My Flying Career

So I need to apologize for taking so long to write this post.  I keep putting it off, and partially I feel I have nothing super exciting to write about.

The last couple weeks we have been practicing steep turns, slow flight, power-on and power-off stalls, Vmc demo, and of course lots of single engine operations.  For the most part I feel like I’m getting the maneuvers down.  I think the only thing I need to work on is memorizing the power settings for the different maneuvers.  But all in all, I’m beginning to feel comfortable flying the plane (unlike at first, when everything was just CRAZY).  I also got to fly for my first time in an FTD (Flight Training Device).  Which is basically a flight simulator with all the controls and a cockpit cutout, but doesn’t move (like a full-motion simulator).  That was kind of fun, it was helpful because we would be 50 feet above the runway, and then my instructor would kill an engine.  And I got to see “somewhat” what that would be like, and how incredibly fast you need to recognize what’s going on. I’ve got Identify, Verify, and Feather stuck in my head.  Those of you who have taken multi-engine training I’m sure know what I’m talking about.  Sometime in the next few lessons I will be doing a single-engine instrument approach!  Which I think sounds crazy hard, but Chris (my instructor) assures me that it’s not as hard as it sounds.  We’ll see.

On another note, I have been doing some time-building in the club plane here and there.  I shot the VOR-A approach into North Bend all the way to minimums, could barely see the airport, and went missed.  Picked up my clearance back to Salem and shot the ILS, went missed, then turned around and shot the back course to a full stop.  What a mentally busy day!  The weather wasn’t “terrible” in Salem, but the approach in North Bend was TOTALLY in the soup and was a lot of fun!

Finally the weather started clearing up and I flew VFR to corvallis, then west out to the beach, then north up the coast, and then east to Hillsboro for my multi-engine lesson.  What a great flight!  Not a cloud in the sky, the beach was beautiful!  I can’t remember the last time I flew to the beach in VFR conditions (without the hood on).  Flying north up the coast I even saw some Whales!  I scrambled for my camera and circled around, but was too late.  That had gone back down and I couldn’t find them again.  Sorry.  However I did take a bunch of pictures of the coast.   Hope you enjoy!

Alright, back to studying.  I’ll try and keep you all more up-to-date and not take so long on posting this time around.

Also, wanted to mention, if you aren’t subscribing to the RSS feed and want to receive email notifications when I post a new blog entry, be sure and subscribe here.

Thanks for reading,

John

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The Piper Seminole I flew

Well I FINALLY had my first day of Multi-Engine flight training.  I was sick on Wednesday and the weather was terrible so I wasn’t able to have a lesson that day.  But Friday was an awesome day to fly!

I can basically sum up my first multi-engine lesson with one word. Overwhelming!  There are only twice as many engines as I’m used to, but there is about 3 times as many things to do.  Not only is this my first time flying a multi-engine airplane, it is my first time flying a complex airplane.  So retractable landing gear, and the constant speed prop are all new things to me, on top of having double the engine controls and instruments.  We flew over to Scappoose to do some maneuvers.  We did Steep Turns, Power-off stalls, and 4 touch-and-goes.  The first touch-and-go was crazy!  Trying to keep track of the manifold pressure, propeller RPM’s and look out the window, AND look at my checklist was just crazy.  But by the 4th time, I think I was starting to pick up on the cues and memorize the checklist items.  That’s the best way for me to learn, repetition.

All in all it was extremely fun, and when we started heading back to Hillsboro, I felt like I was starting to get it.  Oh yeah, one thing I have to start memorizing is the stinkin’ cowl flaps.  Holy cow, cowl flaps up, cowl flaps down, cowl flaps up, etc.  Thank God for checklists.  My instructor said that he thinks I have the basics down pretty good, and our next lesson will be all single-engine operations.  Yay!

Ok, on to pictures, I didn’t take a ton of pictures.  But here are the ones I did take of the plane.  Enjoy!

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