- 35 with wind chill

Well the title tells you everything you need to know about the weather today. There’s ice on the inside of our condo windows. It’s due to be like this all work week. On the weekend the temperatures going to rise to a balmy 4 degrees, but it’s going to rain.

I officially hate this weather

2014 – Resolutions

Following on from last year, let’s make some new ones, in no particular order:

1)      I’m going to stop procrastinating over the written exam. I’m very aware as to why I’m putting it off. It’s got to stop.

2)      I’m going to get my PPL. This is the year for it. It’s within reach. I know I can do it. Those words look so simple written down but the massive mental shift that’s gone into me being able to put those words down is immense. I don’t know how to adequately describe it.

3)      I’m going to pay it back. To all the people who have gone above and beyond what could reasonably be asked. To RTH whose endless patience I’ve pushed to the very limit when it comes to hollering for help, to Bob who is always at the other end of a text message or email or phone call. Who probably bills me for a third of what he actually should time wise. To my internet posse who are always there with constructive help or advice. To my family who follow my every flight even though they are thousands of miles away. I’ll pay it back by sporting those coveted wings and making you proud of me.

4)      I’m going to start on my book. Yep I’ve been thinking about this for a while now and working on the odd bit here and there. I’m going to write a book, a self-published, vanity affair, covering learning to fly and emigrating abroad and other random stuff. Probably in e-format, probably of no real interest to the majority of people, but I’m having fun writing for it.

5)      I’m going to learn some stuff about video production and editing. I have a ton of video material but am lacking creative ideas as to what to do with it. I want to stand out as more than just another set of flying videos. I need some ideas and some skills.

6)      I’m going to become a better passenger when RTH is flying. I’m going to stop worrying and fidgeting and questioning and just relax. Alternatively I’m going to become more useful like actually being able to handle the radios or the navigation for him.

I think that just about covers it for the moment. There are some fairly big ones in there. Lets see how I do! 

Winter flying

Winter has hit hard and quickly this year. Having just experienced my first “ice storm”, I can safely say that I’m in no hurry to experience that again. We were incredibly lucky in that we didn’t lose power and didn’t have to go out in it. It did give some very pretty pictures though.

Today’s flight was probably my first of the “winter season”. The lake’s frozen in places, the apron is slushy in some areas and the planes are sporting their winter kits. All engine starts are definitely of the “cold” variety.

Luckily dispatch are kind to me, keeping the plane in the hanger for me to do my walk round in the warm and dry. On the flip side though, everyone wants that hanger space and your walk round takes on the aspects of an obstacle course, with high wing and low wing planes stacked together like a game of aviation tetris.

It took me a while to get a feel for the increased performance that the cold air brings. Initially I was confused as to how the hell I managed to get to near circuit height by the time I turned crosswind. Then I noticed the pegged VSI, one hell of a rate of climb. It took me a circuit or two to realise I either needed to lay off the flaps a little or keep the power up for slightly longer. In the warm air those planes float for ever. In the winter they like to come back down.

Of course the worst thing about winter flying is that it doesn't look like I'm going to get much of it in. The weather looks to be unsettled for a long time to come and this is frustrating me so much. I got so close and I've come so far and the weather just won't cooperate.

It never gets old

The feeling when you line upon the runway, apply full power and go flying. Get the amount of back pressure on the control column just right and you don’t need to do anything. At the correct speed she just parts company with the runway. Otherwise all it takes is the gentlest of nudges and you’re airborne.

It is a beautiful moment as you seem to defy the law of gravity and power into the air. Planes want to fly and that enthusiasm for being airborne seems to get transmitted directly to the pilot via the control column.

Takeoff is an awe inspiring moment, despite my knowledge of physics and flight mechanics and everything else, it never ceases to amaze me that this lumbering beast on the ground leaps into the air and becomes a thing of beauty to control. 

Momentum

I’ve kind of lost a little bit of this recently. It’s been nearly a month since I flew.  Mostly weather related but the odd cancellation due to work, where I realised that working an event til past midnight wasn’t going to leave me in the best frame of mind for flying the next day.

For the first couple of weeks I was twitchy and p!ssed off at not being able to fly but as time went on, I started concentrating on other things and the time just kind of flew by (pun not intended!) As I said, somehow I found myself not having flown for a month.

The weird thing was I wasn’t in a massive hurry to get back into it either, at the time I stopped flying I was literally on the cusp of doing my cross country, to the extent that I had my flight plan and paperwork all done out and just needed to plug the wind numbers in from flight services and away I should have gone. Of course winter put paid to that.

Now I’m playing catch up, more in motivation than skill. Luckily it’s the fact that my skill doesn’t seem to have deteriorated in that month which has given me back my motivation.

When I finally did get back behind the controls, I will admit I was nervous but luckily it all seemed to come flooding back. Even though I was confined to the circuit due to crappy ceilings, I was happy that the basic skills were still there. Okay I overshot circuit altitude occasionally and I misjudged my first landing enough that I went around, but there was nothing inherently dangerous going on. I just needed to get the feel of the plane back again. Especially the fact that it handles so differently in the cold winter air than in the summer.

Bob complimented me on the fact that my radio work was still spot on, and I was happy with my situational awareness, particularly important in the slightly cruddy visual conditions. All in all it came back very easily but it opened my eyes to something else.

The AOPA reckons that 80% of people who start their PPL never actually finish it. Now I can completely understand how this happens. You don’t really mean to quit but the momentum just quietly slips away from you and before you know it, it’s been one, two, three, six months since you last flew. The longer the gap, the less the incentive to get back in the cockpit. Once(if?) you do get back though, it all comes flooding back and the desire to fly takes you over once more but I can totally understand how people wind up as part of that 80%

Once again I’m lucky, not only do I have RTH badgering me, I have Bob who keeps in touch even if it is just the odd text here and there but I also have a constant reminder looking out the window of what I’m missing.

I hope that I don’t have that kind of gap again. I need to keep this momentum going. 

Shaking off the rust.

According to my PTR it has been 4 weeks since my last flight, a combo of work and weather conspiring against me. So I jumped at the chance to fly when I got a text from Bob enquiring as to my availability.

We initially planned for a hop out to the practice area, some instrument work (anything to avoid that simulator!), some air work and just generally get back in the groove.

Of course the weather had other ideas with ceilings predicted to be at 2000ft and the upper winds a whopping 39 knots! Still I wanted to fly, strangely nervous about having been out of the cockpit for so long, we agreed for a “knocking off the rust” circuit lesson. Just a handful of trips around the pattern, until we were certain I’d remembered which bit pointed forward!

I did my usual-bottle-out-of-the-first-approach-because-its-gone-a-bit-squirly. I probably could have salvaged a landing from it to be honest, but I’d come in a little low (misjudged the winter performance), was a little slow and over the displaced threshold rather than the runway, with the stall horn peeping at me a little too early for my liking. So I overshot. No big deal really.

I coped with the less than ideal conditions, hazy horizons and reduced visibility well enough. I handled some unusual ATC stuff. Initially having to hold short at Charlie and getting my takeoff clearance while still taxiing to the runway. I coped with late landing clearances while they departed intersection traffic in front of me. I managed a 360 for spacing with no discernable horizon reference and re-established nicely back on the downwind as requested, spotting the traffic before Bob.

I realised in the downwind that I was going to need to waive the wake turbulence in order to get my touch and go in. I managed my spacing well by dropping some flaps and powering back in the downwind in order to avoid ending up halfway to Scarborough.

I even won the “guess the airspeed” game when Bob picked the WORST possible time to decide to cover my ASI. I was on a horrible extended final and had already powered back 500 or so rpm and was still getting the feel of how the plane was handling in the winter conditions. I aimed the nose for a point that felt about right and desperately tried to peer around the card to gain a clue as to how I was doing.

No such luck! I tried to glean clues from my VSI and the twitchiness of Bobs hands by the controls. Bob didn’t seem too concerned and asked to me let him know when I thought I was stabilised at approach speed. When he uncovered the instrument I was about 3 or so knots off the magic 65. Not too shabby at all.

Overall my flying wasn’t too bad. Lacking a little polish maybe but it would seem that lurking underneath all that rust there still lies a fairly decent pilot.

Resolutions in review

I posted a list of resolutions this time last year, let’s see how I did.

1)      I will view at least one METAR report every day and decode it from the raw feed.

Okay I kind of did this. I am much better at decoding METARS and TAFS but I will still default to “decoded” whenever I have the chance

2)      I will attempt my PPL written exam by the end of February

This is the worst one of all, STILL haven’t sat it. More about that in another post. I am very close though

3)      I will have more confidence in my own abilities. I can do this

This one I’ve been VERY successful in. I have so much more faith in myself. Fear has been replaced by a cautious optimism that one day I’ll get that elusive PPL.

4)      I will continue to video all my flights and review them afterwards

Yep, still do this, still watch them. Still find them useful

5)      I will attempt to get rid of all my irritating little verbal quirks  that lead to a less than professional demeanour in the cockpit.

Nope, Still just as bad as ever. I laugh inappropriately, I curse Bob out for pulling unexpected stuff on me. I really need to work on this.

6)      I will enjoy myself!

This I am succeeding in. I love flying and miss being in the air. I’m getting good at it, unbelievably!

7)      I will stop being so hard on myself. I’m no better or worse than any other student.

This has been maybe the biggest area of improvement. I’ve lost the “imposter syndrome” attitude and actually feel like I belong in the plane. Some things I’m good at, other things need work. I will get there

8)      I will continue to fly as often as I can manage (and afford)

I aim to fly every weekend, sometimes in the summer we get flights in after work. On the odd occasion work gets in the way but usually it is the weather that fails to cooperate. Sometimes I’ve cancelled due to illness but I’ve never cancelled a flight because I was afraid and I think that was the purpose behind that resolution.

9)   I will continue to bore my friends with blow by blow accounts of every lesson! Sorry!!

I’ve come to know which of my friends are genuinely interested and how much detail they can handle. The math department for example was fascinated by my E6b. E ran away screaming from it.

10)   I will continue to blog

Every day!! Thanks for reading

Overall I reckon that’s 8 ½ out of 10, so say 85%. Incidentally a score like that would easily see me pass my written exam!