I am testing a way for my friend Holt to upload audio files to his blog. So while I'm playing A/V nerd for him, I might as well plug his project. You can go to his website (still being updated to host the future blog and much more) at http://www.vanishingamerica.net/ or to his blog at http://www.holtwebb.blogspot.com/ . The blogspot address is updated currently, but will migrate to the other address in the next few months. He is traveling the US documenting places, people, communities and things that are vanishing before the end of our liftetime. Check it out!
Here is a link to my test for him, it's just Gary Allan's song 'Watching Airplanes'. This could be how his audio 'podcasts' get uploaded in the future.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Flight training is almost complete!
As most everyone is aware, especially if you live in Atlanta, we are running out of water. Well, with as much rain and craptacular weather we have had in the last month, I think our water situation is changing. It better be because I have had to cancel a lot of flights over the last few weeks.
About 2 weeks ago Melissa and I were able to do my night time x-country and we flew up to Habersham airport near Clarkesville. Flying at night is so cool, although scary because you can't see anything on the ground except lights..... I think I mentioned this the other night flight we did, but it actually is "easier" landing at night. I still don't know what it is about it, but maybe it's the fact that the lights really lead you to the end of the runway. So with that flight I completed my 3 hours of night flying with a total of 15 takeoffs and landings at night. The requirement is 10, but the first time we went up I was having too good of a time to not do a few more!
So finally this past Friday I was able to do my long x-country (over 100 nautical miles) and finish up all of my flight time for that requirement. You have to have a total of 5 hours of solo x-country to meet the requirements and I got 3.7 from this flight. I mapped out a route that was not a perfectly straight line between points going to Augusta. The first reason was to stay below the Atlanta Class B airspace (5000' ceiling to fly under it and I was trying to get to 5500') and the second reason is that there are 3 airports lined up between Monroe and Augusta that would be perfect for a forced landing, so safety was the other concern. For these flights you are only using the sectional chart, the proposed heading/ground speed/minutes between checkpoints, and literally looking at the ground to find those points. Ideally you want to have a point on the ground spaced no more than 20 nautical miles between points and sometimes that means the only thing is a lake or a power line. But both are actually great references! Since the longest leg of my journey was to Augusta, I was really hoping that I would hit my points along the way, and I did. I hit all of them within about 30 seconds, give or take a little. I even called Augusta Approach and requested Flight Following. This is a voluntary deal where you contact them and they will basically help you look out for weather and other traffic along your route. I did a touch and go at Daniel Field in Augusta and then went around because I didn't really like my "technique". :) The other one wasn't so great either, but they were both "safe"..... So then I was off to Athens! The second leg was even less eventful than the first so I stopped there and had a vending machine lunch while they topped off the plane. I spoke with my instructor and she said it looked like there might be some weather in Atlanta moving in, so I needed to get up and go. GREAT! I had just checked the weather myself and had already concurred the same thing, but it was nice of her to call. The only problem was, I needed it to take 1 hour to fly what should take about 30 minutes.... So I flew to Lawrenceville (where I soloed!) and did 4 touch and gos then headed on back to PDK. As luck would have it, it never rained and I ended up with .2 hours more than I needed with 3.7 hours total!
Now I really have to prepare for the written exam, the oral exam and the practical. The last two are what you do with the Designated Flight Examiner as your final "check ride". Melissa and I have a few maneuvers to practice in the air, she needs to quiz me on some of the oral stuff, and I still need to get 2 more hours solo time to meet the 10 hour minimum. So I'm getting close and really anxious. Who's ready to go flying somewhere?????
Blue skies
About 2 weeks ago Melissa and I were able to do my night time x-country and we flew up to Habersham airport near Clarkesville. Flying at night is so cool, although scary because you can't see anything on the ground except lights..... I think I mentioned this the other night flight we did, but it actually is "easier" landing at night. I still don't know what it is about it, but maybe it's the fact that the lights really lead you to the end of the runway. So with that flight I completed my 3 hours of night flying with a total of 15 takeoffs and landings at night. The requirement is 10, but the first time we went up I was having too good of a time to not do a few more!
So finally this past Friday I was able to do my long x-country (over 100 nautical miles) and finish up all of my flight time for that requirement. You have to have a total of 5 hours of solo x-country to meet the requirements and I got 3.7 from this flight. I mapped out a route that was not a perfectly straight line between points going to Augusta. The first reason was to stay below the Atlanta Class B airspace (5000' ceiling to fly under it and I was trying to get to 5500') and the second reason is that there are 3 airports lined up between Monroe and Augusta that would be perfect for a forced landing, so safety was the other concern. For these flights you are only using the sectional chart, the proposed heading/ground speed/minutes between checkpoints, and literally looking at the ground to find those points. Ideally you want to have a point on the ground spaced no more than 20 nautical miles between points and sometimes that means the only thing is a lake or a power line. But both are actually great references! Since the longest leg of my journey was to Augusta, I was really hoping that I would hit my points along the way, and I did. I hit all of them within about 30 seconds, give or take a little. I even called Augusta Approach and requested Flight Following. This is a voluntary deal where you contact them and they will basically help you look out for weather and other traffic along your route. I did a touch and go at Daniel Field in Augusta and then went around because I didn't really like my "technique". :) The other one wasn't so great either, but they were both "safe"..... So then I was off to Athens! The second leg was even less eventful than the first so I stopped there and had a vending machine lunch while they topped off the plane. I spoke with my instructor and she said it looked like there might be some weather in Atlanta moving in, so I needed to get up and go. GREAT! I had just checked the weather myself and had already concurred the same thing, but it was nice of her to call. The only problem was, I needed it to take 1 hour to fly what should take about 30 minutes.... So I flew to Lawrenceville (where I soloed!) and did 4 touch and gos then headed on back to PDK. As luck would have it, it never rained and I ended up with .2 hours more than I needed with 3.7 hours total!
Now I really have to prepare for the written exam, the oral exam and the practical. The last two are what you do with the Designated Flight Examiner as your final "check ride". Melissa and I have a few maneuvers to practice in the air, she needs to quiz me on some of the oral stuff, and I still need to get 2 more hours solo time to meet the 10 hour minimum. So I'm getting close and really anxious. Who's ready to go flying somewhere?????
Blue skies
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Solo #2 and Cross Country flights
Finally, after 5 cancelled lessons because of weather, we were able to fly to Rome, GA (KRMG). It was the first 'dual' cross country flight and kind of a reconnaissance mission. By pre-planning the direct course we knew what heading to fly directly there was, but you also have to compensate for wind direction. So after getting the winds aloft forecast for that day I was able to interpolate our proposed heading. From there you must reference ground points along the sectional chart to make sure you are on track. There are two smoke stacks in Cartersville that are great reference points because you can see them from miles away! We stayed on course well enough and had no problems finding the airport and it only took about 30 minutes to get there. We did 3 landings and takeoffs and then went to order lunch and let the pilot pee, he has his mother's bladder.... :) Then I took the plane up by myself for kind of like a second solo. It felt as comfortable if not more comfortable than the first time and they were all safe landings. My third landing may have "hopped" more than once, but other than that it was successful! We took off and motored back to PDK for another "uneventful" flight. It is much easier flying back with all of the ground reference points along the way that I am familiar with.
Today I flew back to Rome, but this time I was the Lone Ranger! This was the first time flying solo x-country and it was pretty cool. Since of course we had just flown the same course the day before, today was pretty easy. I still checked my time distances between ground points, but this time I just tried to pay attention to flying the plane and looking out for other traffic. I did see a C-130 on downwind landing at Dobbins! That was pretty cool, you could see the plume of smoke behind it which made it even easier to pick out in the air. Both landings I hopped at least once and I think it's because of "rounding out" a little too early and coming in with a few too many knots of speed. Of course I don't want the nose wheel to strike first and maybe that's my problem. Who knows, I'm still going for the formula (x=y) or better known as (takeoffs=landings)!
Lake Allatoona - Looks like a good place for a "forced landing" with the lake down as much as it is. I can remember skiing in that same cove and freaking out that I could stand, touching the mud. I was freaking out because it was in my boat and didn't know that it was so shallow.....
Rome, GA airport KRMG. Notice the big 'X' for the runway no longer in use.
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