Internet Difficulties

I've been having a lot of Internet problems the last few days. BrightHouse says it will be almost a week before they can get a service tech out, a stunning testimonial, so I'm gonna get a quick post in while the getting is good.

I finished my simulated instrument time on Tuesday. Rob took a pic of me with the IFR goggles on. Don't know who was looking for traffic while he was taking the pic. All I need is a few hours of prep for the checkride and the big event itself. Next time I fly, Rob will run me through a mock checkride. I'll probably practice a bit after that to brush up on my weak points and I might take another mock checkride with a different instructor. If the weather cooperates, which it is not doing at the present time, I should finish up within a couple of weeks.

Medical Flight Test... Passed!!

Today was the big day for my medical flight test, and I can say with a smile on my face that I am now in possession of a new medical certificate with no restrictions and a SODA, statement of demonstrated ability. The actual test was a piece of cake, however after bringing an FAA inspector to my FBO, I may not be welcome there any longer.

The inspector was friendly and complimentary of my flying and complimentary of Rob, my instructor. He was very knowledgeable and told Rob and I about a couple areas we could work on, and some ideas of how to work on those things. He did find a couple of faults with the airplane, no... two airplanes, and gave the maintenance shop a fit. The folks at Bay Air were real good about getting me another airplane after 54666 was found to be questionable. Mind you, winter in Florida is the busy season for nearly everything and aviation is no exception. I think they found another plane so fast because maintenance wanted to get rid of the two of us. The didn't want this guy coming back another day.

The flight test lasted about a half hour. We flew out to the beach, spotted some inbound traffic and some birds, performed a simulated emergency landing and flew back to the airport. Piece of cake, well I did fly low enough on the simulated emergency that I thought he was actually going to have me land at the beach. Rob never had me get that low, about 100 feet. The sky was very clear and I could see the VASI from the beach, about 6 miles out. That and a nice landing sealed the deal. On landing we found that the nose wheel shimmy dampener on 9400L was in bad shape, so my friend paid another visit to the maintenance shop. He sat down with Rob and I after that went over what he liked about my training and where he thought I could improve, more right rudder.

I'm glad its over. I need one hour of instrument time and three hours of checkride prep. It won't be long and my wife will be riding with me. She can't wait.

Quick Update

I don't want to bore anyone with my exploits on another practice day, but that's just what I'm doing. I got in a little time today doing pattern work and maneuvers that are likely to come up during my medical flight test on Friday. I think I'm in good shape. Wish me luck, and I'll let you know how it goes.

Strange Day

I had one of those days again. Nothing went as planned. It was my intention to finish my simulated instrument time today, but that hope was dashed when Rob called and told me he couldn't make it today. No problem, I still need some more solo time, and I wanted to work on my maneuvers. So, I preflighted N54159, not my favorite plane, and off I went.

I had the standard drill in mind. Slow flight, stalls, steep turns, emergency landings and ground reference maneuvers. Well, the slow flight and stalls were sort of weird. It was very cool this morning with a 14 knot breeze out of the northeast. The altimeter setting was 30.45, the highest I can recall. I'm hoping it was these conditions that screwed up my stalls, or lack thereof. The plane didn't want to stall at all today. I preformed a power-on stall, the more violent kind, where the plane mushed through a very gentle stall. Tried it again with the same result. For slow flight, I had the plane under 40 knots and the stall horn barely whined. Did I mention that the plane climbed like rocket. Trimmed for a 76 knot climb, the plane was pitched so high it scared me and the VSI was pegged out. I went to an 85 knot climb which felt a lot more comfortable.

Too strange for me, so I moved on to maneuvers. Those went well. I went through several simulated emergency landing with no problems. The high winds made it an ideal day for ground reference. I flew low over Fort Desoto Park and flew turns around the water tower. Once again I forgot to turn on my GPS logger, so I can't check to see that I made nice circles, but they looked good from the sky. After a few steep turns it was time to head back to Whitted for some pattern work.

At Bay Air, students aren't allowed to do touch and goes, so I land and taxi back for take off and the controller tells me that I'm cleared to take off, runway 7, left traffic??? We always fly right traffic from runway 7, so I asked ATC to repeat the instructions. Left traffic. There's a reason for the right traffic pattern on 7. Left traffic would take me over downtown St. Petersburg, where there's nothing in the way of emergency landing sites and plenty of tall buildings. Someone in a helicopter was practicing something south of runway 36, hence the left traffic. I make one trip around the pattern and felt uncomfortable enough to call it a day. When I got back to Bay Air, even the CFIs said they didn't much care for the left traffic patten.

My medical flight test is definitely scheduled for Friday the 23rd. I'll be glad to get that behind me. The FAA inspector that is going with me sounds like a nice guy. I can't imagine that I will have trouble with it, but because it could put an end to my flying days, I am a bit nervous about it. I plan on practicing again early next week, especially the emergency landing procedure and pattern work that will comprise the flight test.

Statistics:

Dual Instruction Time: 23.3 Hours

Solo/PIC Time: 17.0 Hours

Landings: 132