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About this blog

An informal record of my experiences as a student pilot

Entries in this blog

Safety Course and since. . . ??

I'd like to report that I've been flying several times a week and getting close to my instrument, commercial ratings. Sadly, the reality is that work has taken a precedence for me right now and I'm watching my finances pretty closely.   I'm still involved with aviation in general (between school work at UVU and some other flying related business ventures), however the actual flying part of the equation is blank for the past 3-4 weeks.   That being said, I did get to go to the RHC Safety course
Kelly N.

Kelly N.

1

Left Hand Seat

Before I get into flying from the left hand seat let me relate a bit of a problem I was having. . .   Autos were giving me headaches. I couldn't get my entries right and I had a major mental block about them. I tend to over-analyze things and I was going through auto procedures step by step trying to figure out an A to B to C process that I could repeat. To top it off, when my entry was o.k. I started diving or had issues with the rotor RPM. I was a basket case.   So, I talked with a good friend
Kelly N.

Kelly N.

0

Still here. . .

Hi all,   In case anyone else was wondering (although that may be a bit of hubris to think that more than one or two people actually followed my blog), I'm still around.   Between a promotion at work, tightening the budget and some other activities going on here locally, I haven't flown for about a month.   I plan on flying again this week and will be doing some solo time (I'll be taking it slow to make sure I don't do something boneheaded after having not flown for so long).   I'll be at the R
Kelly N.

Kelly N.

0

My First Lesson As a Private Pilot . . .

Tonight was my first lesson towards my commercial rating. More importantly, it was my first lesson as a private pilot!   It wasn't a huge difference from my previous lessons except that this lesson was more about getting comfortable with towered airports other than the Class D where I flew my first solo towered cross-country.   With that goal, I selected KFAY (Fayetteville Regional). It is class C airspace and about 69 miles away from my home base.   Flight Following   We left the immediate area
Kelly N.

Kelly N.

2

Passed my Check-ride for Private Pilot!!!

I have to admit that I was nervous and had trouble sleeping the night prior to my checkride.   I prepared a flightplan to Kinston (KISO- Class D), did my weight and balance with myself and the examiner for the helicopter scheduled, and did a quick review of the areas I had any questions about in my notes from ground school.   I felt ready for the oral portion of the exam, but the practical portion - flying the maneuvers - was the part I was the most nervous about.   For the most part, I felt con
Kelly N.

Kelly N.

0

Getting ready for my check-ride. . .

I don’t feel anywhere near ready, but my check-ride is scheduled for the 30th of August.   I’m a bit nervous right now, however, I’ve got several lessons scheduled between now and then to get ready for the big day.   Here’s my main problem areas as of today:   Shallow/run-on landings I am still hesitating to let the ship come all the way down and and think this is just a function of doing the maneuver a few more times. [*]Autos I do one lesson where I’m in pretty good form and the next I’m
Kelly N.

Kelly N.

0

Cross-country solo - KISO (Class D)

This post is the first of several posts I'll be writing in the next few days to catch the blog up to where I'm at right now in my training.   About a week and a half ago, I completed my cross-country solo flight to a towered airport. It was a location that my CFI and I had flown to on a dual cross-country once before so, it wasn't my first time to the airspace but I was a bit nervous about being able to line up correctly once I got in the pattern.   On my previous solo to a non-towered airport,
Kelly N.

Kelly N.

0

Getting Close to the Check Ride

Man, it's been more than a few weeks since I've posted an update.   I've completed my cross-country flights (one flight to a small airfield on a lake in southern Virginia - W63 Marks Municipal - and my towered flight to KISO - Kinston) and have about 3 hours of solo time and some dual left to complete before the checkride.   We practiced confined approaches during the last lesson and it was very fun. The first field we landed in was pretty good sized so, it wasn't a big deal outside of just che
Kelly N.

Kelly N.

0

1st Stage Check (pre-solo)

Well, yesterday and today I went through my pre-solo stage check with the CP.   I did pretty good on most items (not perfect obviously, but he seemed pretty happy with my progress and ability to this point).   We went through:   Hover-autos - I'm not proficient with these yet, but I know what to do and have no doubt a few more attempts and I'll get them down.   Straight-in Auto - These are still something that I personally feel I need a lot of work on. However, today I called out the instrumen
Kelly N.

Kelly N.

0

Catch-up: Summary of my last few lessons

It's been a few lessons since I posted due to work schedule and other going's on outside of flying (yes, unfortunately, flying is not yet my primary activity outside my family, working on it though )   Three lessons ago (right after my last blog post) I had one of the worst hours of flying I've experienced so far. It wasn't the instructor or the weather (although it was a bit of a crosswind, but nothing extreme). It was all me. I was tense to start with, my foot got stuck in the pedal at one p
Kelly N.

Kelly N.

0

Windy day for hour 29

Let it blow, let it blow, let it blow   The title references hour 29, but this entry actually encompasses two lessons (though one was only about 30 mins and I decided to cut it short due to the windy conditions - a decision I later regretted).   I went out Sunday for a very short time. The wind was pretty stable as far as direction was concerned (right down the runway), but it was gusting from 4 to 17kts. After one time through the pattern after being blown around on the cross-wind and base legs
Kelly N.

Kelly N.

0

Tale of two lessons. . . Hours 26 and 27

O.k. I'm starting to get the feeling that I'm a bit slow to solo. I understand that this is probably because of the fact that I've only been flying 2 times a week (sometimes less) and I still have a tendency to be tense when I'm flying which limits my ability to learn a whole lot during that period.   However, I've decided that, budget be damned (not really) I'm going to start flying 3 times a week now. So, I flew yesterday and today (and will fly again on Sunday - one of my normal days).   As
Kelly N.

Kelly N.

0

Cross-wind, old helicopter. . . nuff said

The last lesson was gusty (ASOS said 9 kts gusting to 19 kts) and the wind was mostly from the North (our runways are 5 and 23) so, it was an interesting day. To add to the drama, our normal aircraft were down for maintenance (having an additional CFI flying lessons has thrown the rotation off a bit I think) and they brought another helo up from another location. It's older and a bit nose heavy. Also, you feel like you're pulling a ton of collective to just get to a hover. Add to that some odd
Kelly N.

Kelly N.

0

Auto-Rotations

Well, today was the day. We started out with some normal patterns (there was very little wind and I had trouble getting a good climb going on take-offs - 55-60kts and virtually no climb - in trim, power is good, but climb was not consistent - go figure).   Despite that, the patterns were pretty good. My normal approach was still not great, but it was descent.   Then we did a steep approach. Not bad. Not as good as I have done them in the past though. One thing I kept doing was not keeping enoug
Kelly N.

Kelly N.

0

Shallow approach and running landings

Well, it's only been a few days since my last lesson, but I went flying again today. We started out doing normal traffic patterns and normal approaches. I did better than last time and actually had a few that were pretty good. I was relatively stable on my altitude and speed (tended to be a bit low at 70 instead of 75, but pretty close) and only got off my speed once on my turn to base/final.   Now for the new stuff   Shallow Approach   O.k . Shallow approaches are similar to normal approach (i
Kelly N.

Kelly N.

0

Hour 21 - New CFI and a review lesson

Well, since the school is starting to gear up for part 135 operations and trying to expand the business a bit, the CP (who happened to be my previous CFI) hired a new CFI. She's from the same school he went through and she's very tiny   It's pretty cool because it's a new flying experience for me (a little bit closer to solo weight and behavior maybe?) to fly with someone as small as she is. I really enjoyed her different perspective on a few of the maneuvers (I'll detail below) and I felt comf
Kelly N.

Kelly N.

0

Hour 20 - Finally! A good normal approach!!!

Well, it's been 10 days since I flew last. However, I felt really good today heading to the lesson and just knew it was going to be a good day. I guess I fulfilled my own expectations   I still had a bit of trouble on the turn to base and then final (either going too low and/or slowing too much), but my normal approaches were 100% better. I still need to work on them a bit to get them exact, but I did two of the five that were almost perfect.   On the turn to base, I need to remember to start
Kelly N.

Kelly N.

0

Playing Catch-up - Two lessons and FAA Written

Well, I've been a bit remiss in keeping the blog up to date. Work has been a bit hectic and I've been trying to compensate for losing one of my team members from my project. However, I'll briefly summarize my past two lessons (won't be too hard) and then work harder at keeping this blog current (I bet that could be canned and re-used by pretty much anyone who has ever written a blog).   Two weeks ago   The weather was bad again so I worked on quick stops, air taxi, and normal approach (from low
Kelly N.

Kelly N.

0

Rainy Day, Low Ceiling - No problem!

Rainy days and Sundays. . .   I was a bit worried on a couple of fronts (pun intended) about my flying time on Sunday. The weather was rainy and the ceiling was decreasing (it came down to 800ft AGL and stayed there). Plus, I'm flying only once a week right now and I was nervous that I would start losing some of the ability I have developed over the previous 14+ hours of flying.   On both counts, I didn't need to worry.   Because of the low ceiling we didn't do traffic patterns or approaches bu
Kelly N.

Kelly N.

0

Hour 15.6 - More Patterns, Approaches and more Radio calls. Ground School Flight Planning!!

Well, I was a little concerned because I've only flown twice in the last two weeks (today being the 2nd time). Fortunately, it went very well. I was pretty tired after a bit over an hour, but I did pretty good on keeping my speed and alt (at least for the first half of the lesson). I'm still h aving a bit of a problem keeping my speed at 60 KIAS on the final but, I'm getting there. I get slow on the turn and then I fight speeding up and down which throws off my approaches.   Steep approaches ar
Kelly N.

Kelly N.

0

Hour 14.3 Logged - Steep approaches, Max Pwr Take-offs, Patterns all in a cross-wind

Well, it was a short lesson, but I got in a few steep approaches and two max-power takeoffs plus a few turns through the pattern.   The max power take-offs are o.k., but I still need to work on not inputting so much forward cyclic (I tend to nose down too much and then am fine once I pull back a bit). I also found out what happens if you try to resume a normal take-off profile after clearing the obstacle if you don't reduce the power first (I nosed down to get my 60KIAS and ballooned up pretty f
Kelly N.

Kelly N.

0

Steep Approach, Off airport landing. . . Starting to come together through hour 13

Well, I've officially filled the first page of my log book now. Not very many long flights (they average a bit over an hour), but this last lesson it really started coming together (until my CFI started having me make the radio calls, then I started hosing my normal approaches . . . coming in too fast).   The lesson started with me doing a few pick-ups and set-downs. Not perfect, but a major improvement over my previous efforts. The last lesson's learnings were the key. It looked good on the vid
Kelly N.

Kelly N.

0

Hour 10 - 11 - Steep approaches, normal approaches and a Set-Down breakthrough!

Well, I skipped posting an entry for my last lesson, so I'll cover it in this one. Yes, it's a "two-fer".   My previous lesson, I worked on set-downs and patterns and did two more Max Power Take-offs. I'm still not fully confident and alone on the controls with the max power T/Os but, I'm getting there. We flew to another small airport (very small) and practiced traffic patterns there. I have to admit that I wasn't great at locating the landing strip and I was basically just taking instructions
Kelly N.

Kelly N.

0

Hour 10 (roughly) and a new maneuver: Max Power Takeoffs

Today was another long lesson. We flew to another local regional (Wilson, NC) and practiced a few patterns there. It was very disorienting to me trying to get a grip on what features on the ground were the runways. I'm still busy running through the gauges in the cockpit and spend too much time inside instead of looking outside. I'm sure as I get more comfortable, that will change. Embarrassing enough, I was doing a check (instructor prompted) prior to entering the pattern and only one tach need
Kelly N.

Kelly N.

0

Initial Entry - Beginning through 8 hours (the highlights).

This blog will track my flight and ground school experiences through my PPL rating. Hopefully, I'll look back on this during my commercial and CFI training and regain any lost perspective. If other student pilots (current and future) are able to learn anything (or just amuse themselves at my bumbling) then; bonus.   I'm currently at around 8 hours of flight time and 5 weeks into the ground school.   To date my challenges have been:   Hover: Duh! Of course this was a challenge. From what I gath
Kelly N.

Kelly N.

0
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