flying lesson - landings

Flew yesterday afternoon in the evening. I scheduled it at the last minute because because my instructor was available and I was supposed to go this morning and the forecast was not good for today. I did pattern work and did 9-landings. Some of them were even ok. I'm glad I did it because my instructor called this morning and said ceiling was expected to be 1,500 at 0900 so
we had to cancel. Had fun flying yesterday and was looking forward to today. Ah well, more time to study ground school material for the FAA written test

flying - VOR radials/intersections and ""how do you spell ...?

Today, while studying for the upcoming ground school test, I've been listening to Potomac ATC. For the first time I've heard at least 5 pilots ask for the spelling of the TICON airspace fix when they were directed to it. I tried to find it on my chart and had no luck (so I'm assuming that the pilots were doing the same). I also came to the revelation (I think it's correct) that the Victor airways are just matching VOR radials.

weather, weather, weather

Could not fly today because of weather again so we went over ""stuff"" that will likely on my upcoming ground school test. Also bought the new set of aeronautical charts for the area (they expire every so many months).
The airport manager on duty today is the wife of a professional pilot and they are interested in selling their airplane (a twin) since they do not use it often (I think they have two). While that would be nice someday I'm not getting my hopes up. If I can just keep getting training and learning I'll be happy (which of course implies being able to pay for it).

flying lesson - the simulator

Went to fly this morning and discovered (while filing the ADIZ flight plan) that the runway was closed due to the ice/snow we recently received and not expected to open until noon. We bopped over to the Frasca simulator (my first time on it). My instructor screamed in fear a lot less and needed a smaller sedative afterwards so I guess I did ok.

flying lesson - unusual attitude recovery

Flew this evening. Did a little stall and hood work and then unusual attitude recovery (first time for me). Was pretty neat. Interestingly enough, I didn't get queasy during the attitudes but did feel it a little bit after coming down. Landed pretty well in a decent crosswind. Unusual attitude recovery means that you put on the hood (you can only see the instruments) and close your eyes. The instructor then takes the controls and maneuvers into a bank and/or nose up/down attitude and you open your eyes and have to immediately return to normal flight.

flying lesson - a few basics and getting lost (again)

Flew late yesterday afternoon. Weather was perfect. We did a couple of basic maneuvers (slow flight, steep turns and ground maneuvers). I think my instructor intentionally had me end up a bit futher north than usual and I didn't realize it. Towards the end she said ""so, do you know where we are?"". I looked around some and didn't have a clue so I pulled out my trusty chart, looked at it some, looked around some more and then had the revelation that I still didn't have a clue. Damn that's annoying. Once she gave me a couple of clues I realized where we were and we started heading back in. Landing was a good one and it was the first dusk landing for me which was neat too.

e6b practice...

Last Thu night while at ground school I had to try a couple of quick e6b calculations and even though I had practiced Wed night (after learning them Tue night) I still sucked at it. Tonight, I just going to sit here and try a few of them again and again and again....
For anyone that doesn't know, the e6b is a circular slide rule type flight computer. It does a boatload of stuff and I need to get at least somewhat competent at it.

flying lesson - landing at another airport and hood work

I flew this morning (was lucky enough to slip in between bad weather). For the first time we went out a ways and did a couple of touch and go's at another airport and then I flew back under the hood. The first landing was great and the second only so so. I think I was thinking on the 2nd one and the first one just kind of went by. In ground school last night we got a little pop quiz on using the flight computer which I did terribly on. Clearly, this weekend is going to involve a number of test exercises with it.