Instrument Cross Country
Friday the 13th. Perfect day for 300+ miles of flying, all under the hood. To meet the requirements of the rating, the trip needs to be 250NM total, three legs, one leg over 100NM, and three different approaches. I planned a trip from Van Nuys (VNY) to San Diego-Montgomery Field (MYF) to Camarillo (CMA) back […]
Tightening things up
As the checkride approaches, it’s time to start getting things tight. Tolerances are now lower – 50 feet on altitude, 5 knots on airspeed, 2 degrees on heading. We thought we’d head to Camarillo, then to grab a bite at Santa Monica (SMO). We departed VFR, with the plan being that Kent would give me […]
So much for Big Sky theory
Today we decided to just go a quick one out to Camarillo (CMA) and back to Van Nuys (VNY) – I had to pick up the daughter at preschool, and had only 90 minutes or so. Should be plenty of time. Only it wasn’t. By the time we got our clearance and got released, 20 […]
More actual!
Anytime an instrument student gets a chance to fly in IMC in southern California – he takes it. And that’s exactly what I did this morning. Weather was great for IFR training – ceilings high enough to be comfortable, but still plenty of actual. We flew out to Brackett (POC) for the VOR there. This […]
Approaches, Partial Panel, and some IMC
Today the plan was going to be to do some steep turns under the hood, some more unusual attitude recovery, and a bit more airwork, but the weather didn’t cooperate. The visibility was really bad, so we decided to get Tower Enroute to Oxnard (OXR). Tower Enroute is like a mini-clearance, with published routes to […]
Far and away
This was the most fun I’ve had since the training started. Just like with the private pilot license, getting to solo is the most frustrating part – and the cross countries make it all worth it. Tonight we did a short cross country from Van Nuys (VNY) to Lancaster – Fox Field (WJF). Even though […]
It’s all about the workload
Today was lesson in more ways than one. I’ve been frustrated in the past because I felt like things weren’t moving fast enough. Today I learned that the faster they move, the worse it gets. We started out doing an intersection hold – something I’d only done on the simulator – and took quite a […]
Coming together!
Once again, there were a few lessons between this and the last one, but there was nothing exciting enough to report. I’ll do that more no doubt, but this is the last time I’ll mention it. Tonight we went out to do more maneuvering work, and ended up doing holds instead. I’m at the point […]
Approaches on my own
Today we had planned to do more airwork to get everything tightened up, but it was SO nice out, we decided to shoot approaches instead. Just the VOR-A into SMO and the VOR-A into VNY. Did it all myself – no help of any real substance from Kent, which made me feel good about my […]
A little frustrated, a little better
There were a couple of other lessons in there that focused mainly on aircraft control, but I didn’t want to bore you with the details. Today the plan was to do a hold, some airwork, and an approach. After departure, he told me to “proceed direct Fillmore, hold north on the 360 radialâ€. Easy enough. […]