Saturday, May 12, 2007
bringing along a barf bag...
so, i told my instructor that i'd like to do a ride-along during an ifr/night flight sometime so that i could watch. she's getting a lesson tomorrow after mine so i might get to go along in the back seat. it occurs to me, i have never ridden in the back seat of a small airplane. i'm bringing along a few barf bags, just in case...
weather cancel
Could not fly today because of a thunderstorm in our area. Rats. Trying again first thing tomorrow.
Friday, May 11, 2007
leesburg fss move, first try at filing via phone
I've had the (considerable) convenience of being able to file Washington ADIZ flight plans in person at the Leesburg FSS up until now (they moved on 7-May-2007). I'm due to fly tomorrow so I thought I'd try filing by phone for the first time today in case it takes a while. I've been on hold for 10-mins now. Apparently, it takes a while.
Sunday, May 6, 2007
flying with someone new
I flew with a new instructor yesterday (mine is out of town) and it was an interesting experience. He is a bit older and thus had a couple of different perspectives on a few things which I found interesting and informative. One thing was that I didn't was that you do not have to use an aviation beacon with your ADF receiver. We did a few of the usual things (which I did 'ok' with I think) and my landing was decent. I wanted to see whether or not I would be nervous with someone else in the right seat (such as an FAA pilot examiner) and I don't think it bothered me at all. The weather was almost rainy but improved right before we took off. I was hoping to fly in some rain because I haven't done that yet but no such luck. This was also the first time that we had to burn the carbon off of the plugs which I had heard about but had never seen done.
Thursday, May 3, 2007
flying with a new instructor this weekend
My instructor is out of town for the next few days so I'm going to fly with a different instructor (my first time doing that) this weekend for more practice. It will be interesting to see how that feels (and how I do).
Monday, April 30, 2007
"26th Annual Virginia Aviation Safety Week"
"26th Annual Virginia Aviation Safety Week"
1st in the Safety Week Series at NASM, Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center
Monday, April 30, 2007, starting at 7:00 pm
John Nance talks about 'Beyond CRM - How to Fly and Steady IDI (Intuition Deviation Indicator)'. This FAA Wings approved seminar ends at 9:00pm.
http://faasafety.gov/SPANS/event_details.aspx?eid=14737
1st in the Safety Week Series at NASM, Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center
Monday, April 30, 2007, starting at 7:00 pm
John Nance talks about 'Beyond CRM - How to Fly and Steady IDI (Intuition Deviation Indicator)'. This FAA Wings approved seminar ends at 9:00pm.
http://faasafety.gov/SPANS/event_details.aspx?eid=14737
Sunday, April 29, 2007
flew to FDK (Frederick, Maryland) today!
The weather was great so we headed up to FDK (Frederick, Md) today. This was my first time there. Previously, I had said that this was a towered airport and it's not. I had always assumed that it was so I had actually not checked to be sure (duh).
FDK is my first airport with more than one runway which was actually tougher than I expected. It is also much busier with both GA (General Aviation) and glider operations. There were always at least 3 other aircraft in the area while I did one go-around and two touch and goes. The go-around was supposed to have been a landing but I was too high coming in on the first approach. The second approach was too low and I realized what caused me to be low. The runway I was using (30) is 75 feet wide while I'm used to 100 feet. It being narrower (which my ground school instructor warned me about) can cause you to drop lower to make it look the same as a wider runway (which means pay attention to what your instruments are telling you as well as your eyeballs). An interesting thing about multiple runways is that it kept confusing me to see the wrong one when I was in the pattern making turns and I wanted to run parallel to the wrong one for a moment. Also, FDK is very close to P40 (Camp David) so you cannot enter that space no matter what which means make sure you know where you are unless you want to experience an intercept from a military aircraft.
Even though I had made notes on airport frequencies and runways I still did not have a good mental picture on approaching to the airport as to the correct runway to use. It would have been better for me to have a picture sitting in front of me when I was about 3 miles out.
We had a bit of crosswind on the return to JYO (Leesburg) but I actually landed pretty well (for a change).
Here's a tidbit, the plane I used yesterday had a stuck dipstick and I couldn't figure out how to check the oil. My instructor showed me a little trick. You can use the control lock (which has just the right bend in it) as a lever to twist the dipstick. It worked like a champ.
FDK is my first airport with more than one runway which was actually tougher than I expected. It is also much busier with both GA (General Aviation) and glider operations. There were always at least 3 other aircraft in the area while I did one go-around and two touch and goes. The go-around was supposed to have been a landing but I was too high coming in on the first approach. The second approach was too low and I realized what caused me to be low. The runway I was using (30) is 75 feet wide while I'm used to 100 feet. It being narrower (which my ground school instructor warned me about) can cause you to drop lower to make it look the same as a wider runway (which means pay attention to what your instruments are telling you as well as your eyeballs). An interesting thing about multiple runways is that it kept confusing me to see the wrong one when I was in the pattern making turns and I wanted to run parallel to the wrong one for a moment. Also, FDK is very close to P40 (Camp David) so you cannot enter that space no matter what which means make sure you know where you are unless you want to experience an intercept from a military aircraft.
Even though I had made notes on airport frequencies and runways I still did not have a good mental picture on approaching to the airport as to the correct runway to use. It would have been better for me to have a picture sitting in front of me when I was about 3 miles out.
We had a bit of crosswind on the return to JYO (Leesburg) but I actually landed pretty well (for a change).
Here's a tidbit, the plane I used yesterday had a stuck dipstick and I couldn't figure out how to check the oil. My instructor showed me a little trick. You can use the control lock (which has just the right bend in it) as a lever to twist the dipstick. It worked like a champ.
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