Pilot Brad’s Flying Blog

I showed up at the airport on Saturday with the goal of going up for another instrument lesson, but unfortunately the weather that had moved in on Friday still hadn’t cleared.  We walked outside to inspect the cloud cover in the hopes of finding a holes, but no luck, the layer was thin in spots but solid.  We talked about our options, and while my instructor was willing to file an IFR flight plan for us to get out, he said the conditions still weren’t ideal for what we needed to do.   Instead, we decided to work on some landings in the 172 so that I could get checked out for solo in it.

We did about a half dozen circuits, and there were some high spots and low spots in my performance, literally and figuratively.  My landings, specifically the touchdowns, were actually very good for not having flown a 172 in eight plus years.  They were right on centerline and a few of them were textbook smooth.  My approaches on the other hand were anything but.

I just couldn’t seem to get myself headed downhill at the right time and I was high on every approach but one.  Actually, I think I was high on all of them with some being only slightly high, while a  few were very high.  I was always able to salvage the approach and get us down for a safe landing(s), but none were what I would consider stabilized approaches.  My problems were caused by two mistakes; carrrying too much speed into the descent and waiting too long to apply the appropriate amount of flaps.  My instructor also offered the explanation that the 172 seems to float a lot more than the Warrior, and it sure seemed that way, but maybe he was just saying that to make me feel better.  We debriefed after the flight and I know what I am doing wrong, now it’s just a matter of mending my evil ways. 

It wasn’t a horrible day, but it was a bit humbling.  I can’t wait to get back into the cockpit of the 172, so I can nail those approaches.

Up early and back at it today.   The weather was perfect this morning, with clear skies and smooth air.  It was a bit chilly, but the plane performed very well in the cool morning air.  We went right back into the Basic Attitude Instrument Flying (BAIF), followed by some steep turns under the hood, and finished off the flight with by tracking the localizer on approach. 

The BAIF went well, and I felt a bit more confident holding heading and altitude than I did the other day.  We worked on some constant rate and airspeed climbs and descents, which were slightly more difficult than the constant airspeed only climbs and descents of other day.  For example, I was instructed to fly a descent of 90 knots and 500 fpm, which I am told is typical for an ILS approach.  During the descent I would nail the airspeed only to find the descent rate off target, so I would make a change in attitude and/or power to fix the rate, but then the airspeed would be off target.  What made this difficult is that the VSI is a very sensitive instrument, and even minor changes in airspeed and/or attitude had a dramatic and immediate affect on the descent rate.  After a bit of practice I was showing improvement, but it was time to move on to the next exercise.

Continue reading ‘IFR Lesson 2: BAIF, Steep Turns and the ILS’

It’s official, I had my first real instrument lesson today, and it was cool!  I spent 1.3 under the hood, performing climbs, constant airspeed descents, standard-rate turns, climbing turns, descending turns, and straight-and-level flight too.  We also did a few stalls and some unusal attitude recoveries, but since I have flown a bit of aerobatics, I didn’t find the attitudes all that unusual.

It was fun but it was also hard work, and I am feeling a little tired right now.  I’ve done hood work before, for my private, but never 1.3 straight.  Having to divide your attention between so many instruments is mentally challenging, and it is abviously going to take a lot of practice before I will feel comfortable, if I ever do.  While my instructor said I did “excellent” today, many times I found myself in level flight holding altittude, only to discover I had wandered 10° off heading.  I would then correct the heading only to find that I had drifted 100′ off altitude, and so the cycle continued.  It see-sawed like this on a few occasions and at times it felt like it was the tail wagging the dog, but again, it was a lot of fun.

I’ve heard many times that getting an instrument rating will make you a better pilot, and I truly believe it.  I would also say the same thing about a tailwheel rating, but I digress.  For instrument flight you must exhibit a very high degree of accuracy and finesse when flying the airplane, and the only way you are going to be able to do that is by truly mastering control of the aircraft.  I am a long way from pocessing that level of skill, but it sure felt good to take a step in that direction today.

We fly again on Sunday, so stay tuned.  

I am happy to say that after logging a total of 2.0 hours two flights over the weekend I now have a current BFR and I am checked out for solo rental of a Piper Warrior.   Yesterday we took care of the BFR, and today we worked on polishing my landings.  It felt great to get back into the air, and while I was a little rusty, I wasn’t nearly as rusty as I thought I would be.  I meant to take some pictures, but with everything going on I completely forgot to get the camera out.  Maybe next time.

My instructor was great; I figured that since this was the first time I had flown (as PIC) in a few years, and the first time back into a Piper Warrior in over 15 years, that he would want to perform the first takeoff and landing.  To my delight, he only touched the contols once, and that was only when I asked him to while I retreived something from my flight bag.  I was a bit concerned that I wouldn’t know what to say over the radio, but it all came back to me very quickly.  The hardest part was recognizing when the tower had called our n-number,  as I had never flown this airplane before and half the time I couldn’t remember what the n-number was even though it was placarded directly in front of me.

For the past 6 years, I have flown nothing but tailwheel aircraft with tandem (centerline) seating and control sticks instead of yokes.  With this being my first flight in a Warrior in many many years, one thing that I really noticed was how heavy the controls felt and how sluggish it was to respond to control inputs.  I am not knocking the aircraft, it’s just different than what I have become accustomed to.  Even though I thought the controls were a bit heavy, and at the risk of sounding a bit arrogant, I was really surprized at how easy it was to fly and then to land.  I thought my first landing was going to be horrible, and while it wasn’t great, it really wasn’t that bad.  However, rather that taking credit for my satifactory landings I’ll attribute them to the design of the Warrior’s landing gear with it’s shock absorbing struts.  As none of the aircraft I have flown for years have had flaps, I had to remember to apply the flaps at the appropriate times, but it quickly became habit once again.

Continue reading ‘Current? Yes I am!’