Who's The Blonde Stranger?

Starting Over

noreply@blogger.com (Marcus) — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 22:39:00 +0000

You may think this blog is dead. Which it was, however, after a long long break from flying I have decided to pick it back up and attempt to finish my training this year. As I will be out of town for the next three weekends and it get dark so early here in Chicago so I will have to wait until I have an open weekend. in the mean time I am reviewing all of my written materials and prepping to take my written test. Look for recaps of my lessons in the coming weeks.

Auto Pilots

noreply@blogger.com (Marcus) — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 19:37:00 +0000

Surfing around the web today I came across a great article about the use of autopilots. Granted that currently I am not even flying let alone have my PPL. Yet, I figure that learning about these devices will be agreat help to me in the future. As such I am including the text from this article Below. A link to the original article is here

The article below was written by my
friend and GNS430/530/480 instructor Keith Thomassen. Keith and I have
have taught the top of the line Garmin panel-mounts in a classroom environment
over the last four years. During the class Keith and I have found that
many pilots, even though very experienced don't really know how their autopilot
functions in different modes, especially the Nav. and GPS modes. With the
introduction of 2.0 software with regards to the CNX80/GNS480, the confusion
level of the autopilot increased when used with one of these GPS
Navigators. This prompted Keith to write this short article on how your
autopilot should respond when interfaced with a modern GPS Naviagator.
While the popular S-Tec System 55X is mentioned, the information is applicable
to most brands of autopilots. Be sure to consult your FMS (Flight Manual
Supplement) to see just how your autopilot should function in your
aircraft.

Autopilot Types
There are many types of autopilots. Simple units
will keep the wings level, or hold a heading, while more complex ones have NAV
and GPS Steering modes.Our discussion is restricted to those that can hold
headings and altitude, can intercept and fly a specified horizontal course (VOR
or GPS) and can track a course with a vertical slope (ILS or GPS approaches).
For understanding the autopilot, it is important to know the differences between
autopilots that are deviation-based, and those that are roll steering
capable.Or, between those receiving analog signals and those using digital (or
both) signals to direct their
actions.

One example of such a full
functioning autopilot is the S-TEC 55X shown above. It’s horizontal modes
include HDG, NAV or APR, and GPSS. Vertical modes that control pitch are
ALT, GS, and VS. This autopilot also has CWS (control wheel
steering).
Perhaps you learned about autopilots some year’s back from
tracking a VOR or LOC course. Analog signals representing deviations from the
localizer and glideslope, as seen for example on your HSI, told the autopilot
which way to turn or to climb/descend. Analog autopilots still dominate the
market, but there are now digital autopilots that don’t even look at the HSI
information to tell the servos how to bank, and digital pitch control is coming.
This overview of autopilots is prompted by the new vertical guidance GPS
approaches, and to clarify autopilot use for tracking GPS courses. These general
principles are illustrative of what autopilots do, but a word of caution is in
order. Your model or brand may not work exactly as described here, so for
individual differences be sure to rely on the manual for your unit. What follows
is specific for the S-TEC 55X.
Analog Autopilots
Analog autopilots
use analog signals from a CDI with (or without) glideslope indicator, and a
heading indicator (bug) on a directional gyro (DG) for course direction.
Alternatively, this combination of CDI and DG is found on an HSI, and hereafter
we’ll use it for discussion. The DG and CDI are shown below on the left and
center, while the HSI is shown on the right. Signals from the HSI to the
autopilot. For a VOR or LOC approach, put the autopilot in NAV mode and select
the course with the Omni- Bearing-Selector (OBS) on the HSI (yellow
pointer).
If you have a DG (no HSI), you must set the heading bug to the
desired course.

Your position is the center of the HSI, and the
split-out center portion of the yellow needle represents the selected radial
from that VOR. In the NAV or APR mode, the angular deviation between the course
and your present radial, and a right or left determination, commands a turn in a
deviation-based autopilot to reduce the error (close the split). The turn
coordinator gives input also, to limit the rate of turn.

The APR mode has
greater needle sensitivity and can be used for VOR or GPS tracking if you push
APR rather than NAV. When a localizer frequency is chosen and NAV is
selected, APR will light up as well since localizer signals are more sensitive
(less angular deviation for full scale deflection). This autopilot supports dual
mode operation, pushing NAV and HDG together. You then track the heading
set by the HDG bug until intercepting the VOR (or GPS) course selected with the
OBS, at which time the HDG light goes out and you remain in NAV mode. Again, if
you have a DG, set the HDG bug to the new course.
Several vertical tracking
modes are available with analog autopilots. Altitude hold is one, as are
VS commands to fly a given rate of climb or descent. With control wheel steering
(CWS) you can suspend roll and pitch control by pushing a CWS switch on the
yoke, and with both a roll and pitch mode activated, your autopilot will
maintain current pitch and bank values on releasing the CWS switch.
On an
ILS, which has vertical guidance, the glideslope can be tracked if it is
captured. It will be armed automatically in the 55X if you have a valid
glideslope signal (no flag), have the NAV receiver tuned to the localizer, are
in the NAV/APR/ALT modes, are sufficiently below the glideslope, and are within
half a deviation of the localizer course --- all for 10 sec. When armed,
GS is illuminated and when captured the ALT illumination goes out. If you
have to hold at the OM, you can disable GS arming by pushing APR twice while
inbound to the OM (GS will flash, ALT and DSBL come on). To re-establish, push
APR again. If above the glideslope, you can manually arm it for capture by
pushing ALT when in that mode
If you make a GPS flight plan, analog signals
representing your cross track error (XTE), and whether left or right of course,
are sent to the HSI (if you select GPS with the CDI key on the GNS 430/480/530
devices). It’s also necessary to set the OBS course on your HSI (or HDG
bug on the DG) to the DTK of the active leg, since both pieces of information
are acted on --- XTE and the difference between your OBS setting and the DTK.
Then, operation is no different than tracking a VOR course in the horizontal
plane. Analog signals from the HSI to the autopilot command turns to reduce the
deviation.
With the recently certified v2.0 software for the GNS480, it
sends signals to the glideslope indicator so you can see if you are tracking the
“GPS glideslope” associated with LPV and LNAV/VNAV GPS approaches. It also sends
a “discrete” signal to arm autopilots, equivalent to arming the ILS glideslope.
So, with the 55X for example you’ll fly these GPS approaches just like an
ILS.Put the autopilot in the NAV/APR/ALT modes when a GPS approach with vertical
guidance is selected, then sit back and watch it capture the GPS glideslope and
fly it right to the runway! There are around 1800 vertical GPS approaches at
this moment so GPS receivers with WAAS and certified software are now opening up
very exciting new opportunities for precise approaches at airports without an
ILS.
At the moment you can’t legally couple your S-Tec (or any other
autopilot) to the HSI for this operation because it is not described in
their manual and approved by the FAA. Whether or not autopilot
manufactures amend their FMS (Flight Manual Supplements) to fly GPS approaches
with vertical guidance remains to be seen.
Digital
Autopilots
There are some new kids on the block, and they don’t play by
the old rules. Digital autopilots receive digital signals directly from
your GPS navigator over ARINC-429 standard (two-way) digital links. Analog
information from the GPS to the HSI is still there for you to monitor, but the
digital link drives the autopilot. When you make a GPS flight plan the active
leg is defined and your position relative to it is known. So if off course, the
GPS unit can process that information to compute a smooth closure track and
command a specific bank angle at all times.

GPS
Navigator
Digital Autopilot
ARINC-429 digital signals
Roll steering
commands
Analog Autopilot
HSI or CDI and DG
GPSS mode GPS-V
(soon)
HDG, NAV, APR, ALT, GS
Analog signals
(Pitch steering commands
coming)

The required bank angle computed by your GPS is
called a roll steering command, and a digital autopilot can accept those
commands directly from your GPS navigator. The autopilot then directs the servos
in the wing to accomplish them. This is known as GPS Steering, or
GPSS. On an S-TEC 55X autopilot, for example, you engage the GPSS mode by
pushing the NAV button twice. The analog HSI signals are used for your
information, but not for autopilot control in this mode.
To summarize, you
have a choice of the analog mode if you push NAV once, and the digital mode if
you push NAV twice. In the NAV mode you operate through your HSI, and need
to set the OBS pointer (or HDG bug on a DG) to the DTK of each leg. In the
GPSS mode the HSI is ignored for control, and the autopilot relies on the GPS
computed roll steering commands (on a 429 digital link) to send bank commands to
its roll servos.
On some installations, you may not need to switch your GPS
unit to the GPS mode (depends on how it was wired). But if you stay in the VOR
mode, the HSI information comes from your active VOR, while your autopilot is
looking at GPS course and position data. For that reason, some
installations do not allow GPSS operation unless you switch to GPS with the CDI
button on your GPS navigator.
Some autopilots have a switch to put you into
the GPSS mode from the HDG mode, and back again. In that circumstance,
when in GPSS mode, pushing the NAV button has no affect on autopilot
control. It does send analog signals to the HSI, for you to monitor, but
you have to go back to HDG with that GPSS switch before you can engage the NAV
mode.
Dual mode operation with HDG and GPSS is available in the S-TEC
55X. With this operation, you pick your intercept heading with the HDG
bug, and the course is intercepted by the GPSS mode when within the criteria for
that intercept.
GPS-Vertical
There are several digital
autopilot manufacturers working on the vertical equivalent of GPSS, known as
GPS-V. None are certified as of this writing, but with WAAS approved receivers
already certified in the Chelton Flight Logic EFIS and the GNS480, it is only a
matter of time before your autopilot could be fully digital.The new Chelton
AP-3C autopilot below now accepts GPS-V, but the GPS receivers are not yet
certified to send these signals on the 429 data link. The Garmin GNS480 group is
working on providing digital signals from their unit. For the experimental
aircraft market, TruTrak has nearly completed their Sorcerer unit with GPS-V,
and since it will not be certified it can be used for experimental aircraft as
soon as they complete the hardware and software and bring it to
market.
Digital autopilots are the brave new frontier. Capability available
to us soon, together with WAAS receivers, will afford new and exciting
opportunities for assistance in flying our aircraft on GPS approaches.

Long Break in Blogging and in Flying

noreply@blogger.com (Marcus) — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 03:24:00 +0000

In case anybody really pays attention to my blog, I have not posted in a long time as I lost my flight school, which to the best of my knowledge is out of business. I am currently in the process of researching a couple of new school in the Chicagoland area. Look for some more detailed posts to be coming in a day or so.

Welcome to LogShare

noreply@blogger.com (Marcus) — Mon, 17 Jul 2006 02:44:00 +0000

I came across this site tonight while browsing the web. It is a free on-line flight logger. It seems like a great way to keep a backup of your paper log. I will post a further review once I have used it for a while.

Cash or finance?

noreply@blogger.com (Marcus) — Sat, 15 Jul 2006 19:39:00 +0000

Cash or finance - AOPA Forums

Check out the the thread above on the AOPA forum. Has a good discussion about buying a plane for cash or borrowing. A pretty interesting read.

Google Earth Blog: Go Flying - Flight Tracklogs for Google Earth

noreply@blogger.com (Marcus) — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 19:39:00 +0000

After seeing how cool the small sectional maps on the Winging IT blog. I emailed the author to ask how he does it. I got a real quick response that pointed me here. It is an addon to Google Earth that some very kind pilot wrote. This link started my exploration of Google Earth and in doing so found another really cool add on for use by pilots. It allows you to upload you GPS flight tracks to Google Earth. I haven't tried it yet but looks very cool. Check out the post here or by clicking on the link at the top of my post

Lesson #23: Soft Field Take Off and Landing

noreply@blogger.com (Marcus) — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 19:13:00 +0000

Why is air-conditioning so expensive in Airplanes? That is more of a rhetorical question but man has it been hot here the ChicagoLand area. Before I talk about my lesson let me rant for a little bit. It has been my experience that Flight Schools and scheduling are terrible. Case in point I had the plane scheduled at 6:00pm which I verified before I drove to the airport. Now when I get to the airport the owner of the flight school says that one of the other instructors thinks he has the plane at the same time. I think to my self "too bad check the schedule" but instead I hear the the other instructor is "willing" to delay his lesson and hour. This measn that my two hour lesson is now only going to be one hour. This did not make me too happy. We have an online schedule, how hard is it two check the schedule and why should I rearrange for your screw up. Anyway RANT OVER. I spent today's lesson learning soft field take off and landing. If you have been reading my blog you will know I haven't flown in a while so I was ready to be a bit rusty when I went up today. Tom and I took of from Palwaukee and he asked to to perform this one as a soft field take off and he re-explained what the procedures were. The soft field takeoff doesn't seem to be too hard on paper but rolling down the runway with the yoke in my chest will take some getting used to. From PWK we flew Campbell where I spent the remaining 30 min performing soft field landings. As a whole my lesson today sucked. I was sweating something fierce, I was rusty and as a result I didn't even have one good soft field landing. I am going to need a lot or work in this area of my training. Hopefully these techniques will get easier with time. I am however, looking forward to my next lesson which will be my first night flights.

Mother Nature Hates Me

noreply@blogger.com (Marcus) — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 14:55:00 +0000

I may look like I have stopped posting, or stopped flying. Well I did, but only because I haven't flown in like two weeks for multiple reasons. My flight school has has a lot of maintence squawks that seem to take the A&P forever to fix. Also the weather has been so not nice to me. For example I was scheduled to fly last night at 9pm to work on my night flight stuff. My wife was even going to ride along. The weather in downtown Chicago looks terrible, clouds at about 600ft. So I call my CFI. He tells me that is is perfect out my PWK. I verify this my checking the latest METAR from PWK. So my wife and I drive the 20 miles out to the airport burning 3.46 a gallon gas :(. When we get there a huge fog bank is rolling in and put PWK smack dab in IFR condidtions. I am scheduled to fly again tonight and will hopefully be doing my first dual x-Country.

Lesson #21: False Start

noreply@blogger.com (Marcus) — Mon, 26 Jun 2006 15:21:00 +0000

Was scheduled to go out solo this past weekend both on Saturday and on Sunday. Saturday I had scheduled the plane from 9:00-11:00. I got up nice and early and decided to take my motorcycle up to the airport. The weather couldn't have been nicer.

KPWK 241453Z 00000KT 10SM FEW065 22/08 A3018 RMK AO2 SLP219 T02220083 50002

I got to the airport at around 9:05 parked the bike and saw two people around 560DH, the plane I had scheduled to fly. I thought the previous lesson had gone a touch late and they were just packing up. As I walked out to the plane I saw that they weren't running late at all they had never even left. It turns out that 560DH had lost a bolt which hold the exhaust header to the manifold. In fact I had a lesson cancelled before due to this same problem. The owner of the flight school was trying to fix the problem, but I pretty much knew that my lesson was a lost cause.

All in all I was kinda pissed/disappointed. It has been really hard to schedule any time to fly due to one plane being grounded for the last couple of weeks. So when I finally get on the schedule and the weather is great I drive the 20 miles in traffic only to find that the plane is grounded. I just wished the the flight school would have called me. Don't get me wrong before all of this I have been pleased with my choice in flight school. Their prices are very reasonable and I am very impressed with my instructor. However, their small size seems to be a limiting factor right now.

Anyway I am scheduled to fly tonight so I hope the plane is fixed my tonight.

Cash or finance - AOPA Forums

noreply@blogger.com (Marcus) — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 21:39:00 +0000

Cash or finance that is the question. I found this thread out on Aopa talking about a number of different opinions regarding if you should finance your plane or if you have the cash, pay in cash. Check it out.

Lesson #20 Second Solo : More Landings

noreply@blogger.com (Marcus) — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 21:12:00 +0000

On Monday I was scheduled to go up on my second solo flight. I had scheduled two hours in the plane and was really looking forward to my time in the air. As luck would have it I failed to check my calendar (my wife) and I seemed we had promised to go to dinner with some friends. Now some of you may think that I should have just tried to fly and make dinner. Those of you who said that must live closer to the airport than I do. I live in Chicago near Wrigley Field (god the Cubs suck this year) and fly out of PWK. Google maps says the distance from my house to the airport is 24 miles. Those 24 miles take me over 90 min to travel. As a result I needed to cancel my lesson. Luckily there was some open time on the plane's schedule yesterday at 7:00pm. I scheduled an hour in the plane. My plan was to go up and work on my patterns and landings. It took me the before mentioned 90 min to get up to PWK and I barely made it on time. Once at the airport I went to meet the owner of the flight school in order for him to give me the keys. After handing me the keys I got a little bit of a speech about "going around". As you have read in my previous posts, there have been a couple of incidents with students at our flight school. Basically he was saying not to try and save a bad landing but to instead "go around". That in and of it self is good advice, however, the subtext behind the speech, to me, was "a student already broke on of my planes and cost me a lot of money so don't mess up the only plane we have left". I guess I can't really blame him, but it did make me really nervous. He then drove away and wished me luck and to be safe (read don't crash my plane). I had already been listening to ATIS and had all of the necessary info written down on my handy post it note. I radio PWK ground and told then my intentions. Apparently the controller had responded to taxi to runway 16. Well I missed his reply. I waited there in the plane feeling a little dumb and not really wanting to ask the controller to say again. I quickly overcame the moment and radioed asking again for taxi instructions. The controller replied in his best annoyed voice that he had cleared me to runway 16. Gotta love cranky controllers. He must have known I was a student, although, I think my radio work is pretty good. I taxied to the runup area for 16 and went through slowly my checklist. I was really nervous about something going wrong so I wanted to be really cautious about all of my pre-takeoff checklist stuff. I tuned into the tower and was told to "position and hold" and then was cleared within seconds for take off.

Time for take-off. Full throttle, check rpm, check engine instrument, check airspeed alive. This whole time I was saying this outloud. Is it wierd to talk to yourself when flying? Airspeed 60 mph, rotate . . . and we are flying. Hold the extended center line..... tower clears me for right closed traffic follow sundowner traffic. No problem I have traffic in sight. On base to final turn find myself a bit high. . . no problem reduce throttle a bit, third notch of flaps and I get back on the glide path. Here is where I learned some new stuff. On my final I had about a 4 knot crosswind. In the past I had done all my landings using the "low-wing method". This time I, for reasons unknown established my crab to correct for the wind. I held this crab close to touchdown and then kicked the rudder to straighten out. This resulted in a fantastic soft landing with the stall light coming on at touchdown. I wish I would have known that the crab method of landing really isn't as hard as it seemed when reading about it.

The four other landings of the night were very similar. All right traffic, which for me is much harder than left. Got some good practice on the radio, and got to see a beautifully sunset. Need to work on my tendency to pull the airplane right when I look out the right window during right traffic and need to keep a very close eye on airspeed when working the radio. All in all another great day of flying. And I didn't bust up our school's last airplane. Oh and one more thing the picture in this post is from google maps and actually show where our plane is parked and I think you can actually see the plane I fly circled in red.

The Plane I Fly 560DH and 1423T

noreply@blogger.com (Marcus) — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 17:22:00 +0000

I had a little extra time over lunch today and after checking the weather I saw that most likely my scheduled lesson will be scrapped. As a result I decided to write a quick new post. I included some pictures of the interiors of the two planes that I fly. Currently only one, N560DH is airworthy. If interested in that story take a look a some of my previous posts. The picture to the right is the interior of N1423T.

Suggestions for Traffic Information: TIS, TAS, TCAS?

noreply@blogger.com (Marcus) — Tue, 13 Jun 2006 19:46:00 +0000

I was up late a couple of days a ago surfing around and wound up reading a really good thread on Aopa's Forum. There was a really good discussion about different types of traffic allert and avoidance system and getting the most for your money. Check out the whole thread at this Link .

Propstrike ! ! ! UPDATE

noreply@blogger.com (Marcus) — Tue, 13 Jun 2006 18:33:00 +0000

N1423T Bent Prop Picture
Originally uploaded by Mar26.

A quick update on the incident we had at my flight school this weekend. The student who had this accident posted on StudentPilot.com. Link to thread here with his original post pasted below:

Hello all. Though I have never posted before, I have thoroughly enjoyed
reading everyone's helpful advice and solo stories.My own story is that I soloed
last week at 15.1 hours. Today I went for my 2nd solo to practice maneuvers and
touch and goes. Unfortunately, I had an accident during the landing the 3rd
touch and go. Out of caution, I cannot provide details.However, I am extremely
grateful for being alive. I had no injuries, but the accident scared the hell
out of me. In terms of damage, the prop was bent a little bit and the nosegear
off-center a bit. I was able to taxi back with the engine running.As the day has
worn on, my worrying has only increased after having read others' stories.
Still, I haven't been obtain a clear picture of what actually occurs following
the accident.My instructor told me to expect a call from the FAA once he files
the report. Beyond this, what else should I expect (in the immediate and distant
future)? Will this go on a permanent record? Will other flight schools not take
me in?At this point, I am done with flying. I am relatively young (22) and have
a hopefully promising future ahead of me. I have a great extended family who I
don't want to lose. It has also shaken my core that someone else's property was
damaged under my care and that potentially I could have hurt someone else as
well. Though I have loved flying since I was a kid, at this point I have too
much to lose and cannot take on the responsibility that being a pilot
entails.thanks to all for being a supportive community. I will sincerely
appreciate any guidance on the matters I discussed above.

Please, if possible take the time to read this thread and ecourage this individual to get "back on the horse" as they say. Additionally some of the other posters give some really good advise on things such as renter's insurance and dealing with the FAA. I plan on writing up a post in the near future exclusively on renter's insurance as I currently don't have any and after reading all of this have decided that I NEED it.

Lesson #19 Soft Field Takeoff

noreply@blogger.com (Marcus) — Tue, 13 Jun 2006 02:57:00 +0000

Cherokee N560DH

The plan today was to go up with my instructor and fly to a number of airports close to Palwaukee so he could endorse me to solo as these airports as well.

I got to the airport a little early so I could get the ATIS information written down. My instructor called next and said he was running a little and that I should go pre-flight the airplane myself while I was waiting. Too bad I didn't have the key to the plane, but I took the opportunity to walk out to the plane and take some pictures.

My instructor got there a couple minutes later and we were off into the sky. From PWK we flew to C81 . My instructor promptly cut the engine as we were on the entry to the downwind leg of runway 90. No problem, I had plenty of altitude to make almost a full pattern. I added one notch of flaps, made the turn to base and still had plenty of altitude to make runway 90, added second notch of flaps and started my turn to final. PROBLEM, the tail wind on my base leg had bled off way too altitude and at this point it was obvious that I wouldn't have made then runway. I was a little upset with screw up, but after obviously not making the runway I was instructed to add some throttle so as to finish the approach with power. Here is where I was really pleased with my self. There was a direct crosswind on runway 90 and I was able to correct for it and made a very respectable landing.

A couple more laps around the patch for consisted of me making my first attempts at both a short-field, and soft-field takeoff. It was a lot of fun but I will need a bunch of work on these maneuvers. Each of my landings got a little better which I was pleased with. I did have to go around once as I wound up a little too close on my downwind which led to a u-turn final that was too fast and too high.

After the whole prop incident I wrote about yesterday I really wanted to be comfortable going around.

From C81 we headed to KUGN to get a couple of touch and gos in. As we headed northeast toward KUGN I got cleared straight in to runway 5. I made a pretty good landing on this approach. I would call this landing a greaser except that I drifted about five feet off the center line. My instructor tells me that occasionally I attempt to hold the center line with the rudder instead of the ailerons. I don't know what causes that, but I need to concentrate on this aspect more.

From here we headed home. This leg was uneventful except for one thing and it was a big thing. We flew a higher altitude than I was used to. As a result my sight picture of the terrain around PWK looked much different. I thought that ORD was PKW, not good.

Key takeaways form this, be very vigilant in watching your surroundings.

Prop Strike!!!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Marcus) — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 15:56:00 +0000

Yesterday I scheduled myself for a two hour slot in N1423T to work on my pattern work around PWK and to get some solo time in. I was a little nervous as the winds were around 9 knots and my first solo was in dead calm air. On the way to the airport I tuned into PWK tower to get a feel for the amount of traffic in and around the airport. I always try to listen to both ATIS and the tower before my lesson, I write down the ATIS info on one of those sporty's post it notes designed just for ATIS information. This helps me because I don't have to worry as much about the ATIS info while sitting in the cockpit going through my preflight checklists. I just check the ATIS in the plane to make sure that the info I wrote down is still current. Also having all of the freqs jotted down is very usefully to me as I always seem to forget what PWK ground freq is.

Anyway as I pull up to area three parking lot I see that my instructor and his previous lesson have just landed. After he signs the student's log book he tells me that N1423T is grounded. I asked the reason. Well as it turns out a student going out on a solo flight, I am not sure if it was his first or not, banged the prop pretty bad. Thus the grounding of N1423T.

I saw this accident as an opportunity to learn from other mistakes. I asked my instructor to tell me the particulars of the accident. According to my instructor, the student came in over the threshold fairly hot and as a result bounced/ballooned the touchdown. He then attempted to recover unsuccessfully and bounced again. At this point he was about 7 or so feet in the air with out much airspeed and proceeded to stall the plane. The stall forced the plane into a somewhat nose down attitude. It was in the attitude that the plane came down to the runway, landing pretty hard on the front gear and banging the prop. The aftermath of the accident was a badly bent prop and damaged front gear. I was told that luckily the engine never quit. Apparently if you hit the prop hard enough to stop the engine there is a very high likelihood of engine damage, most likely to the crankshaft.

So what do we learn from this? Well my take away was a couple of things:

Approach speed is so key to a good landing
Don't be afraid to go around. If anything doesn't feel right. . . Go around

The bad news about all of this is really for the flight school. N1423T had just gotten back from getting a new zero time engine put in. I am really bummed too as this was the plane I soloed in and really felt good flying in her. I hope that she comes back as good as she was before the incident.

I am scheduled to fly again to night, only this time in N560DH. The game plan for tonight is for me to go up with my instructor and fly to KUGN land a couple times and get signed off to solo at KUGN. Next on the agenda is flying to Campbell (C81) land a couple times and get signed off for solo there as well. Finally, head back to KPWK to drop off my instructor and finish out the rest to my scheduled time for the day working on my pattern and landing skills.

Winging It

noreply@blogger.com (Marcus) — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 08:47:00 +0000

Winging It

In trying to get a bunch of posts out this first week my blog is alive I have found a number of other student pilot blogs. This one is especially interesting to me as he is another Chicagoland student pilot. Good Luck tom

Jimmy Dreams.......of flying

noreply@blogger.com (Marcus) — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 08:32:00 +0000

Jimmy Buffett has been flying for over fifteen years now. His love of flying first blossomed when he was in college. A friend of his at the University of Southern Mississippi was a pilot and introduced him to flying. Jimmy had a flight lesson here or there but it didn't amount to much in the early days. Money was tight and flying is certainly not cheap. As a notable sign I once saw in an airport said, "If God had intended man to fly, he would've given him more money." However, that flying bug stayed with Jimmy. He set the goal of having his license by his 40th birthday. So as more success brought more money, Jimmy was able to resume his flying dream. He purchased a Lake Renegade amphibian and was instructed to his private pilot certification with single engine land and sea ratings just a year shy of his 40th birthday. Jimmy now owns several planes including the Hemisphere Dancer, a restored Grumman Albatross, which was sometimes flown over concert venues. However, the Albatross was recently retired and put on display at Margaritaville in Orlando. A Dassault Falcon 900c zips Jimmy around for business. Not forgetting pleasure, a Cessna Caravan amphibian lets Jimmy island hop while a Stearman biplane gives him a sense of nostalgia. There have also been a few close calls in Jimmy's flying career. In 1994, Jimmy was performing a water takeoff in his Grumman Widgeon when he encountered a swell in Nantucket and was unable to maintain control. The aircraft nosed over and sank. Read the accident report. Thanks to Naval survival training (required for a flight in an F-14 that Jimmy took), Jimmy swam out relatively uninjured. In 1996, shortly after landing the Hemisphere Dancer on the water outside of Negril, Jamaican authorities shot at the airplane mistaking it for a drugrunning seaplane. This incident inspired Jimmy to write the song Jamaica Mistaica for the Banana Wind album.

Hemisphere Dancer

noreply@blogger.com (Marcus) — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 08:13:00 +0000

Hemisphere Dancer, originally uploaded by Mar26.

Just thought I would share some of my insparation for getting my certificate. This is a picture of Jimmy Buffetts flying boat (now retired) which was a central part of his auto-biography. It was this book which finally pushed me to start the journey toward obtaining my wings.

Aopa's Win A Six In '06

noreply@blogger.com (Marcus) — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 05:50:00 +0000

Cherokee6, originally uploaded by Mar26.

Sitting in a hotel room while away on businees leads to a lot of motivation to work on ones blog. So as I was surfing around on the hotel's woefully slow wireless network I started day dreaming about my plane.

What plane is that you ask? Well it is of course the Piper Cherokee Six that is will be given away toward the end of this year. As of today I have sent away for over fifty entry forms. This is in addition to the fifty I have already sent in. I have a goal of sending in an entry for every day between now and January 8th 2006, the last day of the contest. I am wondering what the insurance will cost? $$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Solo Flight!

noreply@blogger.com (Marcus) — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 22:35:00 +0000

Who? Me .... Marcus
What? My first solo in N1423T
Where? PWK Palwaukee Municipal Airport
When? Thursday June 1st 2006 1:00 UTC

I did it, the first big accomplishment of my avation adventure. My first solo. I hadn't flown in roughly two weeks due to travel and was pretty nervous about beeing rusty. My instructor had been telling me that I was ready to solo, provided I didn't screw up anything too bad he would endorse me to solo my next time out. Well that next time out was this past thursday.

The weather couldn't have been better for a rookie pilot. When I got the airport aroud 6:30 pm ATIS was reporting calm winds, the sky only had a few clouds just a fantastic evening. I can't tell you how much more confidence the condiditions gave me. My instructor got there at five minutes or so before we had the plane reserved and we proceeded to prflight the airplan. The preflight finished up with out a hitch and we proceeded to get taxi clearance to hold short of runway 16. We proceeded to fly three touch and gos. My first touch and go was ok a bit hard but safe. My second landing I was concentrating very hard on greasing it but came in a little too hot and balloned just a touch. This kinda had me discouraged and thinking now I would get to solo but got ready for my last dual touch and go. My last landing was probably my best one yet. At this point we taxied to parking and my instructor did all the paper work signing me off to solo at Palwaukee Airport (PWK). My instructor got out shook my hand and told me to go out there and give him three good full stop landings.

I was really going to fly all by myself! No more training wheels. I was the only one that could get me up into the sky and down safely. I was really nervous for like ten seconds and asked my self why I was doing this. In fact I am pretty sure my voice cracked while getting taxi clearance from Palwaukee ground. It is not cool when you are thirty and your voice cracks. But the nerves quickly faded away as I got taxi clearance to runway 16, in fact I was so excited my cheeks hurt from smiling. Following my take off clearance I proceded to start my takeoff roll. The first thing I noticed was how much faster the plane accelerated and also how much more left turning tendancy there was with out my instructor. Airspeed indicator alive check, engine rpms check, rotate..... and I am flying. As I climb out I noticed that I am almost at pattern altitude even before midfield, talk about better performance with out the instructor. My turn cross wind is uneventfull. Same goes for my turn downwind. As I approach beeing abeam the numbers reduce the power to 1600 or so and one notch of flaps and trim to 80mph. So far so good. I turn base second notch of flaps trim to 75 so far so good. At this point I realize that my cross wind wasn't wide enough leaving me effectively a u-turn from downwind to final, need to work on that next time around. Third notch of flaps trim to 70, check I am lined up with the center line and am right on the VASI, so far so good. As a come over the threshhold cut the power and give a little tug on the yoke so as not to come in flat as a pancake. I am now floating down the runway, increase the back preasure on the elevator now about 2 feet off the ground, a little more back preassure, I hear the stall horn and then feel the wheels touch down ever so softly. I did it! I did it and I didn't break the plane.

Now that I am done congratgulating myself I realize that I have drifted right of the center line. Not real bad but a good to feet to the right of the centerline. So much for the perfect first landing. Now it is time to slow down so I apply the toe brakes. I apperantly but too much preasure on the right brake as I started to swearve around. I taxi off the active and get cleared to taxi back to runway 16 and proceeded to get cleared for take off. Before advancing the throttle for take off I run though a quick check list and in doing so realize that I still have three notches of flaps. Thank good I caught that error. Just goes to show you how important checklists are. I proceeded to land two more times with out incident, and I must say the landing were pretty good.

So now I have .5 hours as pilot in command and can't wait for the next time I can fly. I only wish my wife could have been there to see. It took me 22 hours to solo so I wasn't the fastest to solo but I am very happy with my progress.

Who Doesn't Want To Fly

noreply@blogger.com (Marcus) — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 19:32:00 +0000

So this is my first post to my newly created blog. The idea for this blog is to mainly be a journal of my progress toward my Private Pilots Certificate. After each lesson I am going to post what is did and my thoughts about the lesson along with any ideas I have that will make my subsequent flights better. Hopefully some one else will read my posts and maybe give me some pointers or even (gasp) learn someting from me.

A little introduction is probabally in order considering this is my first post. I always knew I was interested in avation. When I was about ten or twelve I saw a remote controlled airplane flying in a neighbors back yard. I thought it was the coolest thing I had ever laid eyes on. That next day I had my mom take me to the public library where I proceeded to check out every book on radio controlled airplanes. After reading all those books I saved up enougth money to buy a remote controll plane. I spent about a month building it and proceeded to crash it 30 seconds into its maiden voyage. I think my parents still have the wreckage in a box somewhere :) After that my interest subsided due to other interests coming up such as playing football and skiing. Fast foward to the summer of my junoir year in college. Being a huge Jimmy Buffett fan (hense the name of the blog) I purchased Jimmy's autobiography and spent some lazy summer days reading the book in the sun on the lake. I was Buffett story telling about his learnign to fly a seaplane and take it around the islands that really sparked my interest in flying. However, as a college student I didn't have any money tobuy beer let alone flyign lessons. So the dream was left to simmer a bit longer. Fast foward to 2006 I am now 30 years old and married with some extra disposable income. Some friends of my wife and I were getting married in Cabo San Lucas and I needed a book to read for the trip so I took the Buffett book to reread. This time after finishing the book I started looking for a flight school. Which brings us to today where I have roughly 21 hours toward my certificate.