Flying weekend. That's a wrap!

"TheRealBicycleBuck" (therealbicyclebuck) 03/17/2019 at 21:59 • Filed to: None

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Today’s flight was a Stage II review with a senior instructor. I’ll start out by saying, I passed.

For those who learned under Part 61 rules, the new Part 141 rules require a more structured curriculum with minimum passing rates. My school is using the Jeppesen curriculum which requires senior instructor review after each “stage” of the training.

So, today we went to Cleveland! Airport, that is.

The day started with the standard flight planning, review of expectations, and pre-flight of the plane. The senior instructor made it known that he hates flying the Minion, the little Piper 140 that I usually fly. Why is it called the Minion? The color scheme matches the Minions,

so somebody thought it would be funny to get a Minion sunshade for it and the name just stuck.

The instructor made a valid point about flying the Minion . It’s slow, so when we have to fly out to another airport or to the practice area, it takes longer to get there, reducing the amount of time you have to practice. Other than that, it’s a perfect little training plane and time builder.

The instructor asked me to plan a flight to Alexandria, LA. I knew we weren’t going that far, but I wasn’t sure where we were going to stop.
On the way out, he observed my wayfinding skills and asked a lot of questions to test my knowledge. The first real flying test came as we were passing Cleveland. That was when he chopped the throttle and told me we just lost power. I started running through my ABCs: Airspeed; Begin looking for a place to land; Checklist; and Declare an emergency.

It would have been easier if he had just killed the engine. We were cruising at 3,500 feet and were already pretty close to the airport, so I had to make a big turn to get aligned with the runway at a height conducive to landing. That’s the big loop on the south side of the airport. I managed to land it without incident and even impressed the instructor. Yay for me!

This scenario was pretty important to this instructor. Last year he had to make an emergency landing on a dirt road when the plane he was flying lost power.

We didn’t discuss what the problem was, we just talked about what happened after the engine started having issues. It didn’t die, but it wouldn’t increase rpm with anything over 25% throttle. He started aiming for an open area and found a dirt road to set it down. If I remember correctly, the mechanics made some repairs and he flew it off that same road the next day.

We spent the rest of our time practicing soft field and short field takeoffs and landings. While he said I wasn’t doing anything wrong, he felt I could make better short field landings. The procedure for short field landings is to configure the plane with flaps, slow down, maintain power on descent to keep it from stalling , flare, cut throttle, land , then brake hard once the wheels are on the ground. This guy does it well:

I have instructions to go out over the next few weeks and practice both short and soft field takeoffs and landings. This is the best kind of homework.

On the way back to Hooks, he asked me to do both power-on and power-off stalls. For those who don’t know, power-off stalls simulate a stall when you’re landing the plane. Power-on stalls simulate a stall during takeoff. Pilots practice both regularly so the responses are automatic. The instructor said my performance would pass the FAA check ride, so I was pretty happy with the results.

Overall, this has been the best flying weekend yet. I’m down to two more solos, two more review flights, then it’s time for my check ride.

Whew.

WilliamsSW > TheRealBicycleBuck 03/17/2019 at 22:08

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Great work! Shorts and softs are something to just continue to work on - they’re not that hard, they just take more practice that’s all. Also, they’re a lot of fun in Cessnas - way more fun than Pipers ( soft field takeoffs are a hell of a lot of fun in a 180 HP Skyhawk, and even better in a 182, because wheelies!!!)

You really must have nailed the engine out- good job!

ttyymmnn > TheRealBicycleBuck 03/17/2019 at 22:19

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Nice write up. Came across this on BBC, thought you might find it interesting.

https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-47585703

TheRealBicycleBuck > ttyymmnn 03/17/2019 at 22:33

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Thanks. That is pretty interesting. Flying down there is a crapshoot. I’ve read before that they can’t fly at night because regulations don’t allow it. There’s just too much dark forest with no opportunities to land if you have a problem.

TheRealBicycleBuck > WilliamsSW 03/17/2019 at 22:35

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Thanks!

There were a couple of Citabrias flying out of Cleveland when we arrived. One didn’t realize that I was staying in the pattern. He took off after me and called his left crosswind before I had even made pattern height. :/

Once he realized we were sticking around for a while, he left to practice somewhere without a slowpoke clogging up the pattern.

66P1800inpieces > TheRealBicycleBuck 03/17/2019 at 22:37

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These are great articles. Keep’em coming. While not an AMA, do you share the plane with someone else? It’s hard enough to find a good car mechanic, how do you trust someone to work on a single engine plane? I hear that a lot of those planes are older, perfectly operable , but older. Does that worry you?

WilliamsSW > TheRealBicycleBuck 03/17/2019 at 22:45

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Ha- it’s never fun being the slow plane!

facw > TheRealBicycleBuck 03/18/2019 at 01:41

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I started running through my ABCs: Airspeed; Begin looking for a place to land; Checklist; and Declare an emergency. 

Hmm, when I was learning this was:

A: Airspeed

B: Best field

C: Communication

1 and 2 seem similar enough but seems like they’ve wedged a checklist in there and made my C a D.

Then again, on my only check ride with the lead instructor, I came far closer than I’d like to getting splattered on the windshield of a DC-9, so maybe don’t trust my flight knowledge.

pip bip - choose Corrour > TheRealBicycleBuck 03/18/2019 at 04:37

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well done

keep up with the homework!

TheRealBicycleBuck > 66P1800inpieces 03/18/2019 at 08:01

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Thanks.

The plane is owned by the school, but there are very few people who fly it. I like it because I’m a cheap bastard and it’s the cheapest rental in their fleet. The school shares a pad with the mechanics. The fellow who usually works on the Minion loves that plane. They did the 50 hour service just before I took it out Saturday, so he was waiting for me to talk about it. After we closed up the cowling, he kissed the plane. Literally. Right on the cowling.

I’m not worried about that fellow working on the plane. What he does with it after dark might be bothersome, but I try not to think about that. :)

TheRealBicycleBuck > pip bip - choose Corrour 03/18/2019 at 08:02

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Awww, dad! I wanted to go hang it with my friends today! I can do my homework later!

TheRealBicycleBuck > facw 03/18/2019 at 09:29

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I’ve found several variations of the same theme. Every time I look up “A TOMATO FLAMES” I find a slightly different version where they swap what the A or T means.