First Passengers!

Today was just gorgeous out! Calm winds (~5 kts), just barely a crosswind, blue skies, unlimited visibility, and a comfortable 75 degrees. What a great late afternoon for flying, and perfect conditions to take Laura on her first flight ever in a small airplane! After getting out of work a bit later than I wanted to, got to the airport around 5:20. I called ahead of time and the lineman Eric had the plane out, fueled, and ready to go! We had some coordination ahead of time, Evie hurt her finger so we were distracted for a bit getting her bandaged up. After a thorough preflight, got Laura in the plane, I did the passenger briefing (hehe, now I know what a stewardess feels like showing people how to buckle their safety belt), taxi to runway 32, and off we went around 6:15 pm. I have to say, Laura took the whole flight in stride, she really seemed to enjoy it and wasn't phased at all by the occasional bump. We headed for Tainter Lake, circled the lake a bit and saw our house. Then onto Menomonie, Laura wanted to see the UW Stout campus and town. Finally, back to Eau Claire. We were gone about 45 minutes, and touched down again on 32 for what I thought was a pretty smooth landing. We taxied back to the Heartland ramp, it was now about 7:00 pm. The evening was still pretty early and Evie was still in good spirits, so Carol came up with me for a couple trips around the pattern. This is the first time she has been in a small airplane for many years, and she did great too! Mother like daughter! We came around for a touch and go, and then just a full stop landing on 32. Carol also seemed to really enjoy the flight, she was another great passenger, maybe we can go for a longer one in the future!

The first 1.2 hours in the logbook carrying passengers and a private pilot, what a great time!

Private Pilot Checkride Passed!!

Woo Hoo! Holy Crap, I am a Pilot.

After over a 2 year journey, I did it! I passed my checkride for Private Pilot (Single Engine Land). I am certified by the FAA as safe to carry passengers.

Wow, well this was a VERY long day. My checkride was scheduled for 9 am on Wednesday morning. I previously had it scheduled the day before, but of course had it postponed. So I have been on pins and needles for a couple days. Wednesday looked like the best opportunity the entire week, and let's not forget I needed to pass before the end of the month otherwise I'd have to retake my written exam. With all the anticipation, I got ok sleep, but not great. Of course, I wake up Wednesday morning, and the entire area is blanketed with IFR conditions (low, low clouds). The forecasts looked promising, but as the morning progressed, the forecasts were a little optimistic. I got to the airport around 6:45, Paul my usual instructor had a commitment, so I talked with another instructor Dan. I wasn't go anywhere this morning, so I called the DE (designated examiner - I'd print his name, but I didn't ask permission), and explained the situation, that a morning checkride was out and if he'd be flexible for an afternoon ride. He said he was clear, so we bumped it to noon.

As the morning progressed, the clouds were very slow to rise. I went back to work in the morning, as 10:00 came around, I knew an 11 am departure wasn't going to happen either so called the DE again. He said he was still fine to push back some more, and to just call before I left. So, I excused myself from work around 11:15, got to the airport around 11:30 where Paul was back. Paul wasn't too optimistic. So we waited around for a bit, checked the weather a few more times. Paul wasn't going to sign me off to fly to Marshfield until the ceilings were at least 2000' AGL. Finally, we got reports of 2300', I did another review of the route to make sure there were no surprise obstructions on the way since I would be flying lower than usual. We hurried up and I got myself out of there by 12:30 pm.

Wow, that flight over was not fun. I really don't like operating with such a slim ceiling, on the way over, there were parts that ceiling was no where near 2300'. I could tell I was getting too close to the bases to be legal when I started getting tossed around from the turbulence typical just under cloud bases. So, for the most part I flew between 1000-1500 feet above the ground all the way to Marshfield. However, as I got closer to Marshfield, things did look a little better.

Ok, made a nice landing into Marshfield, taxied over to the FBO, chocked up the plane. Walked inside, I was greeted very promptly by my DE followed with an apology. Apparently another checkride was scheduled this afternoon without his knowledge, so he had two students there at the same time. He assured me I would be taken care of, but just have a little patience.

No sweat! Nothing like a lot of idle time to calm those nerves. :)

So, he had me setup in the lunch room. After he about an hour of working with the other student, the oral exam began for me, roughly at 2:30 pm. I think with the other student, my oral exam was VERY abbreviated. It was 45 minutes, tops. Admittedly, he got me on a couple questions, I thought I knew my sectionals and airspaces very well. From the last student that took his checkride, he mentioned focusing on airspaces, controlled flight into terrain, airport signage. But this time, he really grilled me on special vfr clearances, something I was very weak on, but I managed to muddle my way through with his guidance. It was clear he definitely wanted me to pass and was going to help me through any questions I didn't know 100%. I think we also had a point of disagreement in the exam, but I backed off when he was quite adamant. He was certain I needed a clearance just to enter class D airspace, I was contending you just needed to establish two-way communications. According to FAR 91.129, I think I was right, both C and D airspace just require two-way communications. However, after reflection, perhaps we were talking about the same thing, with different terminology. His term "clearance" I understood to be a formal ATC clearance like what they issue in Class B airspace. He might have meant "clearance" to be a positive acknowledgement by the controlling authority.

Anyway, I got most questions right, he caught me on a few others, but they were minor and I was able to figure out the answer he was looking for. So, after just a brief 45 minutes (it is now about 3:15 pm), he had me finish my flight plan with current winds and preflight the plane, while he flew with the other student. So, I did all that, so I figured about an hour flight test, so I filed a flight plan with a planned departure at 4:30 pm. And then I waited, and waited....

Finally, around 5:00 pm, they arrived back. We then continued with some more oral examination on my flight plan. He didn't like my plan, and asked me why I wanted to fly over Hwy 29. I explained first I wanted to avoid the MOA (Military Operations Area) since there were reported activity today and I would be busy enough with him and didn't want another distraction. I also explained that Hwy 29 had some really easy pilotage checkpoints (cities) and as we got into Eau Claire, we could follow the VOR. He mentioned there was an established victor 26 airway off the 271 radial on the Wausau VOR, so instead, once I got north enough, we'd intersect that instead.

When I realized we were close to over an hour past my planned departure on my flight plan, I updated it with a new time. As we climbed in, he joked, "Well I have good news and bad news, the good news is that every other pilot with me passes." I smiled, and then started the laugh. He continued, "I see you figured out the bad news, the earlier pilot passed." Good levity to start, I really do like the DE, he is friendly, loves teaching, and goes out of his way to help you feel relaxed. Did all the usual pre-start checklist stuff. What I think I was most proud of was before we got started, as pilot-in-command, I laid down some ground rules. Of course, I did the standard passenger briefing, but I added this... "I understand you will be testing my ability to recover from an engine failure, but I have one rule on this... You will not cut the gas, you will not turn off the ignition, and you will not pull the mixture (any of these will actually turn OFF the engine, instead of just reducing to idle). If you want to pull the throttle that is perfectly acceptable. In my judgment, even for a checkride, there is absolutely no reason to turn a simulated emergency into a real emergency." He said not to worry, he wouldn't be doing anything like that. Alright! We finally got airborne around 5:45 pm.

So, we taxied to the runway, I was diligent in all my checklist work. The DE said we'd stay in the pattern for a bit, I announced our intentions on the radio, and off we went! First was a standard crosswind takeoff and landing, the winds were light, so no problem. Next, he threw his first curve, "Ok, time for a short field landing, but you've lost your flaps." Oh boy, short field landings I had a troubles with during my bout of checkride-itis a week ago, this was one of the two parts of the exam I could easily bust. Now I have to do it with no flaps?? I calmly said, ok, I am going to need to come down steeper than a standard no flap landing to clear the obstacle and stop in time, so I asked if I could use a forward slip to landing. He said, of course. So, I did that, the slip wasn't very pretty, but I maintained my approach speed, I cleared my obstacle and got it touched down where I wanted. Whew! Ok, onto a soft field takeoff, no problem. Although, I held the nose up higher than he liked, but we were still ok.

Next we left the pattern and continued on course for our flight plan. Hit the first checkride, which was a race strip, and then north towards Spencer and to intercept the VOR. Once the VOR came in, turned west and followed for a bit. Then he had me turn south for some slow flight, no problem, then immediately into an approach to landing stall. No problem, but he said I reacted too fast, and it was ok to slow down, he said I looked a bit hurried. Next power on stalls, the second task I wasn't looking forward to, just because of the high angle of attack and high RPM requires a lot of right rudder, and these power on stalls for this airplane almost inevitable turn into the start of a spin, which I am not fond of. So, I did the modified procedure for the power on stall Paul and I worked on, to the break, recovered no problem, of course I had that bid of spin. The DE laughed a bit, "well that is one way to do it," lemme show you how I wanted to see it. So, we slowed to about 50 kts, and slow started pitching up and adding power at the same time, but pitch up slight faster than power, got to where we were at full power and just a hair away from stall, pull just a little more on the yoke, and the break came. Very nicely done, I got some good intel to bring back to Paul. Then we did some steep turns, he didn't like my posture when doing so, and again show me exactly what he wanted, it was good advice. He asked me to lean forward and stick my head in the diagonal of the direction of the turn, and watch outside. I usually don't like leaning forward because it inhibits my yoke control, but it worked. Easily able to maintain speed, bank angle, and altitude.

Ok, time to put on the foggles (view limiting device), did some standard rate turns, climbs, descents, no problems. Next, he took controls, told me to close my eyes, time for recovery from unusual attitudes. He was easy here, my instructors made my stomach turn more. Just two easy recoveries and that was done. Onto S-turns and turns around the point. Here I think I was the closest to busting, my turn on the upwind was too steep and I messed up the entire maneuver. So, we tried again, and I got it. Turns around a point were fine after that. Finally he said, take me back to Marshfield, I won't say anything else. I was pretty sure this was a test of my ability to recover from being lost. That was convenient, since doing all the maneuvers, I honestly didn't know exactly here I was. I looked outside and saw a sizable lake/river chain. I tuned the VOR to see what radial I was on. Looked at my sectional and figured out where I was, turned toward Marshfield, and I cross check the GPS (I still had Marshfield tuned in). As we approached the pattern, he said, give me a good soft field landing, and I want you touching down at the intersection of the two runways, no obstructions. Okdokey, normal approach, 70 kts, slowing to 65. As we came down, added just a touch of power touch down gently, and keep the nose up as long as possible, touchdown at the intersection where he wanted. Nice! Ok, he said let's taxi back. I was surprised we were done since we didn't do go arounds, so I was slightly concerned I might have failed.

So, we ran the after landing checklist and the shutdown checklist all good. Then the DE said, "Well I will have to break my rule, you definitely passed! You did some great flying and I think you are a very safe pilot, congratulations and have fun!" Woo hoo!!!!! So, according to the hobbs meter, we flew 1.4 hours for the checkride. Honestly, it felt like 30 minutes it went so fast. The paperwork was a breeze, as I closed up the plane, I walked into the FBO, he had my temporary license already printed, along with copies of my application for both myself and Paul, and my logbook signed. So, now its about 7:15 pm, and the FBO attendant says, "You better call Paul, he's only called about half dozen times wondering what is going on." Remember, Paul sent me on my way at 12:30, I should have been back 2 hours ago already. I called him and let him know I passed along with Laura. Hopped into the plane, and enjoyed a serene trip back to Eau Claire. I actually followed that victor airway from Wausau all the way home, meanwhile enjoying the calm air and higher ceilings while constantly looking out and planning for emergency landing spots. Called Eau Claire tower, for the first time as a Private Pilot, some earlier traffic west of the airport were not an issue, calm winds, cleared for a landing on 22. Setup for a perfect approach, and then I manage to botch the landing. Hah! Goes to show, I will constantly be learning, and I will never be immune from a mistake. I just need to trust in my ability to recover and learn. And that I did, I got directional control on the runway, still in time to make the first taxi exit.

So what is next? I plan to enjoy the VFR rating for a little bit, perhaps up to the 100 hr mark, and then onto studying for my IR rating, but that can wait, I owe my family and self some rest and relaxation.

I look at the path behind me, and I am still in disbelief, I went from over two years ago to a severe fear of flying to a pilot. I have had so many roadblocks in the way, and fought through them all. I have so many to thank ....

To Laura, thank you so much for your loving support and encouragement. Especially the swift kick in the pants this spring to get me to finish up. Without you I would be nothing.

To Evie, thoughts of you keep me ever vigilant when flying and extra conservative in my planning and decision making. My desire to provide for you a role model you can look up to is my motivation, but you are my inspiration.

To my family, especially my brother Bryan for planting in me the seeds to attempt this adventure in the first place, I can't wait to go flying with you.

Finally, To our Lord, Jesus Christ. Thank you bearing my anxiety and doubt. Thank you for your continued grace and blessings. Oh yeah, thanks for all that whole forgiveness and salvation thing too. :)

Work, Weather... Final Lesson delayed... Ack!

Ack! Well, two days in a row, I've had to either cancel or be cancelled for my "final" lesson with Paul. He needs to sign me off on my ground reference manuervers and start the pile of paperwork together. The coming airshow means the airport is a zoo and airspace above is being closed for practices. So, I will have to wait until early next week to wrap up my training and schedule my checkride.

Checkride is close!

On Memorial Day, I did some more flying with Paul. We were reviewing the PTS standards. The flight went exceptionally well. We did a short field takeoff, another 30 minutes of instrument time including turns, descents, climbs, unusual attitudes, and VOR tracking. We then proceeded onto approach to landing stalls, then power on stalls. Paul just recently sent one of his students to the examiner in the last week, he passed (woo hoo!), but brought back some good feedback. Apparently the examiner didn't like the way Paul was teaching stalls, the PTS standard does say to recover from stall at first indication, and in this plane it is the stall horn (next the buffet, then the break), so we've been taught to break the stall at the horn. However, the examiner wants to be assured the applicant can recover from a fully developed stall. So, we had to redo the procedure for the power on stall, we intentionally slowed the plane down because it's nearly impossible to stall it with full throttle, you can be almost inverted at full throttle and still not stall this plane! Instead, we decided to change the power on stall to this:
- Slow to 50 kts
- Advance the throttle to 2200 rpm (not full throttle)
- Hold heavy right rudder to stay coordinated
- Pitch up, stall!
- Pitch down!
- Use your feet to control rudders to avoid the spin if you lost coordination at the end.

I got a little more comfortable doing the stalls, but I still don't like them, especially the power on stalls. I learned more WHY I didn't like them. When doing the power on stall, you are going slower with high RPM, that requires heavy right rudder. So heavy that when the stall breaks, it's near impossible to get off the right rudder when it occurs, so you are naturally starting a slight spin. Man, I don't like spins. I know how to recover, but you have to keep your wits about you. The natural tendency is to use the ailerons to recover, but they don't do anything if the wings are stalled. I need to remember: yoke forward! opposite rudder if starting a spin!

Anyway, after stalls, we did some more steep turns, all good. The wind wasn't blowing much aloft, so we ended the lesson without brushing up on ground reference manuevers. We landed with a short field landing. At the end of the lesson, Paul said one more lesson to go and he is ready to sign me off for the checkride! Paul said I did a good job and that I am ready to pass the test, he just needs to formally review those last maneurvers.

Yes! That is a great confidence booster. There is some iffy weather in the area this week and the airshow this weekend. So, I might get that last flight this week or early next, either way, depending on availability, I could be going for my checkride next week!

Lesson 33 - Long Solo Cross Country

Whew! The last of the official requirements by the book is done. Although I didn't hit my goal of getting my checkride passed in May, I did complete all the requirements, alright!! Got back from 2.9 hours from my long cross country. A while back Paul had me plan out a flight to Merrill, then Wisconsin Rapids, then back to Eau Claire. I was really looking forward to this flight, my sister Amy and her family live in Merrill. So, this morning when it looked likely the weather was going to cooperate, I called Amerz up and she was able to bring Degen and Senna with her to the airport to meet me.

So, got to the airport around noon after a quick stop for a Subway, figured I could munch on that as Paul reviewed my flight plan. Finished flight planning, lunch, got an abbreviated weather briefing, and filed all 3 legs of my flight plan. Did a preflight, and the wheels where off the ground at 1:10 pm. Ride to Merrill was pretty uneventful, after opening the flight plan and clearing Eau Claire's class delta, then picked up flight following from Minneapolis approach which quickly handed me over to Minneapolis Center. Ride was quite bumpy for a bit, we are starting to get into summer and all the convective columns rising from the heated surface of the earth. I had absolutely no problems on this leg, it was almost identical to the Medford cross country, just another 26 miles past. Picked out all my checkpoints, center terminated my radar coverage just as I caught sight of Merrill and began my descent. Nobody else in the area, had a nice touch down that Amy and family got to see. After closing the flight plan, got to show Degen the cockpit, that was really fun (and I am sure Degen was excited too), I got some pictures...

After about 20 minutes of chatting with Amy and Degen, Senna was a bit shy and tired, got to use the restroom, pickup a bottle of water from the FBO, and I was off to Wisconsin Rapids. Again, uneventful trip, it was a short hop so I didn't want to do flight following, instead I got into contact with Mosinee/Central Wisconsin tower controller, and just advised of my position and he indicated there was no other traffic southbound to Wisconsin Rapids. Still a little bumpy, but I was on the ground in KISW before I knew it. Taxi back, couldn't get a hold of FSS to close the flight plan, took off and started heading back to Eau Claire. Finally got a hold of FSS, close/open the flight plan, just about leveling off at 6500 and got flight following again from Minneapolis center. Found my first checkpoints, and then was over Nellsville airport. While enroute I was monitoring 122.0 for any activity in the MOA since I was flying through part of it. Once over Nellsville I could pick out Lake Eau Claire and Lake Wissota, so I knew exactly where Eau Claire was, but no matter, I dialed in the VOR to 112.9 and followed roughly the 115* toward Eau Claire. Cleared for right traffic landing on runway 4, touched down in Eau Claire at 4:20 pm, after mains down, I brought the nose down a little harder than I like, but she held together. It was a nice crabbed landing into the wind. I am better at those landings, still not smooth greasers, but I am landing on the spots I want to and able to land straight without sideload on the mains, despite variable winds.

Overall a great flight, I felt much more in control. Not sure if I am ready for the test yet, but my I was able to maintain my altitudes much better and stay ahead of the plane. Fun time! I am now transitioning to PTS test preparation, I will be flying with Paul a few more times until he thinks I am ready, and it still might be a bit, but I am so close! Stay tuned!

Lesson 32 - Solo Cross Country to Medford

Ok, this afternoon I got to do another solo cross country, this time to Medford. This was quite a kick since I have never been to this airport before. Over lunch, I went to the airport and met Paul so he could go over my flight planning. He was quite impressed with my custom spreadsheet I created for my plan, and like my overall approach. I could have sworn I heard from the briefer that runways 9/27 was closed, and that surprised Paul since he had another student en route at that moment to Medford too. I said I must have misheard it. I later checked that day, and yes in fact the runway was closed, so I called up Paul telling him so. When I got to the airport, there was a note for me from Paul saying the same thing, he must not have gotten my message. :)

Anyway, preflight good, filed flight plans, was off the ground only 10 minutes past my scheduled time. The flight there was awesome and uneventful, although Minneapolis Center seemed too busy to give me flight following, since they ignored three of my calls. No big deal, but its always a little unnerving to see another plane pass just above or below you that you didn't see until the last minute, I suppose that is why we have our assigned altitudes. I also had a little trouble picking out my second checkpoint, a wide railroad track / power line, probably because I mistaken one lake on my map from another, but I found it eventually.

Once on the ground in Medford, I couldn't raise FSS to close and open my new flight plans until I was a good 10 minutes on my way back. The way back was equally nice and pretty easy. I am constantly looking for emergency landing sites and scanning for traffic, it's fun, although I have to do a better job of sharing my attention doing instrument scans. Maintaining altitude on the way back was pretty easy too. The excitement came when I was attempting to land back in Eau Claire. Tower 22 as the active runway, I was already cleared for a left base pattern entrance. About 3 miles before, a citation jet wanted to come straight in on the same runway, opposite direction! We considered that a bit, and controller asked me to keep up my speed and land "in front of" (or more accurate play chicken with the jet), well that threw me off a bit. My effort to accommodate the controller made me come in high and fast, bust my flap range and land WAY down the runway, making the second to LAST taxiway exit, it was ugly. Although the good news is I landed considerably ahead of the jet, and the controller thanked me for my help. I know what I did wrong, this is what I would have done differently when I have another instance like this:

• Keep my speed up until hitting that base leg turn.
• Cut throttle to idle
• Pitch way up to quickly bleed off that speed to quickly get to 75 kts. Don't worry about gaining a couple hundred feet, get those flaps down! Watch that airspeed don't stall!!
• Within flap range, quickly full flaps, pitch down to approach.
• Forward slip the crap out it.
• Finally, be HONEST. If I am uncomfortable, just ask the controller to go around.

So, some excitement at the end, I certainly pushed my skills, and learned a ton.

One more cross country, I have one planned for a two stop to Merrill, Wisconsin Rapids, and then back to Eau Claire.

After that, it's at least 3 hours of test preparation. I am at 45 hours now. If I were to guess, I will be going on my checkride at around the 50-55 mark, probably closer to 55.

Lesson 31 - Night Cross Country to Lake Elmo!

Tonight was our night cross country to Lake Elmo. This was such a fun, but a bit nerve-racking experience. As beautiful as it was, I am not too enthusiastic about night flying. There is a whole lot of darkness below you, and in the event of an engine failure, although you might be able to set it down on an interstate, there are things like power lines, overpasses, cars, that are darn difficult to see until you are right on top of them. This experience has taught me that in an event of an emergency, your options are very limited. And we all know in my experience, engine problems CAN happen.

Keeping that in mind, we planned accordingly for our flight. We flew directly over I-94 all the way to Lake Elmo and back. So, we always had an option underneath us. I arrived at the airport early at 8:00 pm. That gave me plenty of time to preflight the plane (in the daylight), get an abbreviated weather briefing, finish out my flight plan calculations, and chat with Chris about what we were doing this evening and what to expect. We were going to be picking up flight following from Minneapolis Center right after exiting the Eau Claire pattern. This was neat, it's been a while since I have interacted with ATC radar services. We finally took off around 9:30 pm, there was an inbound medical flight on the radio passing in front of us right before take off. We then contacted ATC, so they looking after us on our way over to Lake Elmo. That paid off right away, we had traffic below us heading right at us, i.e. they were doing exactly what we would be doing on our return flight home. They advised us, we were able to locate them, and confirm it wasn't an issue. It's very nice having those extra set of eyes looking out after you. The first 15 minutes, I think I was a bit nervous, and it showed. I really wasn't overwhelmed with work, but I felt behind the plane, and it really showed when I busted my assigned altitude and flew way past it. Chris corrected me, and quickly pushed the plane back done to altitude. I had trouble maintaining altitude the rest of the leg, not sure exactly why, it was calm winds but I was drifting up a lot. The rest of the trip went by uneventful... Menomonie, Baldwin, Hudson. Around Hudson, ATC passed us off to approach control, which is on a different frequency, that caught me a little unprepared, but adjusted. I was able to pick out the Lake Elmo beacon a good 15 miles out. Did a simple downwind pattern entry, and a decent landing, but not great. At night, your vision really messes with you and it's difficult to judge when you should flare, so I landed with a bit of a thud. So, back taxi, and off we go again.

Again, pick up flight following. The return flight I was more comfortable. I felt much more ahead of the plane and nothing came as a surprise and I was prepared for each step. I seemed to have a much easier time holding the exact altitude too. The whole return trip was more relaxing and enjoyable, I felt much more in control. Until at least we were trying to spot Eau Claire Airport. I think part of it was that Chris was trying to point to the location. Having somebody point to a location while in the plane is nearly a fruitless exercise, your brain gets in the way. After trying for almost 5 minutes, we finally got close enough to flick on the runway lights, and the airport was a good 40 degrees left of where I was looking, no wonder why I couldn't find the beacon. Another complication of flying at night.

So, we landed on runway 4 to a full stop. We had 1.6 hours in for the cross country. Chris asked if I was up to do a few more stop-and-gos, and get another 0.4 so I can finish my night requirements. Absolutely! So, we did another 4 landings. Ticked over 2.0 hours total night time, and I have met the requirement. Woot!

We got some good weather ahead of us this week still, hoping to get a few cross countries done soon! Then onto test prep!

Lesson 30 - Mini Cross Country to Chetek

What a gorgeous morning! Sunday morning, I joined Paul for a short hop to Chetek to validate my navigating skills to make sure I am kosher for my upcoming solo cross countries. What a fun trip! This "cross country" being less than 30 miles was actually a bit stressful. I wasn't really stressed because I was concerned about getting lost, the landmarks are pretty easy. The problem was the trip was so close, and the checkpoints so close together, the workload was constant and heavy. I really didn't have much time to enjoy the flight, it was all work.

Not to worry though, the fun came after first landing at Chetek. We landed on 35, a paved runway half the length (3500 ft) and width (60 ft) of any runway in Eau Claire. I came in high and had to do an aggressive slip (with Paul's encouragement) to get it down in time. We taxied to the end of the runway, and Paul instructed me to pull the plane off the runway.... onto the grass.... Ok....

What I didn't realize is that Chetek has a grass strip 25/7. Wow! 1100 ft!! As we begin the back taxi, I see a house that appears no more than 3-4 blocks away with telephone poles around. Yikes!! We have to keep the plane moving so we don't get the nose wheel stuck. And what a different feeling! Taxing on a grass "field" was bumpy. We circled round, never stopped the plane and starting full power as we came out of our turnaround at the end of the runway. Flaps to 10*. Yoke full aft. Wow, when you see the buildings getting so close at the end of the runway, it was a bit overwhelming.... are we going to climb out in time??? Nose off the ground quick, accelerate to barely flying speed, lift off, lower the nose, accelerate to Vx, climb out at Vx. This was a combined soft/short field take off. Quiet a test! We fly out over Lake Chetek. Left traffic, now for a landing on a 1100 ft grass strip. You have to hit your airspeed on approach, and you have to be slow! Normal approach is 70 kts. Short field is 55 kts, half way to stall speed. You have to be slow when you touch down because you MUST slow down in time. Full flaps. Slip if you have to. Touch down. Wow! That touchdown is bumpy on grass. Keep that nose up, full breaks!! Whew! We made it.

We continue to do a bunch of short field landings on the pavement. My greatest fault seems to drift into the runway on downwind before turn to base, I am not sure why. I think the narrower strip is giving me some optical illusion. Then headed back to Eau Claire, some more hood time to get another 0.2 instrument time. Did some practice steep turns, and then we called it a day. A great flight! Looks like I will be set to finish off the last of the requirements, but I learned a lot today, and got more confident controlling the plane at slower speeds.

Lesson 29 - All Alone!

Got back to the airport the same day as Lesson 27 for an afternoon flight, this time with Chris. When we got there, he was certain I was ready to solo again, so we got the paperwork in order and off I went! Really wasn't too nervous, but it was a big step from coming back, after only 3 lessons I was back in the cockpit alone, it was very rewarding!

I ended up doing 1.1 hours, staying in the pattern doing touch and goes. I shared the pattern with another pilot flying N815HA, Heartland's Cessna 172. I did about 10 landings, had 1 go around, a couple extended downwinds because of incoming jets (that still is so cool to be up in the air right next to those!), several wake turbulence warnings, and even a right hand pattern (which I was thoroughly impressed with myself, I thought I would have trouble, but it went well).

A couple landings were a bit ugly, particularly my first, but improved with each pass. The last one was pretty nice, I could have made the high speed exit, but forgot to brake in time, no big deal.

Things are coming back nicely, and I am chipping away at those requirements. Paul gave the go ahead to start planning my long cross country to Marshfield, Lacrosse, and back to Eau Claire. Woo Hoo! I can see I have some polishing though to do, my flying isn't precise enough yet to pass the checkride, so I will need a bit more practice before I am ready.

Lesson 28 - Fundamentals Review

What a fun day! Met Paul at the airport at 8:00 am, preflight, all good. Paul explained we'd be taking off using a soft field takeoff technique, do some hood work, do some stall training, and then finally steep turns.

So, the soft field takeoff, that was interesting to say the least. Ok. The goal here is to get off the ground as fast as possible, and avoid digging the nose gear into the ground. So, flaps to 10*, you want to take the runway on a roll, don't stop, have the elevator full aft, and full power. The nose will come up FAST, I mean really FAST. I didn't anticipate it, and I swear I might have bonked the tail slightly. The way you are supposed to do is, once the nose raises, reduce elevator and just keep the nose off the ground. Use right rudder, the high angle of attack is going to want to yaw the airplane. Once you are at 50 kts, you should be off the ground, lower the nose to the horizon, accelerate in ground affect to Vy, positive rate of climb, flaps up, normal climbout.

On climb out, we turned toward course, and the engine hesitated, only for a second. Funny, it didn't bother me much. We were already high enough, I was prepared to turn back toward the airport, no big deal. Although, Paul got quite excited, but he was impressed how cool I was. We applied some carb heat, saw that oil pressure, temperature, RPM was all in the green, so we decided to continue figuring it was just a small pocket of bad gas or air.

I got some more hood time, turned towards courses, standard rate turns, maintaining speed and altitude. Next was stalls. Honestly, this wasn't something I was looking forward to. Maybe it was because the last time I practiced stalls, that is when the engine gave out. The two have absolutely nothing to do with each other, but I think I have a slight mental block. Fortunately, Paul was very methodical in his approach, and I seemed to have a much better understanding.

First was the Approach to Landing stall, this is to simulate a string of bad decisions on approach. So, here is how we execute:

1. First you must be legally 1500 AGL, we like a little more buffer, so we were up beyond 2000 AGL.
2. GUMPS check. Clearing turn to the right, carb heat, begin slowing to 70 kts
3. Flaps to 10*, clearing turn to the left.
4. Full flaps. Reduce throttle to idle. Maintain altitude by bringing back the elevator.
5. The reduction of power and bringing the elevator after, bleeds off the last bit of speed, then stall!
6. PTS standards call to recover from a stall at its first sign, in the C152, that is the stall horn.
7. Recovery is: Elevator Forward! Full Throttle! Carb Heat Off! Flaps to 10*. Positive rate of climb, 60 kts, Flaps to 0*.

We did several of these, we even took the plane to the full stall break, where the plane literally stops flying and drops. Good experience, and not as scary as I remember. Next was Power On, Take Off Stall. This simulates a stall on climbout, particularly when attempting a go-around. This is how you execute this:

1. Again, 2000 AGL.
2. GUMPS Check. Clearing turn to the right, carb heat, begin slowing
3. (No flaps), clearing turn to the left slow to 50 kts! Yep, slow, but still power, engine is not at idle! Watch that Right Rudder.
4. Carb Heat off. Elevator back to simulate rotation, but keep going back! This is weird, it feels like you are pointed straight at the sky. Stall!
5. Recovery is simpler: Reduce Elevator back pressure, nose to horizon, apply power to get back airspeed.

After a few of those, we proceeded onto steep turns, and then decided to fly back, where we did a straight in on runway 4. A good 1.0 hours of practice, looking good!

Night cross country scrapped

Well, I had planned out a cross country to Lake Elmo (21D), but mother nature brought through some thunderstorms. Oh well, I got to spend an evening with my ladies. Check out Evie vs. Tupperware.

Lesson 27 - Nightime Flying!

After a fun-filled weekend at the cabin celebrating my niece Senna's first birthday, I got to finish off the weekend with my first night flight. Part of the qualifying requirements of the Private Pilot License is to log 3 hours of night time flying including at least 10 landings (to a full stop) and a cross country of at least 100 nm. Tonight, I met Chris at 8:00 pm, it was still light out. We cannot count our time as official night flight until 1 hour after civil twilight. So, that made plenty of time to do a relaxed preflight and good conversation.

Once we were ready, we hopped in. Now after 8:30, the control tower retires, so we were communicating on CTAF our intentions. Also, we got to control the runway lights with our radio mic, very cool. 3 clicks for low, 5 for medium, 7 for high. So, the goal was to just do a few laps around the pattern to build my night-time experience, and get in as many full stop landings as possible. First time around was a different experience, I lost my bearings a bit coming off the upwind leg, very different flying in the dark, but it was very stunning to see the lights of the city and the airport! Landings went very good despite a slight crosswind, although many of the first few approaches I would come in quite low, after a few tries I adjusted for that. I bet that is because my last flying I did with Paul, the winds were much stronger, and I was getting accustomed to having that wind keep me higher, longer.

After 9 trips around, and 1 hour logged, it was time to call it a night. During debrief, Chris said we are going to do our cross country to Lake Elmo soon, I won't mention how soon since my Mom is likely reading this. :)

Also good news is that Chris thinks after tonight's flying, I am ready to receive my solo-endorsement back. It is very gratifying to know after taking almost 7 months off, I didn't loose the fundamentals. That checkride is looking closer and closer, I might just make my goal by end of May!

Oh by the way, I did take some pictures while flying, and they turned out absolutely terrible, hence the stock photo.

Lesson 26 - Back up in heavy winds!

I did it, and I am darn excited to finish my journey! Yesterday, I took a day off of work to get myself back in the air. I was somewhat concerned that weather was going to bump right out of the gates, conditions called for winds at 18 kts, gusting to almost 30. The wind was close to right down the runway, but I did have some swirling crosswind components. These are conditions I would right now never fly on my own, and honestly I don't recall ever flying in this stuff with a instructor before either. At first I wondered if this was the best condition to get back into flying with, but it turned out to be one of the best learning experiences.

I was a little slow and rusty on the checklists, plus I was flying with a new instructor. My old instructor Jack has moved full-time jet operation, congrats to him. I will be completing my training with two instructors, Paul, who has a TON of experience, he retired from the DNR after flying for them for 24 years, before that he spent time flying freight and for the airlines. Wow, he knows his stuff, and has a much more disciplined approach than Jack, I like him! I will also be flying with Chris, who first introduced me to flying. His hours are little more limited, but we'll be doing some nighttime flying to button up those requirements.

So, we do a preflight, my usual checklist and memory helped me well here, no problems. Once in the cockpit, I needed a few moments to re-familiarize myself with the instrument stack and startup checklist. Paul has some specific expectations, and they are all geared towards readiness for the checkride, he expected me to give him a passenger briefing! This was cool! Even though I got very far before, this was the first time I felt I was really getting trained on being ready for the test. So, off we went, winds were at 15, so we were going to be doing touch and gos on runway 14, but its taxiway is under construction, so we had to cross 4/22, then back taxi on 14. Had a great refresher lesson on proper aileron input during ground operations. Did our runup, all checks in the green, off we go! We did 9 takes offs and landings, the first few were a bit rough. Although I don't recall Paul wrestling for control back for any of them, but he did ask for control on just 1 take off. The wind was quite fun, and on the first take off as we got bounced around I started thinking... "oh boy, this is nuts," but it took only 1 pass for me to get accustomed to the bouncing and it was fun after that. The last 2-3 landings were quite good. Since I had such a strong wind on the downwind leg, I barely had time to run my checklist and start the landing descent since the wind was pushing me so fast. This resulted in most my approaches being high, which is fine, so I got a lot more comfortable doing slips to bleed off the extra altitude.

In the debrief, Paul seemed pretty comfortable with my skills. Sounds like I would only need a few more refresher lessons before I was received me solo-endorsement back. We talked about the next few flights will be to the practice area to brush up on manuevers and the expected standards, plus we'll spend some time under the hood finishing up just a little more instrument time. So, another 1.0 hours in the log book, and I have a few flights schedule over the next week. I am going to make this happen!

So.... what happened?

That is what I am asking myself. I had managed to overcome so many obstacles in my pilot training. And then all of a sudden, I realize it's been almost 7 month's since I have flown. Lemme get this straight. I pass my written exam, go through one of the longest medical certification processes known to man and government, fight my way to soloing, have an in-flight emergency, muster the courage to get back in the plane and fly another 4 times or so, and then I stop!? What the heck is wrong with me?

Ok, I don't need to pretend I don't really understand what happened. I still had some residual fear from my inflight emergency, and I let any and every excuse deter me. Daylight savings meant I could only fly nights and weekends through fall and winter. Evie was getting bigger by the day and a lot more fun. Hunting season started sucking up weekends. Holidays swept us a way. I had a very important and stressful project at work. Come spring, I kept telling myself, get back up, get back up, and I let weekend after evening pass by. All of which was a convenient excuse for not fully dealing with what happened. The engine failure scared me, and honestly it should have. But did it need to scare me right out of the cockpit? It shouldn't have, but I let it, and I rationalized my delay in flying.

Then God gave me a little nudge, but it took me a little while to realize it was Him. I think I recently read a story online about an airplane crash (I know, smart move when I am trying to get over the fright of an engine failure), but this story had a very different outcome. A pilot had engine problems, and was forced to land his plane on a beach. He survived, in fact him and his passenger walked away from the crash unharmed. But as he exited his plane, maybe in elation to have just survived a forced crash landing, perhaps even self-congratulating his piloting skill, he realized he killed a person on the ground. Here is this person, married, two kids, strolling along the beach, probably vacationing. He probably never saw it coming. Here one moment, gone the next. While practicing these past few months what I would like to call "risk aversion," I realize (again) I really have no control when God calls me home. Now of course, there is no reason to be reckless, but flying a well maintained aircraft responsibly and safely is not reckless.

No more. I will finish what I have started. So, you will soon see a rush of postings. I am making a commitment, with Laura's full cooperation and support, to get this done in May. Not this summer, but in May. Sure, weather might conspire against me, but I have almost all the requirements done, all I need to do is knock the rust off, finish those last few requirements, practice and get within PTS standards, and get my checkride done.

So wish me luck and safe flying, within the next 45 days, I hope I can call myself a pilot!