Ground school, solo prep
It was just a matter of time before my good luck with the weather faded, and today was it. By the time I finished preflighting 2257E, the weather was VERY marginal VFR, and FSS was not recommending it. I found Richard, and he thought it was just out of the question for the emergency procedures […]
Emergency procedures in the pattern – and feeling comfortable.
Today must have been the best weather yet. Clear skies, 68 degrees, no wind. Richard arrived at around 8:15, and off we went. Today was for emergency procedures. First were aborted takeoffs. We taxied to the hold line and requested an aborted takeoff procedure. The tower had us hold for about 3 minutes, and then […]
Last of the stalls, some landings, and good news.
Afternoon flight. Absolutely perfect weather. We plan was to finish up the stalls (accelerated and cross control) and then do some no-flaps landings. Sounds good to me – but then again, just sitting around at the airport sounds good to me. Accelerated stalls were pretty wild. The trick is to keep the engine at around […]
More stalls, maneuvers, and an emergency! (Drill that is.)
9:00am flight – scheduled for just the right day. The 23rd and 24th (my last two lessons) were in perfect weather, the 25th was lousy overcast, and today was perfect again. Wind was calm, 10 miles visibility – very nice. Today we worked on more stalls – specifically power on stalls, to simulate stalling the […]
Quit ‘yer stallin!
Flight was scheduled for 3:00, but the plane had to be back by 5:00, so I got to the airport early to preflight and get weather information before Richard showed. This would give us the most time in the air. He arrived right on time, and we headed for the plane. On the way, he […]
Getting down
Today was my first flight with Richard Mend from a flight school (AV8) at Van Nuys. Richard is a professional CFI – meaning that ALL he does is teach people to fly. I was hoping I would get a bit more structure and support than I had been getting in the past. Turns out I […]
Wind is fun
The Nissan Open golf tournament is in town this weekend, so like a good golfer I had to get up at 5:00am to head out to Riviera Country Club to watch the pros. Stayed until about noon, when I got a call from Kent saying that the plane was available. Figuring that any flying is […]
Finally, something substatial
Kent called this morning and said he had a cancellation in the afternoon – was I interested? With .3 hours in the last 8 days, I had to say YES. He’d been flying all day (giving rides to kids all day for an EAA group he works with), so a full preflight was not required. […]
Weathered out again
Driving the baby to daycare this morning, it looked bad – low fog. Called up the ATIS at Van Nuys, and confirmed a 200 foot ceiling – not exactly VFR weather. Hopefully it would burn off in time for a 4:30 lesson. In fact, it did just that. I checked throughout the day, and the […]
Out over the ocean
Today’s weather was a bit more accommodating. 10 miles visibility, wind at 10 gusting to 17, but right down the runway. Marv figured that it would be too bumpy over the Gorman pass (where we go to do air work) so we headed to the ocean. Flew through the LAX special flight rules area – […]