Patterns are Fun!

"TheRealBicycleBuck" (therealbicyclebuck) 11/17/2018 at 13:22 • Filed to: None

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The hardest part about learning to fly at a towered airport is learning how to talk on the radio. You have to talk to ground control to get permission to leave the school and taxi to the runway. You have to talk to the tower to get permission to fly. Once you’re in the pattern, they will give you instructions on when to turn and where to turn so that you don’t crash into the other aircraft in the pattern.

Sometimes they will tell you to “extend downwind.” That means they want you to keep flying in a straight line so that other traffic can land ahead of you. That’s why some of those turns extend all the way out to Hufsmith road, nearly four miles north of the airport, and others are much closer. Even though the standard pattern at this airport is to turn left after takeoff, if both runways are active, the tower may ask you to turn right instead, which is what they did.

Even though learning to fly in the pattern is fun, learning maneuvers is even more fun!

Before you ask, that wasn’t an attempt at drawing a dick. We flew north to work on steep turns, turns around a point, S-turns, and stalls. We were heading northeast, did one steep turn to the left, leveled off, did another to the right, leveled off, then turned around before flying over lake Conroe. Then we descended and started circling some ponds in the area before going northwest to do some S-turns and then some stalls on the way to Navasota.

These were my first flights with my new instructor. He says my stick and rudder work are really good and I’m really close to soloing. Just a bit more work and I’ll be there!

and 100 more > TheRealBicycleBuck 11/17/2018 at 15:18

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Negative Ghost Rider, I said the patterns are FULL. 

McMike > TheRealBicycleBuck 11/17/2018 at 17:00

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Someone just did dick in a box

TheRealBicycleBuck > McMike 11/17/2018 at 17:07

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It’s only mostly  in a box. He’ll have to try again.

Ash78, voting early and often > TheRealBicycleBuck 11/17/2018 at 18:22

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Nice work. My dad (70; soloed at 16 and CFI since 18) always calls his patterns out, even at non-towered airports. A little discipline goes a LONG way towards avoiding problems.

TheRealBicycleBuck > Ash78, voting early and often 11/17/2018 at 20:22

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Thanks for the advice. My new CFI asked me to start calling out all of the items on the checklists as I did them. He said it’s a pilot thing and it makes me sound cool. I think he really just wants to hear me going over the lists to make sure I’m doing them. Either way, it’s a good habit.

I’ve spent an hour or more in the pattern a t a non-towered airport, calling out my every move . The practice really helps to remember all of the turns , configuring for landing, etc. The only thing I really didn’t like was the joker who either doesn’t have radios or can’t be bothered to talk. He got in our way once and I heard he’s flown in front of another pilot at least once. Dangerous fellow.

Right now I’m trying to figure out what to buy. I can either go small, slow, and cheap and use it to build hours, or I can go a bit bigger and have something for carrying the family cross-country.  

Ash78, voting early and often > TheRealBicycleBuck 11/19/2018 at 00:18

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Can’t go wrong with anything in the Cherokee family, or even 172. Personally, I’d see if you could find a flying club to join, ideally one with equity memberships . That’s why my old man did and it’s phenomenally cheaper than owning your own (especially on insurance and maintenance/storage). He never has trouble reserving it, either. I think the buy-in was a couple thousand dollars, but the ongoing dues and rental fees more than make up for it. They have two Archers and are looking a third -- the hard part is you can go with a 4-seater and LOTS of luggage...or a 6-seater and everyone travels very light. Tough tradeoff.

His dad and both brothers all owned various planes over the years (1950s through 1990s) and almost always regretted them...sort of like boat owners.

TheRealBicycleBuck > Ash78, voting early and often 11/19/2018 at 07:08

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Thanks for the feedback. We are somewhat challenged in the Baton Rouge area. There’s only two flying clubs that I could find. One is a club in name only. I called the one member I could find. He told me that he was at work and would call me back. I never heard from him again. A friend of mine warned me away from the other club. There were some shenanigans in the past. The only other clubs are at other airports, at least an hour away.

I was leaning toward small and relatively inexpensive to fly with the idea that I would rent for any cross-country trips. Then my wife said “It at least needs to be a four-seater.” When she found out about flight rules, she demanded something IFR and is insisting I get IFR certified (I intended to anyway). What I really  want is a V-tail Bonanza, but some of the bigger Cherokees are looking pretty good too.

Ash78, voting early and often > TheRealBicycleBuck 11/19/2018 at 08:31

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Bummer about the clubs...the one I’m describing is the only on in the Birmingham area (that I’m aware of) and only about 5 years old. Meanwhile, most of Europe, Asia, and Latin America has had a plethora of flight clubs for several decades — thanks in part to lower economic ability to buy your own plane, so necessity was the mother of invention. The club is based at Bessemer ( KEKY ) , the same small reliever airport where several companies park their jets, including Mercedes. One long strip in great condition, thanks to very little traffic.

One of my church members (Vietnam Air Force vet) is nearing 80 and he owns a Bonanza, but parks it at the international airport and hardly ever gets a chance to fly it anymore.

IFR is nice, but if you plan really carefully, you can still get away with VFR on cross country. It just might put a damper on your schedule if weather pops up. It’s the Gulf Coast ...there’s always weather somewhere.

Either way, congrats on all the progress. I’m totally jealous — I made it 80% of the way to my sailplane license at 13, but neither my brother nor I ever got licensed at all. Something something disappointing our father, etc.