Hood Time

It was my intention to snap a photo of the instrument panel of N54666 first thing this morning, but like so many intentions, it got away from me. So, the panel to the left is from another Cessna 172P found on the Internet, but happens to look amazingly similar to the one I stared at for an hour this morning. Oh, did I forget to mention, I was wearing a hood, or blinders, that kept me from seeing anything else.


First things first. Rob went over my log book to make sure that we had not missed anything in the course of my training. I don't have much left: One solo cross country, a few hours of instrument time and a few hours of test preparation. Presuming I pass the test, I would then be free to terrorize the skies with passengers, as we were terrorized this morning. More on that later. After the log book review, Rob went over the instrument scan, a technique for flying and managing the plane without outside visual reference. Ten minutes of ground instruction then time to give it a shot.


I put on the hood as soon as we hit 400 feet and didn't take it off until we were on final at about 400 feet. We flew east, over Tampa Bay to Ruskin, where I practiced some simple maneuvers. Climbs, descents, standard rate turns, climbing turns and descending turns. That's pretty simple stuff, but made difficult when you only have instruments to look at. Now, I have only 1.1 hours of instrument time, so I'm not claiming to be an great instrument pilot, but I think I did pretty well. I didn't get disorientated or confused. Lost maybe, but not confused. I sort of liked it. It took a good deal of concentration, and if I had to do it for hours, I'm sure it would be exhausting. Actually, I think Rob was just trying to sell me the instrument course after I finish my PPL.


Rob kept me under the hood and gave me headings to get us back to Whitted. As I mentioned above, instrument flying takes concentration, but as we were approaching the airport I hear half of a conversation between Whitted's Air Traffic Control and another of the rental planes. Someone is having trouble finding his way around the airport. He finally takes off and turns left when ATC told him to go right. Bad news, we're on the left. About this time, I'm guessing the other renter changes radio frequency because the tower can no longer contact him. The tower calls us to warn us to avoid this guy. Rob yanks the hood off, the other guy climbs above our approach path and I land in a stiff cross wind. Pretty exciting. The controller didn't want the guys name, but did want him warned not to change radio frequency until clear of the class D airspace. Now the really funny part. We walk in the office and Rob asks "Who's in 54159?" We're told, oh, that was so-and-so, you know the (insert name of major air carrier here) pilot. Honest.

Tomorrow I take the FAA Private Pilot's Knowledge Exam. I'll be glad to be done with it. I'll fly some more later this week, but I haven't decided what I want to do just yet. I get to choose my own route for my next cross country, so I might just do that.

lesson 24

You'll need google earth to view the lesson 24 flight track.

Statistics

Dual Instruction Time: 22.0 Hours

Solo/PIC Time: 13.0 Hours

Landings: 122