Pre Solo Check Ride Check

Last flight today with Mike before my pre-solo check with Keith. Landings are getting there, no quite there, but getting there. My right thumb is now permanently glued to the throttle.

Lesson Nine

So before the start of the lesson, I walk up to Mike and share with him my newfound wisdom from reading an article in AOPA Flight Training. There was an article in the July issue about the important of learning short and soft field takoffs and landings, not only training for them on your standard paved runway, but actually trying them for real. Mike responded by saying, you just ruined your surprise! :-). Today he planned for us to land at the "Butler Farm Show" airport for our short field exploration and at his friends house, the McDonald grass airstrip. Well, I'm not sure if I would call the Farm Show airport a runway, it was more like a sidewalk, and to land you have to cross over some fairly high powerlines right before the beginning of the runway. But Mike showed me how it was done and we somehow managed to squeeze the airplane onto the middle of the runway. We parked the plane in the grass and ran across the street for a little break at a family fun place. After racing the go-karts there (I came in first after ducking under some dude in the final turn... :-), we hustled back the trusty trainer to do our short field takeoff (for real this time). We then cruised over to his buddy's house to try out a little grass field landing action. How cool that was! I really enjoyed the thrill of landing on grass, and in particular the thrill of the takeoff, having to lift off at the lowest speed possible and then accelerating in ground effect. That landing and take off is not one I will forget for quite a while. I can't wait to do another one! (Photo credit go to Mike, sorry Mike I stole your pics!)

Condor Picnic 2007

The Condors apparently have a great tradition of having a summer picnic for all members with the usual accouterments and some flying contests. This year the contests were the "accurate landing" and "flour bomb drop". I cajoled my wife and not-quite-three year old daughter into joining me for the festivities. The highlight was a couple of trips in the pattern with Mike, my instructor where he let my wife, Emel, fly the plane and I got to try a few flour bombs from the back seat with my daughter. All in all a great day, I think Emel got a kick out of flying and my daughter had great fun talking on the headset. Looking forward to next year's one.

Lesson Seven

Today we took a bit of a breather from working on fundamentals, slow flight, stalls and emergency procedures and had a bit of fun by flying around my house and the city of Pittsburgh. I also learned a bit about communicating with ATC and how to navigate with a map and reference to visible landmarks (pilotage). Oh yeah, and my door popped open again in flight, I really need to make sure that thing is secure... Here's some photos of the house and Pittsburgh!

If you look close you can spot the wife and daughter on the back deck.

The Steel City

Lesson Three

Wow, this was an exciting lesson. We did mostly slow flight today and practiced stalls. The really interesting part was when we were practicing the power-on stall. I knew from my readying, and what Mike had told me that, as the angle of attack increased, and with the really slow airspeed I would need quite a bit of right rudder to counteract the p-factor, gyroscopic effect, corkscrewing slipstream, and torque reaction. What I didn't know, or rather forgot, was that it is important to release that right rudder once the break happens. Well of course with the right rudder, and then I inadvertently turned the ailerons into the direction of our dropping wing, we started to spin. The caused a lot of pucker factor in my case and started saying, "mike, Mike, MIKE!". Of course, he calmly recovered from the spin I put us into, but he did say "that was the first for me with a student!". I think it was only 1/2 a spin but it got my attention at any rate. At least I better know what to do in a stall now, use the rudder to keep the wings level.

First Lesson

I had my first flying lesson today with Mike. It went very smoothly although the ride was a little bumpy. We covered the basics, four fundamentals of flight, best rate & angle of climb, cruise decent, and what it means to be in the pattern., Mike also showed me how to tune in the VOR and we even flew over it to see what a VOR looks like. More to come!

Condor Aero Flying Club

Thanks to a new friend I made on a recent dirt bike riding trip, who just so happens to be a private pilot as well as an excellent rider, I have now signed on as a member of the Condor Aero Club. After looking around at some of the other schools in the area, this one appealed to me the most, mainly because:

• one of the few flying clubs around (maybe the only one?)
• club has been in operation since 1957
• as a member, you actually become a part owner of the airplanes
• top notch CFIs and maintenance
• lower rental rates than any school I've seen
• 2 Cessna 152 trainers, 4 Cessna 172s, and 1 Piper Arrow - should be no shortage of planes to rent

I just went to the first meeting where I had my first reading as a prospective member. I also met my future CFI for the first time, Mike Woods. Very different guy from the CFI I flew with at Airquest, for one he talks. I think we'll get along fine.