So Long

I called my CFI last week and let him know I am bagging it at this point. I succeeded in soloing (and that's a huge deal for me). However, I have spent more getting to this point than I planned on spending for the whole adventure. Based on my performance thus far, I think it would take near that much to complete my training and get my license. Also, although I had a great time, I don't think I would be a good pilot without a lot of post-license flying to keep sharp.

My expectations when I started were a bit off. I thought that I would be able to get my license in average time or a bit above. My CFI told me at the outset that it would be the most challenging thing I had done as an adult. He was right. Part of it is age. Older guys take longer to pick up the physical aspects of flying. It's a lot of hand-eye coordination in certain phases of flight. One must attend to a large number of factors, also (for example, air speed, altitude, attitude, course etc.). All of that is harder for older guys. The academics were no problem, surprisingly. Young guys just do it. No sweat. No worries. I tended to analyze, overthink, and not be as fluid as I needed to be.

Anyway. I did solo and I feel great about it. I learned a lot about myself through the process and that amazed me. At my age I thought I understood me. I am harder on myself than I thought I was. After the solo, my CFI told me that he was very proud of how I hung in there for all that time when I was having a tough time with landings. He said I showed up every time ready to give it another go.. and that that was amazing to him. He was genuinely pleased for me.

So, my shirt tail is hangin on my wall for now and I am done. Thanks for reading all this time.

Solo

Finally. Two trips around the pattern in Nampa.. all by myself. 2 takeoffs. 2 landings. 0.7 hour logged as pilot in command. What a great feeling.

Update 2

I flew today for the first time in 3 weeks. CFI has had some medical issues. I had a long talk with him. Although we both agreed that altough I am not an "intuitive" pilot as some guys are (perhaps the result of video game usage), he said that non-intuitive pilots can be good pilots. He assured me that if I were a lost cause he would tell me. I have not set the record for the most number of hours to solo, but I have set one for being on the cusp of soloing for the longest time. We talked some about finances and the money to be spent after solo. Still uncertain how that will shake out. I flew and nailed 5 landings... it felt great.

Update

I finally got 2 flights in this week for the first time in I don't know how long. Was out of town for a week last week and had a string of bad wind in the afternoon. I flew Monday... and did ok, but had a couple of not-so-hot landings. I was pretty discouraged. I flew yesterday and had 8 in a row that were perfectly safe and acceptable.. that's a very good sign. I just need to demonstrate that consistency before I can solo and move on. God knows I have likely made a lifetime of crappy landings already, so maybe I am over the hump. I need to evaluate the finances after I solo. If the cross country work is as challenging as the pre-solo work, I may be in trouble. For now though, feeling good. I am glad the CFI told me at the outset that this would be hard. If he had told me it would be easy, I would have quit 2 months ago.

May as well be in Idaho Falls

This is what I have been dealing with for the last couple of weeks or longer. Cancelled more flights than I did all last winter. Times are Zulu so subtract 7 hours. Line 3 says that from 1900 (noon) winds will be from the northwest at 24 knots, gusting to 35knots. That won't change until line 4 kicks in at 11:00 tonight. 1 knot equals 1.15 mph.

TAFBOI TAF KBOI 141132Z 141212 30008KT P6SM VCSH SCT030 OVC045
FM1600 31015KT P6SM SCT040 BKN060
FM1900 32024G35KT P6SM BKN060
FM0500 32012KT P6SM SCT060 BKN100=

SSDD

I flew Monday and did fairly well after the first one. Still close to solo. I will likely not get to fly until next week because of scheduling issues.

Wind, broken plane

Windy yesterday.. didn't fly. Broken plane today. No fly. Next chance is Monday.

weather and marginal landings

We tried on Monday. Gusty winds. Fought for them all. No solo. Today--no flying. Lousy weather. Try again tomorrow.

que sera sera

No solo yesterday. My flying was not quite "on." By the end I was doing great again, but the week and a half off showed at that start. A really crappy day at work didn't help. CFI likes to do 2 or 3 landings. Then a couple solo. I wasn't ready until about 5 or 6. Pilots like to stick to patterns...and will tell you that when they deviate, things always go awry. We were out of his pattern. After the first couple, I knew it wasn't in the cards. My son, Alex, was standing there when we got done, hoping I had made it. Very nice of him. He said he watched my approach and landing from the end of the runway. Very cool. Hopefully next week. I know I can do this when the time is right.

Four Strong Winds...

...that blow lonely (Ian Tyson). Too windy again today.

29017G27KT

Translated winds from 290 degrees at 17 knots gusting to 27 knots

Trying again on Thursday.

Another song title. Strong winds predicted for this afternoon. Will try again another day.

Plan for the Future

If I don't get weathered out on my solo tomorrow, here is what I have upcoming

1. A couple of flights to brush up on maneuvers, stalls, and VOR/ADF navigation
2. Local night flight
3. Short dual cross country
4. Short dual night cross country
5. Long dual day cross country
6. Stage 2 check with another instructor
7. Short cross country with another instructor
8. Two solo day cross countries
9. Prep ride for the FAA checkride
10. Stage 3 check ride with another instructor
11. FAA Check Ride

At some point prior to the first solo cross country, I need to take and pass the FAA written.

This all seems like a lot, but it's a couple months.

Juju

If the "solo juju" keeps going, I will solo on Thursday. My CFI soloed his other student last week. (With the economy sucking, the number of students is down.) I did well today in gusty conditions and am confident about my abilities. I will take a camera for him to take pics of this event. I will also wear an old shirt (see my January 31 post for an explanation). Time to actually post some pics to this blog.

Maybe Next Week

I may get to solo next week if I do well on Tuesday. I think I will be fine. More confident than I have been since I started and it feels great.

Working for Them

"Awesome job, today, Eric!" "You fought for each of them under challenging conditions."

Note the quotes.

A few more good ones today to add to my string. Each landing is different.. and you have to work for each and every one of them. Unsderstanding that fact is a big help to my confidence. I had the idea that at some point landings were automatic.. and always smooth. Wrong on both counts. We talked about soloing today. Some instructors surprise students with a solo. Mine plans for it, like everything else. We will talk about it in advance and then mutually decide on the appointed day if things are cool and we should proceed.

Feelin' Groovy

Two posts in a row with song lyrics in the subject lines. I like it! I flew last night. 1.6 hours and God knows how many touch and goes. It gets to be physically tiring. My left arm is sore (left hand on the yoke, right on the throttle during landings). The upshot is that the conditions were challenging.. windy and gusty.. .and I did well. I am gaining some confidence. For the first time my CFI asked me to evaluate my own performance.. meaning that I am far enough to know what it's supposed to be like. Things are cool. Flying Tuesday and Thursday next week.

And the Beat Goes On

I had a great evening last night. 5 safe landings on my own in Nampa and one back in Boise. What a relief! I have always thought of landings in terms of "good" and "bad" or "smooth or "hard." CFI talked about "safe" as the criterion last night. Maybe he has given up on "good." :) He also told me that smooth isn't always good. The analogy is that a golf coach takes a first time student out and on the first shot, the student has a horrible swing.. just awful.. but, through serendipity, the shot is pretty good.. straight and fairly good distance. Does the instructor say, "Good shot" and stop teaching? No. Because if he did, the student would end up in trouble down the road. So if you start slopping together a bunch of crappy landings, you get bad habits, and could smack up an airplane at some point. Better to have the right technique and be a bit off on execution. Anyway, I did great.. and I needed that.

Broken Record

I know.. it's an archaic phrase. I flew last night for the first time in a couple weeks. Stunk up the sky. Crappy landings. My CFI gave me a pep talk. "Learning to fly is hard!" "Getting through this phase is the tough part." "You are doing fine. It just has to click." "It's a fluid thing with constant adjustment." "Keep at it."

I know all that's true. And I know I can do this.

On a brighter note, we did some navigation planning the other day. It's cool. Figure a course and checkpoints, accounting for wind, figure a true course. Calculate fuel burn and time between checkpoints. Very neat stuff. It was all very pilot-like.

Truly Nice People

I think most of us are nice enough folks. Some are not, but most of us at least "pass" for nice in our society. Some are exceptional. I was in Walmart the other day and noticed a shopping cart full of stocking caps and cloth gloves--"Sale." I noticed some guy standing there going through them. I went to the checkstand and he ended up behind me in line with a whole pile of hats and gloves in his cart. The guy was about my age.. maybe a tad older. He had a chest-long raggedy grey beard (not sure how one that long could not be raggedy). He had on a well-used coat and levis. My initial impression was that he likely had seen better days. I am great for generalizations like that. Anyway, I said with a smile, "Hard to have too many hats and gloves!"

He smiled. "10 cents apiece on closeout. I bought 50 of each. I am going to give them to the school near my house for kids who lose their winter stuff. I figure I can keep 50 kids warm for 5 bucks. Not a bad deal!"

I suddenly felt pretty thoughtless. He was obviously in a higher category than I. I paid for my stuff and, as an afterthought, pulled out $5 and offered it to him. "Let me chip in on your good deed."

"No," he said, smiling, "You need to take that $5 and go buy 50 to deliver yourself." He was obviously a couple categories up on the list from me.

I should have taken him up on it, but did not. I am not sure how much the $5 meant to him, but he not only had the good thought, he pulled through. Impressive. I need to figure a way to do my own good deed and get at least even in the game.

Back at it

My CFI was out of town for a few days the week before last. I went to Ely last week, and we didn't hook up. This week we are back to a 2-day schedule. I hope I didn't lose my touch (joke).

If you....

want to learn a little bit about yourself, learn to fly. My CFI told me that I put very high expectations on myself and tend to beat myself up when I don't meet them. That I need to relax, shake off the failures, and move on. I never thought that I put high expectations on myself. I am not very competetive, haven't pushed to be at the top of the corporate ladder. I just did my job and that's it--or so I thought. I have spent a lot of time one on one with him, and he has taught a lot of folks to fly, so it interests me that he thinks that. I do stress out when things don't go right, but I never analyzed it at all. The point of all this is that I guess you can learn things about yourself that you had not thought about from unexpected sources. Amen.

Milestone?

We did pattern work in at KBOI yesterday. I pulled off the first landing where my CFI said "excellent." I also pulled off my first landing where he neither touched the controls nor said a word. He just sat there. No, it wasn't the one he called "excellent." He assured me that the first without coaching is a milestone... that I proved that I have the skills and abilities to be a pilot. I have a feeling that he overstated its importance to build my confidence, but I am taking it! Next milestone, solo. Then written test, solo cross country, solo night cross country, and check ride. Time to hit the books again and get ready for the written.

Catch Up

Well, Mexico was wonderful. Highs in the 80s, sun, sand, and great service. I am having a tough time getting my mind right after that. I returned last week and flew Monday and today. Monday was not a good thing. I didn't do well, was tight, and got pretty discouraged. I though that a couple weeks off would magically turn me into Mr. Landing... it just made me rusty. Today, at my CFI's insistence, I calmed the hell down and did much better. I am landing on my own all the time, but some are pretty ugly. Today, because of visibility issues in Nampa, we stayed in the Boise traffic pattern and I did very well (or at least better). I am not a "fluid" sort of guy and it shows. I had the same fluidity issue learning to ride the motorcycle, so it's not a surprise. We pretty much used one runway today (10R) while the other traffic used 10L. At one point however, they switched me over to 10L which put my traffic pattern over the city. Take off to the east, turn left and cross the freeway and the NY Canal, turn left paralleling the runway and the 2 more lefts to land. During one of those cycles they wanted me out of the pattern to work in a couple other aircraft and he told me to do a right 360 for spacing. I did a nice wide turn and flew over my office on the way back. Very cool. Nice view of the city.

On a separate note, I heard some great "flying in Mexico" tales from my CFI from back in his corporate jet days. Funny stuff.

Weather, Solos, and Mexico

I just got weathered out for the second time this week. We are going to Mexico on Saturday for 10 days, so it will likely be another 2 weeks before I can fly. I wonder what that will do to my landing consistency. Maybe it will help. Who knows. I told my CFI that my skills were marginal and couldn't take a lot of erosion. He said not to worrry, that he would "whip you back into shape quickly."

A friend asked about "scheduling a solo." From what I have read, they normally don't schedule it. You go up with the CFI for a bit and then he tells you to land. Upon landing he asks for the logbook and signs you off to solo. He then asks you to take off, stay in the pattern, and do 2 or 3 touch and goes on your own. From that point on, you are allowed to solo within the parameters that he establishes.

At the end of the solo, they often cut your shirttail off. I have seen them hanging on the wall at the club--signed and dated. I don't have that many shirts, so I may pass on that. I have read two explanations for the tradition.

The first is that in the old days the instructor rode in the back and the student in front. With no intercom and an open cockpit, the instructor would tug on the shirttail of the student to get his attention. At solo, you don't need the tail anymore.

The other explanation is that pilots wore scarves to protect their necks and faces in open cockpits. They also used them to wipe their goggles. The old planes used to puke oil that, along with other crap, mucked up the goggles. Students, however, weren't allowed to wear scarves and had to wipe the goggles with their shirttails. Cutting it off after solo was symbolic of being able to wear the scarf of the pilot from that point forward.

I like the second explanation best. Off to Mexico. It's 80 to 85 there in the day. 65 to 70 at night. I think I will do just fine! Going to a place I have been before, so I know it's great.

Wow.. Great link

This pretty well sums it up. It was made by a guy that posts a lot to the forum of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. Hit the link (Windows or Real) for the January 26 post.
http://160knots.com/videos.htm

Weather Goes to Hell Quickly

We took off today in marginal weather, made one loop around the pattern in Boise and landed. From the time we agreed to give it a shot and started the pre-flight, the wind shifted 180 degrees, the visibility dropped markedly, and it started to snow. I am glad I wasn't heading out for a cross country.

Still Working

More landings. Still working on it.

Need More Work

There LLLLAAANNndings and LLaaNNddIinnGGss and and LANDings and Landings. Tonight I had at least one of each. At least I didn't have any LANDINGS!!!!!. Still getting the hang of it. It was a beautiful day... clear as a bell. Watched the sun shine off the Boise Front as it went down. A great birthday all in all. Off to Mexico in 2 weeks where it's warm and sunny. I am not a "natural" at this, but it's something I can learn to do.

The S Word

At the end of the day's flying, my CFI handed me a pre-solo test to complete before too long. I asked how long I had to complete it and he said, "Don't worry about it for Thursday, but get it completed." Scary!

Steering

A good and faithful reader (one of millions, I am sure) asked about steering on the ground. The Cessna 172 has a nose wheel steering system using a bungee cord system of some kind. It operates via the rudder pedals. Step on left pedal, turn left. It's not completely effective however, so the pilot supplements it with differential braking. Each of the main wheels has a disc brake. They are operated by stepping on the top of the rudder pedal. By pushing the top of the pedal you active the disc brake on that side. Push them both at once... stop straight. Push one or the other and you can make sharp turns if you have the power set right. Any time the pilot pushes the rudder pedals, the rudder also moves. Prior to take-off, the pilot puts his heels on the floor to avoid accidentally hitting the top of the rudder pedal and applying one of the brakes. On take-off as the air speed increases, the rudder begins to aid in steering down the runway, and the nose wheel bungee system becomes less effective. At take-off speed, the weight comes off the nose wheel and the rudder is solely responsible for controlling yaw. On landing, the pilot can hit the tops of both pedals (gently so the wheels don't lock and "flat the tire").

Great Day

We had to cancel on Monday because of weather. Was snowing and 1/2-mile visibility at the airport. 15 minutes after I canceled, I was driving home in the sunshine. I guess if it's changing that fast, it's not smart to fly anyway.

Today, for the first time, I felt like I had a clue from start to finish. Not perfect by any means, but at least I felt like a pilot. My CFI was complimentary, too. I have me a long way in the last couple of weeks and it feels good.

Lots of studying to do. The federal regs, read raw, are a bit on the circuitous side. All in all.. a happy camper today.

12.0

12.0 logged hours. And we had a great session today. The "most productive yet." I got in 2 more unassisted landings and came close on 3 others. Very cool indeed. At my CFI's urging I relaxed and enjoyed. Flying again next week Monday and Wednesday, although work may cut into Wednesday. The snow on the mountains is amazing in the sunset!