13th Lesson

Well, Jim had a change of plans with his roofing project (apparently the supplier that had his shingles accidentally sold them to someone else). So, have gave me a call around 1pm, and we were able to go out at our usual time. The winds were strong today - about 14kt out of the south/southeast with gusts to 20kt. This gave us approximately a 7kt crosswind on runway 13 in Forest Lake, and nearly a directy crosswind on runway 09 at Anoka. So, we practiced crosswind takeoffs and landings today. We did a few laps around the pattern at Forest Lake, and then we headed down to Anoka. I did virtually all of the talking with the tower today, and that went pretty well. I was feeling much more comfortable working the tower since I've been there a few times now. We did a few landings on Runway 18, and then Jim asked them if they had time to sequence us for some direct crosswind landings on runway 9. So, we did a couple of landings on runway 9 with a direct crosswind of 14-15kt, which is just about the C172's maximum demonstrated crosswind capability. They went pretty well I thought. Not perfect landings, but I got it on the ground safely each time. Then, we headed back to Forest Lake, and I did a couple more landings there, which both went really well. Jim is happy with my progress, and so am I. Sounds like more take off and landing practice next time, which is on Friday.

12th Lesson

I had my 12th lesson on Saturday. Just more take off and landing practice. We had some minor crosswind component to deal with. We did a few laps around the pattern at Forest Lake, then we headed down to Anoka again to do some more landing practice. Jim did the radio calls initially, but then I handled talking with the tower for the last few laps around the pattern. I'm getting more comfortable with it. Jim was going to take me up for a tour of the tower while we were down there, but apparently they have a restriction on visitors right now because of that ATC guy in New York who let his kid talk on the radio a few weeks ago. Jim was incensed. After the landing practice at Anoka, we headed back to Forest Lake for a couple more runs through the pattern. In total, I got 12 more landings in. Some were nice, some could have been better. Jim says we're going to look for an opportunity to do some direct crosswind landings next. I'm not sure when my next lesson is either. Jim isn't able to meet as usual today because he's having the roof replaced on his new house, and he's not sure about Friday. So, I may not get out again until another week from today.

11th Lesson

I had my 11th flight lesson today. Tammy and the kids followed me over to the airport to meet Jim and see the plane. I think the kids really enjoyed sitting in the plane and walking around with me helping me do the preflight inspection. We had a cold front move in from the north overnight, so the temps are back down around freezing today, and there is a strong low pressure system to the northeast, resulting in strong northerly winds, and overcast cloud ceiling at about 2500 AGL. Winds were out of 320-340 at around 15kt gusting to 20kt. This was the most wind I've flown in yet, and as I suspected, Jim would take this opportunity to work some ground reference maneuvers. Jim had me make all the CTAF calls on the radio today. We took off on runway 31, which went well, and headed out east to fly a rectangular course, circles around a point, and s-turns. I found I needed a fair amount of crab today, but I did a pretty good job with all of the maneuvers. I had a couple of altitude/speed busts on the s-turns, but I was able to maintain pretty consistent ground courses. Then, we headed back to the Forest Lake airport to practice more takeoffs and landings. Jim had me handle all the approach decisions, and on my first approach, I turned to my downwind leg too close to the runway, and I had to do a go-around. The next approach was a better pattern, and we practiced 5 landings. It really started to click today, and each landing got better. The last landing was clearly my best to date - a nice smooth, gentle touchdown right over the center of the runway. It was a great high note to end the lesson on. We went back and filled her up and put her back in the hangar. After Jim filled out my log book, he gave me a copy of the rental agreement, and my pre-solo knowledge test he wants me to work on. I'm sensing my first solo is probably getting close...

Next lesson is tomorrow afternoon, but I'm probably gonna get short-changed next week because Jim is having his roof redone, and the only lesson we have scheduled is for next Friday.

10th Lesson

I had my 10th lesson this afternoon, and it went a lot better than the last two. Jim wanted to go back over to the Anoka airport again to "beat that devil" and practice takeoffs and landings, but he said he would talk on the radio this time so I could concentrate on flying the plane. The takeoff at Forest Lake went well, and we headed straight over to Anoka. I learned SO much more listening to Jim talk to the tower, and listening to the other traffic in the area. With a reduced mental load, I flew the plane better, I got a real good sense of how the traffic is directed at a towered airport and the various situations that can unfold, and I really got to concentrate on improving my landings. I flew a mix of right-hand and left-hand patterns at the tower's request, and several times we had to fly extended base legs to accommodate other traffic. This was good though, because I got to see how to deal with various conflict scenarios. We were landing on runway 27 with variable wind direction out of 240 to 290 at 7 to 15 kt. The winds were a bit different on every landing and takeoff. Some were straight in, and others I had some crosswinds. My landings definitely improved during this lesson, and I started to get the hang of the low-wing slip crosswind landing technique by the end. I'm still working on the flare, but a few of the landings were nice and smooth on the center. My takeoffs were looking really good. I was able to stay properly centered on the runway, and crab into the wind as necessary to follow the runway centerline. In total, we flew the pattern and did 12 takeoffs and landings at Anoka before returning to Forest Lake. There was a lot of other traffic we were being sequenced with, including a couple of business jets, and I really got a good feel for how the communications at the towered airport work. I think I will be much better prepared to handle the radio at Anoka next time we go down there. Jim had me fly back to Forest Lake, finding my own way back, which isn't too difficult. Then, he had me land at Forest Lake and make the decisions myself to land the plane. My first try, I came in too long, and had to do a go-around. Then, on my second try, I had a good stabilized approach, and successfully landed the plane with a modest crosswind on runway 31. I feel like I made some real progress tonight, so I'm happy about that. My next lesson is on Friday, but the weather is looking iffy at this point.

9th Lesson

Well, I had another lesson yesterday. The field was soggy, and Jim wanted to practice landings, so we planned to head down to Anoka to practice landings on the paved runways. Anoka has two strips (18/36 and 09/27) and it's a towered airport in class D airspace. The takeoff in forest lake went well, and after climbing to a safe altitude, Jim had me do a power off stall, and some steep turns, both of which were probably my best to date. Then we headed down towards Anoka. Jim had me do the communication with the tower. They had us turn on ident, and as we neared the airport, there was other conflicting traffic. Initially they asked us to enter straight in on base for runway 27, but then they realized there was a guy practicing IFR on an extended final for 27, so they had us turn southeast and obtain a visual of the traffic inbound for 27. During this time, there was also another conflicting plane in the pattern for runway 36 (I think). Needless to say, there was a lot of chatter on the radio, and I had a hard time following what was going on. Once we confirmed we had a visual with the guy practicing IFR, they had us follow behind him for our landing. We were dealing with a north/northwest crosswind, and there are trees on the north side of the runway at the beginning that initially create turbulence across the runway, and then once you pass them, you are back in a crosswind. The landing was a bit wobbly. Then, we taxied clear of the runway, and contacted ground control, and requested taxi to Cirrus FBO. You have to write down your taxi instructions, read them back to GC to confirm that you understand them, and then follow them. I had a map of the airport on my lap. It's not a terribly complex airport, but there are six or seven main taxiways, and many numbered legs off of these. We had to cross runway 36 on the way to the FBO, and when we arrived, a couple of guys guided us in for parking, chocked the nosewheel, and put out a red carpet. Apparently they want to sell you gas, but we were just stopping by for pilot supplies. We went inside and I bought a couple of sectionals, and a couple Airport and Facilities Directories. Then we got back in the plane, started it up, and contacted ground requesting taxi for takeoff on runway 27 to remain in the pattern with the option to land. Before takeoff, we contact the tower and get clearance for takeoff, and then take off. I flew the pattern and landed on 27 again, but I had had enough at this point, and was overwhelmed between dealing with the communications, traffic, and crosswind landings, and I told Jim I was done. He flew the pattern one more time, and then I flew back to Forest Lake and landed. The landing at Forest Lake was probably my best yet, smooth but slightly fast at touchdown. I found the whole experience at Anoka extremely stressful and not fun. After the lesson I was seriously questioning if this is something I want to continue with. I think I can do it, but I'm not sure it's something I'm really going to enjoy. I think it was just too much too soon - unfamiliar airport, first time at a towered airport, conflicting traffic, and crosswind landings with partial wind obstructions when I haven't mastered regular landings. I was seriously considering it, but I'm not going to quit yet. Next lesson is Wednesday.

More Clouds

It has been raining and cloudy here all week. Ceilings are between 300 and 700 ft today, so the lesson for today is canceled. Tomorrow is looking like more rain as well, although a lower chance. Jim suspects the runway might be too wet for the lesson tomorrow as well. We've had a lot of rain and snow melt. If the permafrost hasn't melted yet, and the water will pool on the runway in big puddles, making it unusable. The sump pump has been running a lot at the house this week, so there is some hope for tomorrow, but it is not looking good.

Clouds

Lesson cancelled today due to low ceilings. Next lesson is on Friday, and our schedules don't work at all between now and then.

8th Lesson

I had my 8th lesson today, and I've got 10.7 hours of flying time under my belt. I got my David Clark H10-60 headset yesterday, so this was my first chance to try it out. It's definitely better than the headset I was using before - more comfortable, better sound dampening, better sound, and better mic. Today was also the first lesson that Jim had me handle the CTAF announcements on the radio. Like "Forest Lake area traffic, this is Skyhawk zero zero hotel, 5 to the east, on approach at two thousand four hundred, Forest Lake".

I must say, today was a bit of a frustrating lesson overall. We didn't do much of anything new, but I felt like I was dancing with two left feet during this flight, so to speak. Today we had some wind - about steady 8kt or so out of the south. So, the takeoff today was on runway 13 with a right quartering headwind. This was my first time taking off with a crosswind component, and we went through the procedure for dealing with this before the flight. I did it, but it wasn't exactly a thing of beauty. Next, we went out and practiced some steep turns. I did alright I guess, but I felt like I did better on the last lesson. My altitude and speed weren't maintained very well, and I was having trouble keeping things steady through the turns. After this, we practiced some more power-off and power-on stalls. Next, we took advantage of the windy day by doing some more ground reference maneuvers. This was a good learning opportunity for me; I could really see the effect of the wind today. We did a rectangular course for a while, then circles around a point, then S turns. I think my preference goes in that order as well. I'm not a fan of S turns, but I like flying a rectangular course, and I'm luke warm about circles around a point. I'd say I got the feel for it today, but it wasn't a performance that would get me through my checkride. My altitude and airspeed fluctuated too much. On the plus side, I don't think I did too badly with compensating for the wind during the maneuvers. After this, we headed back to forest lake, and did a couple crosswind landings. It was really awkward doing a slip in to land, and I'm not comfortable with this maneuver yet. I was actually very nervous coming in for both of these landings, and my control of the airplane was poor.

I told Jim I was a bit frustrated after the lesson, but he still thinks things are going okay. He implied that I'm not really flying any different now than I had been before, but rather that I'm getting to the point where I'm noticing more about what needs to be corrected. Some days are better than others I guess, so I'm hoping that Monday goes better than today did.

7th Lesson

I went in for my 7th lesson yesterday. Jim and I covered the two questions that I missed on the knowledge test, and he gave the the appropriate endorsement indicating this. It was a fun lesson this time (they all are though). Winds were pretty calm - 310 at 4-5kt, so we took off on runway 31 again. Jim took off this time to demonstrate how close I should hold the plane to the turf runway once airborne because I had been going a little high during the acceleration phase. After reaching altitude, we practiced some more 720 steep turns. Jim encouraged me to use trim during these turns since I hadn't been, and it made a big difference. Once I started using the trim I was able to hold nice steady steep turns without much change in altitude or airspeed throughout. After a few of these, we headed over to Osceola airport again. On the way, Jim cut the power and asked what I would do. I pitched for 80, and picked a field headed into the the prevailing wind and started setting myself up for the landing in that field. It went really well, and we would have made a safe landing in the snowy corn field. At Osceola, I got to practice.... LANDINGS. We entered the downwind leg at a 45 and Jim directed me through the various parts of the landing procedure, and I did the landing. Not the smoothest, but that's what practice is for. Then, we did 5 more takeoffs and landings through the traffic pattern to practice. I can land the plane okay, but not great. I need more practice. The main thing I need to get better at is the flare. I was generally touching down too early and not flaring long enough. Also, I can generally keep the plane aligned with the runway centerline, but more practice with this will be beneficial. After spending a half hour or so practicing landings at KOEO, we departed to the west. Next, we did some fire emergency simulations. If you have an electrical fire in the dash, the best bet is to shut off the master switch and spray up under and into the dash with the fire extinguisher. (The engine will continue to run with the electrical system off because the ignition system is electrically isolated in airplanes). If you have an engine fire, the solution invariably involves shutting off all sources of fuel and some sort of rapid decent. If you are relatively close to the ground (within a few thousand feet AGL), the goal is to rapidly descend and land as quickly as possible so you can exit the airplane and get away. You don't want to pick up too much airspeed during the descent or it will take you a long time to land once you get down to ground level. So, you descend either using flaps, a slip, or both. Jim first had me do a rapid descent with full flaps extended. The Vfe of a C172 is 100mph, so that's what we did - descend at 100mph with full flaps. This gave us a descent rate somewhere in the neighborhood of 1700FPM. With all that drag, you've got to get the nose pretty steep to go 100mph. Next, we climbed back up and did a slip descent. Jim had my put the plane into a slip and descend at 120mph. This gave us a descent rate of about 2000FPM (which is the max that the VSI can indicate). Seemed even more effective than the flaps, and you had to get the nose REALLY steep to get up to that speed in a slip. Felt like we were going straight down. Next, we supposed that we were at high altitude like on a cross country trip, say, 10,000 AGL. At 2,000 FPM descent, it would take you almost 5 minutes to get to the ground, and that's a long time to have a blazing engine fire in front of you. So, the approach here is to do a high speed dive in a clean configuration to "blow" the fire out, leaning it by providing it with too much oxygen, extinguishing the fire. Next we did a dive in a clean configuration, and Jim had me target 150mph. Cessnas have so much drag that it's difficult to get them going that fast with power at idle, and you're practically pointing straight down to get there. These exercise sound kind of scary, but I thought it was pretty fun. After this, we headed back to Forest Lake, and I did the flyover, entered the pattern, and did the landing. I feel pretty comfortable going through the pattern, and lining myself up on final, but I need more practice with the flare to get that nice smooth landing. I really like the landing process though - it was a lot of fun doing the touch and goes at Osceola. Next lesson is Friday.

Knowledge Test

I took a couple hours off of work this afternoon and headed over to Cirrus FBO at Anoka/Blaine airport to take my knowledge test. The test was 60 questions with 150 minutes of time allowed. I was there roughly 75 minutes and I passed the test. I missed 2 questions, which gives me 97% (70% is passing). At the end, they let you see the questions you missed. One of the questions was about requirements for class C airspace. I put "in communications with responsible ATC facility". This is what my study book has, but apparently they were looking for Mode C transponder. I think this is sort of a trick question, and I question whether the answer on the official test was correct. I know you need a Mode C transponder in class C airspace, but according to the book, some flights are allowed into class C airspace without a Mode C transponder, when ATC gives you clearance, and that's why the book indicates the answer I gave. The other question was about minimum ceiling and visibility requirements for Special VFR in class D airspace. I put 1SM and 1,000ft, but the answer is just 1SM, and there is no ceiling requirement. I'm very happy with this score though, and glad to have the test behind me. I think the only things standing between me and the private pilot cert at this point are more hours of hands-on training, and the dreaded practical test at the end.

6th Lesson

Yesterday I had my 6th lesson. It's starting to become somewhat routine now. Again I did the takeoff, and I was able to hold the runway center line a lot better this time. Today we focused on ground reference maneuvers. A wind determination was done by flying along a north-south road and observing drift, then flying along an east-west road and observing drift. There was a light wind out of the north-north-west, about 5-6kt, but I don't think it was really enough to get the feel for the wind correction necessary. First, Jim had me work on a rectangular pattern by picking out a few intersecting roads and some power lines to define our rectangle. The goal of this maneuver is to trace a rectangle on the ground and maintain a consistent distance outside of a rectangle defined by landmarks on the ground. I didn't have much trouble with this - the hardest part for me really was picking the rectangle on the ground to follow. There was enough wind where a slight crab into the wind was required in the base and crosswind legs, but the effect was subtle. Next, we worked on circling a point. Same idea here - you pick a point on the ground, and then attempt to fly around it in a constant-radius circle, compensating for the wind during various portions of the circle by varying your bank angle. This wasn't too difficult either - but then again, the wind was fairly light. For our final ground reference maneuver, we did some s-turns. This is when you pick a straight line on the ground that is perpendicular to the wind direction, like a road, and you fly the plan in a "wave" along the road, making semi-circles of equal radius on each side of the road as you progress down the road in one direction. The downwind portions of the path require steeper bank angle, and the upwind portions require less. This is going to take some practice. I was able to do it "okay", but there's a lot to pay attention to in this maneuver. Trying to keep your airspeed and altitude fairly consistent while constantly changing the bank angle, AND trying to align with landmarks on the ground was a bit challenging. I was able to do it "okay", but I wouldn't say my performance was stellar. More practice required. The examiner will pick one of these three ground reference maneuvers during the checkride, so I need to be prepared for any of them. Next, we climbed up and practiced some more 720 steep turns. Also, Jim had me do a 360 degree turn with 60 degrees of bank. 2Gs during a 60 degree banked turn, but I was pretty happy with how it turned out. Lost a little altitude, but not too much. Next, we headed over to the Osceola airport in Wisconsin (KOEO) and did a touch-and-go there. I did most of the landing, and we turned on the pilot controlled lighting. It was cool to see a better-equipped airport - a paved runway and a Precision Approach Path Indicator (PAPI). Taking off on the paved runway is a breeze compared to the turf field. We returned back to 25D at cruise speed and did a straight-in landing. After the lesson, we went inside and I took Jim's practice knowledge test. I got 100%, and received his endorsement to take the private pilot knowledge test. I'm going to schedule the real test at Cirrus at the Anoka/Blaine airport. Hopefully I will get that behind me this week sometime. Next lesson is tomorrow afternoon.