More by myself
An early morning flight, we decided to do some more airwork, with an approach into Camarillo (CMA) and then the ILS back into Van Nuys. The VOR into CMA was educational, because the step-down fixes come pretty quick, so the workload is high. I flew it fast as well, which made things even tougher. I […]
Too much time off
I’d been unable to train for almost two weeks, so we decided to just go out and work on maneuvers and perhaps shoot a VOR approach or two. We did Kent’s “brutal†exercise once – he says if you can master that, instrument flying is a no-brainer. You basically fly a big square, with climbs […]
A little break
After a particularly tough few days at work, Kent gave me a break. We just went up, shot the ILS at Oxnard to the missed approach, and then back to Van Nuys for the ILS there. I flew it all pretty well I think, with Kent pointing out things here and there. The lesson learned […]
Partially there
After watching Tiger win yet another major (ho hum), I talked Kent into going up before he rushed home to watch the replays. Got to the plane and asked him what we would do today. He said “Let’s try this with a few less instruments†– meaning partial panel simulation. This is where your evil […]
Pulling it all together
Haven’t posted in a while, mainly because I’ve been too busy to train seriously. That changed a couple of weeks ago, when I committed to getting my rating before the end of the year. Shouldn’t be a problem – I’ve got about 13 hours of hood time now, and am going to train twice 3 […]
Hold on!
Ironically, lousy weather kept me from doing instrument training lately. Finally got a nice clear day, and a clear (albeit somewhat bumpy) night. I mentioned to Kent that I wanted to work on more accurate trimming, so we did. The trick is to pitch the plane by hand until it is stable, then trim off […]
Getting control
I really want to get into training more frequently (to gear up for a big trip in June), but this was the first chance I had. My work schedule coupled with some bad weather kept me out of the sky. Today we worked more on trimming, flying constant airspeed climbs (vertical S’s) and just general […]
The “easy” stuff
Had a bit of spare time before I needed to get home, so I called Kent, and the plane was available. Set up my new HoodLamb (a device that hooks on to your headset that goes over your face to limit your view to only the instrument panel), and got right into it with a […]
Instrument Training – Prologue
Since getting my PP-ASEL (that’s Private Pilot – Aircraft Single Engine Land for you non-pilots) ticket in July of 1999, I spent a bit of time taking friends for rides, flying solo, and just enjoying the ticket. Out here in southern California, there isn’t a lot of instrument weather from July to December (and not […]
PP-ASEL Checkride – Practical
Today was the day. I got out of bed and went straight to the window. It was gorgeous outside. Called for a weather briefing (to re-calculate my numbers for Vegas) and it was perfect. I got to the airport an hour early to preflight the plane (as requested) and get everything in order. Mark showed […]