get us back to our start. I did so, and did mostly good, but got straightened out approaching the last crossing of the tracks a little early (banked too aggressively entering that last downwind portion). So, that became a figure-8. I wish I had taken the GPS! :)

By this time, I was feeling a little icky. Be it from not flying much recently or from the pregnancy hormones, I don't have the endurance I used to have, at least not when higher G's and unusual attitudes are the bulk of the flight. Oh, that reminds me, sometime in there we did recovery from unusual attitudes by instrument reference.

It didn't take long to get back to the airport. I entered crosswind for 31 and had a good pattern and landing. The wind had died down quite a bit, only 5 kts from 290. There was the usual chop over the approach end of 31, but not horrible. We did two more times through the pattern for short-field takeoffs and landings. The takeoffs were fine. On the first landing, I was a little low turning final and on final the full 40 degrees of flaps come out for short field, so I had to throttle up to ensure we'd make the field and ended up dragging it in and floating a little before touchdown; we still stopped well short enough to make the first turnout, so it was satisfactory for the exercise. On the second one, I was more focused on my altitude and let my airspeed get a little too high, so when I flared we ballooned and then landed firmly (no bounce); had I kept braking we would have stopped just past the first turnout, but since it was obvious we'd need to roll to mid-field I let it go. Chuck said that would also count as satisfactory, but obviously I need to keep all of those factors under control!

Chuck is happy with my status. He believes I'm ready for the checkride now. We've got 1.4 hours of checkride prep and that 0.8 of instrument to finish up to meet the requirements, and I've got to finish the oral prep.

Discussion:

1. Instrument time: I've still got 0.8 hours to get in! We haven't worked on it much because I don't have a problem with it. I'm an engineer, it's easy for me to trust the instruments and do what they tell me! So in our next flight, we'll have a stretch of hood time to wrap that up.


2. Right-hand turns around a point: From the left seat, it's harder to keep an eye on a landmark out the right window. It's better for the right-hand maneuver to pick a landmark a little farther out and to make a wider turn (thus a longer (duration) turn) because it's easier to keep it in sight. For me, at least, that's the case.

Self-Assessment: Feeling better about coming off a long stint. For 1.6 hours of flight time today, we sure did a lot of stuff! The practice was really good. Overall, I'm feeling mostly confident. I haven't done emergency procedures in a while, so next time we're going to do several of those; then I'll feel prepared.

Flying
• Preflight, taxiing, normal takeoff, short/soft-field takeoff: Good.
• Maintaining airspeed, stalls, slow flight (VR/IR), maintain/change attitude/altitude/heading by instruments: Good.
• Recover attitude, altitude, heading by instruments: Good.
• Forced landing: Good, need more practice.
• Forward slip:: Dunno, needs more practice.
• Pattern, normal landing, directional control after landing: Good.
• Crosswind landing: Decent.
• Radio work: Good.
• Short/soft-field landings: Good, need to practice hitting the aim point.
• Night operations: Decent.

Navigating
• ADF: Haven't used it since the intro, needs practice.
• VOR: Good, will get more practice.
• Dead reckoning: Improving but needs practice.

Next: Wednesday morning we'll go for the next (and possibly final) prep flight. If that is the final one, I'll probably go up with Husband on Friday. Checkride is scheduled for Saturday at 11 am. Woo!
Hours logged this flight: 1.6
Hours logged total: 51.3 (44.2 counts toward reqs)
Instrument hours logged this lesson: 0.5
Instrument Hours logged total: 2.2
Take-offs and landings this flight: 3
Take-offs and landings total: 110
PIC (solo) hours total:: 14.7

Refresher flight

Goals:

• Knock the dust off.
• Practice maneuvers again.
• Flying with a pseudo-DPE and being critiqued.

Flight:
One month to the day since my last time in the cockpit. Sad, eh?

Husband was kind enough to go up with me today (his much more succinct account of the flight is here). On account of the hidden passenger and it being my first time going through these, shall we say, state changes, I'm disinclined to fly solo right now, just to be on the overly-cautious safe side. Since I've got all the solo time in that is required, and the rest of the requirements are with an instructor, it should be all good.

Like it's hard to convince Husband to go flying... sheesh! :)

The winds were forecast(ed?) to pick up throughout the day, so we hit the airport ~9:15. No frost on the wings, despite a 15-degree night and 31-degree morning so far. Everything outside looked good. It was cold, so I gave 388 4 1/2 shots of primer to get started. Not enough. Another 1 1/2. Not enough. 3 more. Not enough. After 12 pumps, the engine wanted to catch, but I may have messed up with adjusting the throttle because it conked out. 3 more pumps and stable throttle so almost had it, but as I added some throttle it conked out again. 3 more, for a total of 18, stable throttle, and it rolled over like our familiar trusty ol' happy plane.

Winds were 240@4, so we'd use 31. Altimeter, set. Radio check, check. Lights and coms, as desired. Seats and seat belts, taxi, brake check, run-up, all good. Thank goodness for checklists.

Husband DPE (HDPE) asked for a short-field takeoff. I think he planned to ask for that anyway, but that would give us a chance to run the engine full out and check gauges with time to change our minds about leaving. I pulled out the trusty maneuver flip-book and read through the process before moving onto the runway (after announcing, of course) and lining up with as little pavement behind us as possible.

Brakes on, throttle up, check gauges, release brakes, right rudder, all felt normal. Airspeed alive. Vx, time to rotate and climb out. I wasn't compensating for the crosswind so we drifted a little right of centerline, which HDPE pointed out. I corrected, and before long we were at 400', time to turn west for noise abatement. We continued the climb to 2000', then HDPE asked me to track to HCM. The VOR was dialed in, I spun the indicator knob to find the "direct to" heading of 015, then tipped the right wing up and turned us to that heading.

Again I wasn't compensating for the winds, which seemed to be stronger at 2000'. The needle was persistently left of center, and at first I didn't recognize that the wind was the problem. First I realized that I hadn't set my DG once we got airborne, so I flew straight-and-level, correct the DG (which was only slightly off), redialed for the direct-to heading and set up on that. After not more than 30 seconds, the needle was off again. I looked down and saw that I wasn't dead-on my desired heading, so I chalked it up to sloppy out-of-practice-ness, dialed again for the direct-to heading and vowed to pay closer attention. Another 30 seconds later, the needle was off again, and as I thought about what my problem could be, I was checking for traffic and saw the smoke from the West Point factory -- blowing completely parallel to the ground -- and that's when it hit me.

So I took one final desired-heading reading from the VOR indicator, and pointed myself left of that by about 10 degrees. That turned out to be too much, but at least I was on the right track and could feel it out for an appropriate correction after that. HDPE critiqued my choice to re-set the VOR indicator to new headings, and said that instead I should have corrected myself onto the original heading. I knew when I was off course that I had two choices: get on the original heading or update to a new direct-to heading. Since I was trying to limit the variables and minimize the time spent chasing it while doing so, I opted to update. But I can see that it could (or would) be viewed as weak that for something as simple as tracking a VOR radial that the pilot picked a newer, more convenient radial instead of correcting onto the desired one.

Once I was established, I think HDPE realized that I was not as busy and so he started chitchatting. I grinned at his distraction attempts. It killed some time as we got to, over, and past the VOR. The test here was to maintain the same direction coming out the other side, and using the VOR in "from" mode to assure that. With that reasonably accomplished, Husband had me turn to 060 and climb to 3000'. We were heading for a cluster of fields over which we'd do steep turns.

As we got there, I did clearing turns left and right, then entered a left steep turn. Using all of the controls, including power, I did a fairly good job and maintained altitude pretty well. HDPE asked for more bank at one point in the turn, and so I banked harder, pulled back harder and throttled up. I forget now what heading we were on when we entered, but I rolled out perfectly on it, reduced power and kept at 3000'.

I felt good about that! Husband complimented the maneuver and pointed out that when you bank more in the middle of the turn, it takes noticeably more back pressure (and throttle) to maintain altitude. A few nights ago a question came up in the oral review questions about how you compensate for the loss of vertical lift in a turn, so it was theory in practice... :)

We were getting up toward the Tappahanock River by this time, so I chose to point us southwest to get back safely over land and near a nice patch of fields. Once there, I went into the right steep turn. It did not go well. I think I overbanked and overcompensated at first, because we were climbing and that sight picture was moving awfully fast. I tried to rectify the maneuver, but then we were descending too much and still turning very tightly. We were maybe 2/3 of the way through it when I called it off. After that nice left one, I was a little shaken and disappointed to have done so badly on this one. But I stabilized, got my head back in it, and tried again. This time around it went much better, but I rolled out about 10 degrees too early. HDPE reminded me to shoot for at most 30 degrees leading to start the rollout.

Since we knew we were limited on time, we pointed back to JGG. Whilst over the upper peninsula still, HDPE had me slow to slow flight, maintaining 3000', with 20 degrees of flaps. I didn't anticipate well enough the power and pitch changes that were needed as the flaps came out, but I did correct quickly enough to not bust altitude. With the stall horn complaining and us drifting along at about 60 mph airspeed, I performed the requested 90-degree left- and right-hand turns, overshooting the left-hand target heading by a few degrees. HDPE asked me to accelerate to 70, maintain 3000', and milk in the flaps, which I did and which required constant tweaks of pitch and power. Then he asked for a power-on stall. I know how to do that, and I certainly know the recovery, but since it has a checklist in the flip-book, I thought I'd just take a look to show the DPE another instance of using checklists. HDPE didn't really like that for this particular maneuver, and absolutely for the recovery a checklist MUST not be consulted(!) but for setting it up I figured it was ok.

Anyway, that aside, I powered up, pitched up, and we climbed a bit and we got slower and slower, then I pulled back that last inch on the yoke and it broke cleanly. And my recovery totally sucked, and that was so scary because the suck was mental. Nosing over is not a problem; the plane does that pretty much by itself. But when I checked the instrument panel, my eyes didn't go to the airspeed, they went to the VSI, and it wasn't showing a positive rate of climb and I got confused. I didn't spend any time on the confusion, but rather looked back outside and pulled the nose up to the horizon. I glanced at the VSI again and still not a positive rate of climb. Well, duh, I had just leveled off. I started to raise the nose, but Husband said we were high enough (from the pre-stall climb) and to just get stabilized at 3000' again.

Man, that totally bit. I'm just appalled at how bad such a critical thing became after a month off. I'll have to look back through my training logs and see when the last time actually was that I did a stall; it's been a while. That's so scary, though, because while I figured it was something I'd practice periodically after getting my license, now it seems like it needs to be practiced frequently!

Anyway, next HDPE had me don the foggles and he punched JGG into the GPS and use that instrument to get back home. I corrected the DG again, then turned to 190, the desired track announced by the GPS. Not long, again, and the destination was to the right of my track. Dumb, dumb, dumb! When would I learn! I have to correct for wind! The VOR and GPS headings don't do that for me! As we got back over the middle peninsula, we hit a lot of turbulence. That was ok for a little while, but I started to get kinda icky feeling and elected to take off the foggles so I could see the horizon.

HDPE vocalized our position, told me to descend to 2000' and then to do what I would normally do when approaching an airport to land. I appreciated the cue, since I was still trying to get my physiology back on track and wasn't keeping track of our distance to the airport. It was still more than 10 nm at this point, but that's ok. I tuned in AWOS and heard 270@7, so we'd land 31. HDPE asked me to cross midfield to enter the pattern.

At about 5 miles out, in between the chatty jerks at another nearby airport, I was able to announce my location and intention. I slowly descended to 1200' just before the airport, and then just as we got over the field they shut up long enough for another announcement. I turned left downwind, descended to pattern altitude of 900', and began to drop airspeed as quickly as possible, seeing as we were still going about 110 and I wanted 80. When we were abeam the numbers, I was still dropping speed, but felt it was under control and we were in the flaps-ok range, so I put out 10 degrees and kept pulling out the throttle. Upon the next glance at the runway, I saw that yet again I had failed to compensate for the wind, and we were being blown in tight. I told my HDPE what was up, that I was going to crab to prevent further deviation and would extend my downwind since we'd have a short base.

By the time we got around on final, I was set up exactly the way I wanted to be. A little higher than usual since we were longer than usual, airspeed at 80, power (and carb heat) out, and 10 degrees of flaps. For the typical landing I'd do 20, but what with the wind and upcoming swamp monster and all...

HDPE instructed me to land long to avoid the swamp monster. I did as requested since I gotta be able to hit the DPE's target. Setting up for this, however, I kept a little too much altitude and then suddenly wished I had the extra 20 degrees of flaps because I was carrying a little extra speed anyway and now needed to descend faster. We weren't in danger of running out of runway, so I just rode it down. Being fast, I floated a good deal after the flare, and we touched down a little harder than I would have liked, but no bounce.

After that, it was a normal rollout, turn off, announce clear, checklist for post-landing, and taxi back through the empty parking lot for our spot. I called for a fuel refill, and we buttoned up our worthy old flying mobile.

Later in the day I would file a POREP -- not a PIREP for the turbulence, but a police report for the identity theft. What jerks there are out there!

Discussion:

1. The good and the bad: I'm obviously a little rusty on these flight logs, too, since I did so much analyzing up above in the narrative! The main point that I take away from all of this is that I surprised myself in good and bad ways today. Going a full month with no flying, and more than that since the last time I practiced any maneuvers, really left me lacking. Lots of pilots say it, and I'm living proof: Today I was current but not proficient. On the other hand, the everyday stuff -- using checklists, taking off, pattern and landing -- all of that was just like it ever was.
   
   But I wonder, and I put this to you, dear reader: In the time that you've been licensed, how often do you practice the things you learned while training? Steep turns and S-turns aren't something you use very often, but they're obviously something that takes practice to keep sharp. How about more important items like stalls? I'd like to hear from you.


2. Husband: I'm so thankful to have him, and that he's so supportive and helpful! :)

Self-Assessment: Oh, geez. Man do I need the upcoming practice with instructors!

Flying
• Preflight, taxiing, normal takeoff, short/soft-field takeoff: Good.
• Maintaining airspeed, stalls, slow flight (VR/IR), maintain/change attitude/altitude/heading by instruments: Good.
• Recover attitude, altitude, heading by instruments: Acceptable.
• Forced landing: Good, need more practice.
• Forward slip:: Dunno, needs more practice.
• Pattern, normal landing, directional control after landing: Good.
• Crosswind landing: Decent.
• Radio work: Good.
• Short/soft-field landings: Good, need to practice hitting the aim point.
• Night operations: Decent.

Navigating
• ADF: Haven't used it since the intro, needs practice.
• VOR: Good, will get more practice.
• Dead reckoning: Improving but needs practice.

Next: I'm due for that phase check with Dan, then three hours of checkride prep, two of which will be with Chuck and the third should be with the chief pilot at the flight school, Mark. I really need to practice engine-outs again, in addition to freakin' everything else.
Hours logged this flight: 1.2
Hours logged total: 49.7 (42.8 counts toward reqs)
Instrument hours logged this lesson: 0.0
Instrument Hours logged total: 1.7
Take-offs and landings this flight: 1
Take-offs and landings total: 107
PIC (solo) hours total:: 14.7

First of the last steps

Today I talked to Linda, the nearby DPE who did John's checkride a few weeks back and also Husband's IFR checkride a few years back.

She'll be out of town for the last week of February and first few days of March, unfortunately -- the timeframe I had in mind to do the checkride. But that's alright. She expressed flexibility, so if I find that this last training push goes quickly over the next week and a half, I can call her and we might be able to get up and go then. Otherwise, we'll do it soon after she gets back and I'll have extra time to polish my manuevers and answers.

And I'll have to put the baby books aside and hit the textbooks and test-prep books again...

C'mon, weather!

Flying for two...

So, I hope this doesn't count as carrying a passenger, else I'm in trouble!

Tiny Baby Cargo is due August 19!

Thanks, folks!

My parents sent me a few books for my upcoming birthday (thanks, Mom and Dad!). They look like good reads...

101 Things to do with your Private Pilot's License by Leroy Cook

The Killing Zone: How and Why Pilots Die by Paul Craig.

I gotta say, I was a bit taken aback by the killing zone book when I first saw it. I don't think the dust jacket has a sentence on it that's not about doom. If their intention was to get you to read it based on fear, they got their marketing right. But it does look like a good book, and it appears to instruct based on anecdotal lessons -- this went wrong, this is what the pilot did, this is what happened, this is what the pilot should have done -- and I learn very well from that type of instruction. It's broken down into ~20 chapters that focus on accidents caused by different factors or during different stages/types of flight: pilot attitudes, ice, runway incursions, takeoff and climb out, night flying, etc.

Husband is looking forward to reading both books, too.

Oh crap

After nearly 40 years of running our beloved JGG, the Waltrips want to sell it.

In the words of every Star Wars character, "I've got a bad feeling about this."

Odds and ends

Sorry for the hiatus, folks! It was expected, given interceding plans, but there it is and it feels like it's been going on for ever and that it's never going to end.

L'aero is planning to leave tomorrow for two weeks. It was to leave today, but a wintry mix postponed the departure.

I've just returned from a five-day visit to a dear college friend in Florida, and now it's time to crank up the oral test practice. I expect that part of the pre-checkride prep flights with Chuck will include some oral questions, and Husband is helping me to get through the practice book. I'm also looking at possibly getting together with another local instructor who took newly-certificated-388-co-owner John through his training. The more practice, the more knowledge, the better, I figure.

Coming back from Florida, I was on a 737 cruising along at FL370. Perhaps you peeps can tell me if I'm tricking myself about this: So we're hovering in the blue, and below us is a nice, soft-looking cloud layer. A little ways off to the side I see a dark gray line that appears to be sitting right on top, contrasting with the bright white of the clouds. I follow with my eye to the "end" of that gray line and find a lil' plane. Hmm. Contrails through clear skies are white. Are contrails through clouds gray? (Or maybe this phenomenon can't be called a "contrail," but it left similar enough evidence that that's what I thought of...)

Written exam... check!

[Update: The missed question...]

I took the written this afternoon, and got a 97! I missed a question about minimum height AGL for flying over a wildlife refuge; I answered 2500', but the correct answer is 2000'. So I'd add some extra buffer for the cuddly bunnies and badgers, I can live with missing that question.

Super special thanks to Husband who quizzed me on the meteorology stuff on the way to the testing center since that was the section I studied least recently. The vast majority of the questions on today's test had to do with weather! Can you believe it?! Opposite-Murphy's Law, I reckon...

If you're in this area, be advised: the LaserGrade testing fee at Hampton University's Department of Aviation is $60, as compared to the apparently standard fee of $90.

Yay! :)

Now for the oral test practice, after a good rest...

JEP FII-16: Local night flight

Goals:

• 8 night landings, with and without landing lights.
• Light night maneuvers.
• Night VFR navigation.

Flight:
We met up at 6 at the terminal to sign me off to take the written exam and to chat about a few things I missed on the "official" groundschool completion test. I got 94 out of 100 questions right. We chatted about some night topics and the plan for the flight. Sunset was at 6:15, and at 6:45 we headed out to 388 for preflighting.

During the day it had been windy, 13+ kts, but tonight I got lucky and scored calm conditions. But man oh man was it cold! Earlier in the day Chuck had called to ask what the owners' policy was concerning cold-temp starts of the plane. This had not yet come up for us with 388, so I had no idea. Husband indicated that the policy on planes he had rented in the past required preheating at or below freezing, and tonight it was expected to drop below freezing around 7 pm (where'd our unusually tropical winter weather go?!?). I called Kevin (mechanic) to ask if they had a preheater and, upon hearing that they didn't, asked his advice. He relayed that most POH's say preheating isn't required unless the temp is in the teens (Fahrenheit, obviously!) and that provided the engine was "willing" to start he saw no reason for us to cancel the flight on account of temp.

Preflight was cuh-old. Thank the heavenly stars that there was no wind, or else we'd have canceled on account of not physically being able to do the preflight! Ok, maybe I'm a wimp, but it was unpleasant. Husband had given me his hat with bill-clip light again and this time I remembered to bring it. It was fantastic, making the whole process more efficient! Soooooo much easier than fumbling with a hand-held flashlight while using two hands to preflight and hold a checklist.

I found that frost crystals were starting to branch out on the fuselage, and thin smooth patches of frost were forming in various areas on the wings, especially near the tips. Chuck looked it over and said it wouldn't affect airflow and that we'd be ok; it was due to temp differential between the fuel inside the wing and the cooling surface of the wing.

Chuck showed me about rotating the prop a few times manually to get some oil moving up from the sump into the engine as a preparatory action. Finally we got in (although it was not any warmer inside yet, of course).

Three shots of primer. Not enough, engine wouldn't catch. Three more shots. Engine wants to catch, but won't. Three more shots, plus a loaded shot that, while I cranked and Chuck managed the throttle, I'd smoothly feed. This got it, and 388 came to life just like its normal happy self.

On to the flight... I turned on the runway lights (7 mic clicks in 5 seconds) and turned off the blinding runway end strobes (3 long clicks), plugged in the FYJ AWOS in the standby com slot and tuned the HCM VOR on the nav, then executed a standard takeoff on 31. As soon as I rotated and began to climb, all I could see was a gorgeous big sky full of stars. Wow. But weird, too -- was I pitched too far?!??! A quick check of the airspeed indicator said all was as it should be, so after running through the other instruments to verify that we were in good shape, I returned my gaze to that beautiful picture. That must be what the lucky shuttle astronauts get to see.

We climbed to 2500' and headed north. Immediately I could see the telltale city and factory lights that are West Point. For good measure, I dialed the VOR indicator to take us to HCM (after verifying the Morse code), knowing that the 337 would kick us over to the airport. Once departing the VOR and hearing on the AWOS that the winds were calm, I began the descent and set up for a 45 entry into downwind for 27 and clicked on the pilot-controlled lights. As we got onto downwind, however, I noted that the well-lit smoke coming from the well-lit factory was blowing gently westward; perhaps there would be a light tailwind, but it shouldn't be much. We'd give it a shot.... (Famous last words!)

This first approach was probably the worst as far as organization. I was very preoccupied with the differences compared to a daytime pattern, with making my pattern turns at the right time, using the runway lights as the visual cues, and, knowing that 27 has a displaced threshold on account of trees that I most likely wouldn't be able to see, I was major-preoccupied with not being low on final. Also, FYJ has no VASI or PAPI, so it would have to be all based on my judgment and gut feeling about the situation.

Predictably, I came in way high. I was probably still at 300' at least as I came over the threshold at idle power with at least 20 degrees of flaps, maybe 30. Ok, I had wanted to be some high, but that was too much. Also amidst the new distractions of a not-so-well-lit airport environment, I did a poor job of managing my airspeed and was probably ~85 mph on short final where it should be more like 65-70. Go-around #1. I was a little frustrated with myself, but being conservative assured that I'd get to try again!

Second time around was better, but resulted in another go-around. This time I was very careful with my airspeed, keeping it where it ought to be, and at the beginning of final when I realized I was high I put out the full 40 degrees of flaps. I should have made it down this time, but that's when I realized that that tailwind was having a bigger effect than anticipated and was forcing my glidepath to be longer than what I wanted. So a night go-around from full flaps ensued.

Third time around, I was on downwind and Chuck said to turn this pattern into a crosswind entry for runway 9. I was a little glad at that moment to not have to do 27 again since it wasn't going well. My downwind leg was a little too close to the runway, so I decided to extend to compensate for a short base. I ended up drilling along on final, trying not to lose too much altitude too far out, and the landing lights clearly lit the trees below us short of the threshold (they were well below us, but still...). That was proof of two things: 1 - don't wanna be low on final! What if the landing light was out? I wouldn't have seen those trees and while seeing the trees is not what determined how I tweaked my power/glide, it's nice to see something if you know you need to avoid it. 2 - I never saw the trees on 27, so I must have been way-plenty-extra high.

The landing was just fine. No problem. I rolled out to the end of 9, turned around and departed 27 for another attempt at 27. And yet another go-around! Can you believe it?!?! I couldn't. I was starting to feel very frustrated. Things were going wrong, we were talking about them, I was fixing them. Airspeed under control, check. Wide-enough pattern to descend on base, check. Flaps set appropriately, check. Corners of the pattern at proper altitudes, check. Beginning the go-around, I put in the power, started on the flaps, and let out a little of the tension by swearing, followed by an apology to Chuck for the swearing.

Next time around was very similar. I thought I was doing well and anticipating the tailwind. Turning final I was at ~375' AGL. Full flaps. Power off. 75 mph, pulling up a tad to slow those last few mphs off. And we just drifted. Still probably 100' above crossing the threshold. I was ready to go around yet again when Chuck said to land it. This, I felt, was doable but pushing it. Part of the lesson on this landing was that the runway looks shorter at night than it really is. We did finally get down, and with plenty of runway to spare, but I was still feeling very negative about the whole thing and voiced that it wasn't working for me. We talked more about all the variables and left it basically at "more practice needed;" I thought I was compensating for everything already, with the exception of selecting an aim point short of the runway, knowing the wind would drift me past it.

2 landings, 5 approaches. Ugh. (Although if it was baseball, .400 would be heroic!)

I turned us around for a 9 departure, and Chuck called for a soft-field takeoff. I considered going for the checklist, but instead I rattled off the procedure from memory: 10 degrees of flaps, get airborne asap, accelerate in ground effect to Vx, climb out. And so that I did.

When I got abeam the numbers for the landing on 9, Chuck called for a soft-field landing. Again from memory: Full flaps, shallow approach (which I would consciously forgo), hold the nose up for as long as possible after landing. This wasn't so good. Final was fine, and I was good and slow, <65 mph. The stall warning came on before we crossed the threshold, which made me a little nervous since that was not typical for my landings -- horn during the flare was normal. I just tried to be careful with it, and as I flared, we stalled, plopped down a few inches, and I was unable to hold the nose off the surface. I pulled back to at least keep the weight on the mains, but failure on the soft-field landing.

3 landings down.

Roll-out to the end of 9, turn around and prepare to depart 27. Chuck wanted another soft-field takeoff but asked me to use my checklist, basically saying that if I have a checklist for something, even if I know what needs to be done, to use it. A point well made and well taken; the DPE will like that. That's one of the fundamentals, right? It did make me wonder if he disapproved of my technique on the previous one, but he didn't critique it at all. I was doing the right things, but obviously I was being a little overwhelmed by new stuff and different stuff and feeling frustrated. I never felt overwhelmed, but in retrospect I think that might have been the case.

After a good soft-field takeoff, we were downwind for 27 when Chuck said that the landing on 27 should be non-standard, but lady's choice for how. I opted for a short-field landing. Full-flaps, slow, steep approach. Again I thought I had accounted for the tailwind but didn't land until 2/3 of the way down the runway, as the side lights changed to red. We stopped in an extremely short distance (good short-field landing except for completely missing the target landing zone!) and had to throttle up to get rolling to the end of 27. I turned around and reviewed the checklist for a short-field takeoff: hold the brakes, no flaps, throttle up, check the gauges, release the brakes, roll to Vx, rocket upward! And thusly was it done.

4 down.

By this time my approaches and landings on 9 were going just fine, so on final my landing light "failed" at Chuck's whim. That was totally awesome! As instantaneously as the light went off, my brain shifted gears and my eyes focused on the red strip at the far end of the runway. I mean, it was really just amazing how that naturally happened. And it perfectly, perfectly demonstrated what I should have been using to judge height and flare point this whole time! Man that was cool, and it was a really good landing, too. Chuck reminded me as we continued the rollout to turn that light back on.

5 down.

At the end of 27 we turned and departed 9 as a standard takeoff. This time around would be a standard landing with no landing light. Despite how fantastically awesome the previous no-light landing was and how enthusiastic I was about doing it that way, I still had trepidation about the trees and my inability thus far to aptly land with the tailwind. But I did what I could do: manage airpseed, manage altitudes, try to land "early"... On final the light went off and while the landing happened long again, it happened just fine and was again a very cool experience.

6 down.

The next two were normal takeoffs and normal landings, one on 9 and the last one on 27. Hmmm, you know, something must be out of order above, because the final departure was on 27, followed by a left turn to the south to head home, so the final landing was on 9. In any case, you get the point: we exhausted the West Point pattern and accomplished the night training, with various styles of landings and takeoffs and with and without the landing light!

After departing FYJ, we crossed the river, got to 2500' and I slowed for slow flight. The stall horn was squealing as I held ~65 mph (clean). A 90-degree turn to the west, and I had to add a little power to keep from losing altitude. A 90-degree turn back to south, again with power management. Approximately south I pulled out the power and pulled back to stall. It was a normal stall recovery with the added experience that the *visual* horizon seemed more obvious as the windscreen full of stars transitioned to a combination of stars and city lights. Given the unreliability of horizons at night, that's not something to rely on, and I was actively checking the instruments to verify attitude and climb/descent rate, but it was neat. Immediately upon establishing a positive climb, I moved on to the power-on stall, which took a good deal of effort to induce and with all those stars and no sense of horizon I was sure we were about to flip over backwards! (Go, little Cessna, go! :) Ha ha ha ha...) Again, the stall recovery was normal and it illustrated that I still need to work on getting a clean break to demonstrate to the DPE.

Getting back to JGG was an adventure. After the slow flight and stalls, I didn't have my bearings for where we were, even with the peninsula spread out before me all lit up. I couldn't immediately tell where I was based on city lights and roads, so I started searching for the beacon. (Turns out the beacon was on this time, thankfully, but that it's kinda hard for me to make out until within ~6 nm or so.) Chuck asked what I was going to do. I said there were two primary options: first, HCM VOR 188 is part of the instrument approach to JGG, and I had HCM tuned in so I dialed in the radial and turned eastward to intercept. Second option, head south, knowing we'd eventually cross the James River, at which point we'd be able to identify the telltale features like curves in the river, Jamestown Island, the power station, etc. After puttering along for a few minutes and still not hitting the 188, which would have sent us right to the airport when we really wanted to be to the west of the airport for a 31 landing, I changed methods with Chuck's approval and went river-hunting. It was not long at all before we found it. I was still looking for the beacon along the water's edge when Chuck knowingly said, "Aha! What's that?" and pointed just off the left of the nose. The ferry docks!

From there, I clicked on the runway lights and got on downwind, where the runway lights were promptly obscured by the treeline. The approach was normal, although I do remember being a little tense about it. Probably on account of the fact that 31 is the less predictable of the two finals at JGG because of the swamp monster; but he would probably be hibernating right now anyway... JGG does have three lit bars that align when you're on the glidepath (APAP?), and so I used those to bring us in for a decent landing.

Discussion:

1. Tailwinds are bad, m'kay: Well, I suppose not necessarily bad, but they definitely require adjustments to the standard landing setup. When possible, I will be avoiding that situation! I believe I proved tonight that despite my efforts to correct the elements that were not working, it still didn't come under control adequately.
   
   And that was such a light tailwind, too! AWOS said calm, but the smoke from the factory was disturbed. That was good proof of why you land into the wind, even when the reports say there's no wind at all! :)


2. Maneuvers at night: Theoretically, maneuvers at night should be quite a lot like maneuvers during the day. On a reasonably clear night, even with no moon, there's still a horizon. Well, let me rephrase: Last night it was clear with no moon and we could pick out the horizon here. Maybe it was as simple as where the stars stopped. Maybe there was a subtle color difference between sky and dark land. But the horizon was there and that was useful for stall recovery. It would have been usable for steep turns and the like as well. For slow-flight turns, with squealing stall warning, airspeed, DG and attitude indicator were my primary inputs.
   
   The obvious difference, however, is the trouble scenario. NTSB reports that the vast majority of accidents happen during maneuvering flight. An emergency at night is more serious since it's so much harder to find a safe landing site. In stark contrast to the night x-c a few weeks back under a full moon, tonight I could barely tell the difference between water and land, let alone pick fields out from trees or even gauge the size of fields. We did the maneuvers last night with caution, with confidence in the plane's performance in the conditions, and to a minimal extent.
   
   Doing night stalls was a valuable experience. I'm glad we did those. I don't think that doing steep turns at night would add much to my skill set or comfort level or whatever. Stalls are always practical to practice, and since the visuals are quite a bit different at night, it was good to do it. In the end, it went to show that the process is the same (naturally!) but that the instruments play a more important role since a horizon may not be available.


3. Landing at night: The number one thing to remember about landing at night is that it follows the exact same procedure as landing during the day. The same procedure. Altitudes are the same. Airspeeds are the same. The pattern is the same. The visual cues are different, especially for runways with no approach path indicators, but it's still the same process.

Self-Assessment: More polish, more practice!

Flying
• Preflight, taxiing, normal takeoff, short/soft-field takeoff: Good.
• Maintaining airspeed, stalls, slow flight (VR/IR), maintain/change attitude/altitude/heading by instruments: Good.
• Recover attitude, altitude, heading by instruments: Acceptable.
• Forced landing: Good, need more practice.
• Forward slip:: Dunno, needs more practice.
• Pattern, normal landing, directional control after landing: Good.
• Crosswind landing: Decent.
• Radio work: Good.
• Short/soft-field landings: Good, need to practice hitting the aim point.
• Night operations: Decent.

Navigating
• ADF: Haven't used it since the intro, needs practice.
• VOR: Good, will get more practice.
• Dead reckoning: Improving but needs practice.

Next: ??? Husband wants to act as DPE for me before I take my checkride, and that's a good idea since I haven't done maneuvers recently and only typically grade myself on altitude. This week we need to do that, and I need to do a phase check with Dan. Then I leave on Saturday to visit a friend in Florida for 5 days, and when I get back 388 will be gone for two weeks. So, I'll start scheduling a DPE for the end of Feb, and plan to do the 3 hours of pre-checkride flights, which will include the remainder of the required instrument time, during the third week of Feb.
Hours logged this flight: 1.8
Hours logged total: 48.5 (42.8 counts toward reqs)
Instrument hours logged this lesson: 0.0
Instrument Hours logged total: 1.7
Take-offs and landings this flight: 8
Take-offs and landings total: 106
PIC (solo) hours total:: 14.7

Star light, star bright...

I'm super tired right now and am going to bed! But first I just wanted to report that I got in my 8 night landings tonight with Chuck, and we did a little slow flight and two stalls by starlight.

Pitching up to depart JGG was surreal, beautiful and a little unsettling -- having a windscreen full of stars just felt wrong! I had to keep double-checking the airspeed :)

It went well. Three go-arounds on 27 at FYJ thanks to a minor tailwind (also a learning experience), short- and soft-field takeoffs and landings, landings with and without landing lights -- without is totally awesome!

Retarding myself

I've decided to slow down. I was pushing to finish up and do my checkride by Jan 26. Losing 4 days last week for personal reasons, and now not having quite as much daytime flexibility as I had hoped due to work obligations, plus with the unknowns of weather and DPE availability, it's just too much. I was stressing myself out, and that leaves open too much possibility for screwing stuff up.

So the new plan is as follows:
1 - Tomorrow night, finish up night training. It's supposed to be pretty windy during the day, but calming down into the evening. If it doesn't settle down as expected, that's ok, we'll postpone.

2 - Thursday afternoon, phase check with Dan. I'm thinking about rescheduling this for next week since I haven't practiced maneuvers at all in the last 5-6 weeks since I've been working on cross-country stuff. That would give me time to get in a little solo refresher time.

3 - Friday 2 pm, take the written exam. I took another test last night when I was sleepy, hot and not feeling well, and got a 90. I was alarmed during the test because I got several questions I had never seen before, not even the topic areas! But I'm good to go, have my "reread-just-before-test" list of facts, and just need to get some sleep.


388 will be MIA for the first two weeks of February, so I'll be planning to do my pre-checkride prep flights when it returns and then the checkride soon after. That gives me this week and next week to work in some solo prep flights in a non-rushed fashion.

Congratulations, John!

One of our co-owners in 35388 passed his checkride at the end of last week. Bigtime congrats to him!

He has over 300 hours in his ultralight, and now is getting ready for his early-February two-week celebration trip to FL (in 388, the motivation for me to finish my training within the next 2 weeks)!

Mixed emotions...

Forgive me for a short post. The x-c went very well, I got in 3.0 hours and 2 landings at controlled airports, so I've now satisfied all of my solo requirements.

Husband's grandfather passed away this morning while I was nearing home base, so we'll likely be heading back south for his funeral in the next day or two. Please keep Husband and his family in your thoughts.

Practice test #2 - 95

I did another online test -- 95. I felt like I was doing badly tonight and was just generally frustrated... the cat walking in front of the keyboard, not having enough desk space (still using the old college desk) to spread out nicely, etc. The cat got the boot, and the rest just had to be dealt with as best as possible.

Tonight I missed:
1 - cloud bases in PIREPs are AGL. I figured MSL since a pilot calling them in has very easy access to that measure, and they want to encourage the reporting of actual conditions. I suppose, though, that pilots could be reporting that way and the FSS or Flight Watch or whoever translates it according to reported position to AGL. There was logic behind my answer, just not correct logic.

2 - Measurement error -- The question was something like "From airport A to a VOR B, what is the TO radial to fly?" One answer was 359 and one was 001. My measurement said 360. Repeatedly. I couldn't see what was going wrong, so I eventually randomly selected 001. They wanted 359. I'll have to see if Husband measures differently.

3 - Another ETA problem where I came up with 30 minutes and the answer was 34. This one I have already gone back and rechecked, and upon recalc'ing I get 33, so I guess I was careless somewhere. On the real test, I'll double- and triple-check.

Consistency is good, I reckon.

X-c in the morning to finish up the x-c reqs as well as landings at controlled airports. I have to do a phase check with another instructor (probably Dan again), get 8 night landings, and do 3 hours of pre-checkride prep flights.

Bleh

I spent about 8 hours today cranking through the remainder of the Jeppesen FliteSchool groundschool software, and redid all of the practice questions.

I haven't taken the official software test yet, the one that I can print out to get credit for the groundschool prereq. I'll do that after taking a few more online practice tests.

I just took my first practice test at sportys.com, and got a 95. One question I missed because I didn't read the answers carefully enough. One I missed because I couldn't remember what the min vis requirement is for VFR above 10000' MSL (it's 5 sm; I answered 3 sm). The third was a calculation error that I'll have to go back and review; time en route should have been 8 minutes but I got 11 minutes.

There's so much rote memorization. I kept a list of things I know I'll just have to re-memorize right before the test. Like FAR 43.7 allows a private pilot to perform preventive maintenance. Like whether the word category or class means airplace/rotorcraft/etc or normal/utility/acrobatic with regard to airmen/aircraft.

Maybe I'll feel good enough about it to take the written this week. Right now I just feel drained.

No x-c this morning

The gusty crosswinds here and at Charlottesville stepped up. I'll try again on Tuesday. I suppose now I should spend those hours studying!