Plane Project

Went for my second lesson with Drew. I was more calm this time. We had to taxi all the way to runway 19, so I got quite a bit more practice staying in the middle of the taxiway. Getting better. This time he added climbing and decending turns to the program. It went pretty well. I just have to remember to set the attitude and periodically glance at the instruments to verify. Not too bad at all.

We next tried a little speed control. Last time we cruised around at about 2300 RPM. This time we droped down to 21 and lost about 10 knots. Down to 20 dropped another 10 knots. OK, going slow required more back elevator during turns, and a lot more for climbing turns. You can see were this is going. We’ll be doing slow flight and maybe start on power-off stalls next time.

I got an introduction to flying the pattern this time. I descended down to pattern attitude and entered on the down wind. Turning to base was easy enough. Drew took over for the turn to final and we went on in.

This was also my introduction to the radio. I did the talking to ground control and Drew did the tower. At least I didn’t embarrass myself, though my readbacks were a little too sloppy. I’ll do better next time.

At this point it really seems to take a lot of consentration. It felt fine while flying, but when we got back to the office I was just wiped out. All I wanted to do was go find a bed for a nice long nap. I’m sure my productivity the rest of the day was just about zero.   But boy is this fun!

I trotted over to North Coast Air today to take the computerized Private Pilot (Airplane) knowledge test. This is another one of those stressful (at least for me) parts about learning how to fly. I had spent the last week preparing for it, but you just never know. . . .

You only need a 70% to pass, but as Steve Benedict, my ground instructor and the Sonoma County Pilot Examiner (what luck is that!) told us, there is a definite advantage to passing with the highest score you possibly can. The questions are divided into subject areas and if you miss any, the pilot examiner has to ask you questions about those areas during your verbal test. Miss too many, and he may really want to grill you to insure you’re really ready!

Not to worry, I aced it with 100%! It wasn’t hard at all. The main trick is to practice, practice, practice! You really have to study the material, because there is just too much to remember. Because of the way the questions are written, you can know the material cold, and still fail the test! They aren’t really tricky, but they are different from what you would expect. Take plenty of practice tests. I bought test books from King Schools, Sporty’s, and Jeppesen. They all had questions the others didn’t. If you can’t read most of the questions and know immediate what the correct answer is going to be, you probably aren’t ready yet.

I found that while taking the Aero 50 ground school class and Aero 50L lab class at the SRJC were helpful, you really need to work through the question books. You are probably not going to agree with all the answers, but they are the official answers you need for the FAA test. If you go by common sense, you will probably miss a couple!

They give you way more time than you will need, so that isn’t even an issue. Take the time to read every single word of both the question and all the answers very carefully. A single word will make the difference on some of the questions. ‘Day’ and ‘Night’ are obvious, but an out of place word added to an answer can make it “more incorrect” than another answer!

Well, the big day finally came. I drove over to Dragonfly Aviation for my first flying lesson with CFI Drew Mitchell. What an awesome experience! It was everything I hoped it would be.

After meeting, we walked out to the plane and Drew started off by showing me how to do a preflight inspection. As we worked through the checklist, he explained what he was looking for. Drew likes to demonstrate something and then have the student try it. For example he would take a fuel sample on one wing, and have me do the other when we got to it. This was repeated throughout the entire lesson. Fine by me! It helps a lot to not only have a good example, but to get the explanation of what he is looking for when he does it.

Drew wrote down the ATIS broadcast information and requested clearance to taxi to runway 36. I got to do the actual driving. It’s going to take a little practice learning to steer with my feet. I was wandering back and forth across the taxiway quite a bit. The trick seems to be to make quick corrections before it starts to wander.

Drew walked me through the run-up checklist, got clearance, and taxied us onto the runway. I thought I would be scared during the takeoff run, but wasn’t at all. Just like driving down the highway, nothing to it. We just picked up speed and the road just slowly went away. Nothing to it. The slight turbulence at about 500ft and the first turn to the south were another matter altogether! I just grabbed my knees like a school girl and held on! Why don’t planes have arm rests? They really aught to have something for nervous passengers to grab hold of! When nothing bad happened and we didn’t fall out of the sky I almost immediately started to relax. After that first turn, the rest of the flight was completely stress free.

After he got us up a ways and all leveled off, he had me take the controls. He told me to just keep the nose about 5 finger widths below the horizon to keep us level. Not too hard at all. We then went onto doing turns. This was a little more difficult as you have to do several things all at the same time. Definitely going to take some practice. We made it around OK, but it is hard to keep the altitude steady while maintaining the bank angle and pushing on the rudder pedals at the same time. After a few turns, we practiced climbs and descents. Climbs were easy, just push in the throttle and put the nose on the horizon. I’m sure there’s more to it, but that was good enough for now. Descents seem a little more tricky because it isn’t clear how low to drop the nose and its a little harder to keep it from bobbing around while you try to keep the wings level.

By this time Drew told me we were getting close to the airport. I had to take him on faith, because for the life of me I couldn’t see it! That brown patch out there? Which brown patch? I hope that gets better with time! I was finally able to see highway 12 in front of us. That helped me situate myself. With Sebastopol ahead and Santa Rosa off to our right, I could finally find the airport off to our left. Drew had me turn toward the airport and then he took over to land us. No problems there. Just as smooth and easy as could be. We pulled off the runway, did our post-flight checklist and I taxied us back to our parking place. Add exactly 1.0 hour to the hobs meter. Wow! Time sure flies when you’re having fun!

Other than that first turn, the only other negative was back in the office paying for the experience! With the addition of a $13 logbook, one hour of flight and dual instruction came to $204! Oh my! They said flying was expensive, but yikes! I don’t think I’ll be taking two lessons a week after all. Paying for one a week is going to be a real challenge! The price of dreams. . . .

To get a little practice with the process and tools of sheet metal construction, I built the little tool box practice project that Van’s sells.  This turned out to be a wise decision.  I read some about the process, but found that there were some major holes in my knowledge and abilities.

First, everybody will tell you to get organized before you just jump in and start building.  Clearing a small area off of my otherwise cluttered work surface isn’t going to cut it.  Tools and pieces hide underneath each other and periodically slide off onto the floor.

Second, read the instructions, and then read them again.  Figure out exactly what they mean.  If it isn’t exactly clear, do not cut or drill until it is perfectly clear.  If you can’t figure it out, ask somebody.  A phone call or email for advice is much, much quicker than ordering  new parts.  The real risk is that you never know you did something wrong and it causes a safety hazard later on.

Third, make sure you know how to do each operation.  What tool should you use?  Why?  How much is good enough?  Too much?  Is there any way to do something that could make the part unusable?  What are the criteria?  This becomes really important when drilling and riveting.  When is a rivet good?;  when is it ugly, but serviceable; when does it need to be replaced; and when should you just toss the whole part and start from scratch?

Fourth, if something can move, it will, and if it does something bad is going to happen.  When squeezing rivets, the piece will twist and turn every way imaginable to give you bent or lop sided rivets.  When bucking, add that the rivet gun will slide around and either damage the rivet head or the piece your riveting.  It will happen.  It will always happen!   Clamp or jig down the part before drilling or riveting!

Fifth, when done with an operation, don’t just set the piece aside, go back and inspect it critically.  Is it really airworthy?  Be honest with yourself.  If in doubt, bring in somebody experienced to look it over.  Looking at how my toolbox came out, I know I’m going to make mistakes.   I don’t know if anybody else ever set flush rivets with universal dies installed backwards or not, and I’m a little too embarrassed to ask.  They don’t look bad, if you don’t mind the rounded shop head. . . .  (Let’s just not do that one again shall we?)   The point is, mistakes will happen, but I must learn to recognize them, and while learning how to minimize them, also learn how to correct them.

Well, I still have the control surface practice project to do, so I have opportunity to test what I’ve learned.

Took the finals for the ground school and lab class this week. Went very well. Don’t know the grades, but think I got A’s in both classes. They were a lot of fun and really enjoyed them.

It was an amazing experience going back to the JC after 20 years. I would have flash backs just walking around the campus. I really should have gone back a long time ago and I definitely will go again.

The next step is to make appointments for a medical and to take the knowledge test next week. I already got my eyes checked and got new glasses. Other than a lack of funds and still being a lot heavier than I want to be, I guess I’m about ready to begin flight lessons. I’m really looking forward to it!