Archive for the ‘Flight Training’ Category

This story was sent to me via a fellow flying cub and after reading it, I just had to share it with my readers! Enjoy!

Zero/Zero by Charles Svoboda

It happened sometime in 1965, in Germany. I was a copilot, so I knew, everything there was to know about flying, and I was frustrated by pilots like my aircraft commander. He was one of those by-the-numbers types, no class, no imagination, no “feel” for flying. You have to be able to feel an airplane. So what if your altitude is a little off, or if the glideslope indicator is off a hair? If it feels okay then it is okay. That’s what I believed.

Every time he let me make an approach, even in VFR conditions, he demanded perfection. Not the slightest deviation was permitted. “If you can’t do it when there is no pressure, you surely can’t do it when the pucker factor increases,” he would say. When he shot an approach, it was as if all the instruments were frozen – perfection, but no class.

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Now this was a trip well worth the time off from work (and the late night that followed making up for the lost time). A fellow flying friend of ours invited us to a VIP tour of McGuire AirForce Base (McGuire is now a joint services base but I grew up calling it an Air Force base so I am sticking to it for now ) Included in the trip was a chance to fly the C17 Level D Simulator and tour some aircraft. I had flown an AirForce simulator once before (the T6 at Randolph AFB TX), but it wasn’t level D (full motion for the non aviation readers) so I was looking forward to it! Read the rest of this entry »

Long Beach CA KLGB. Sitting on the south ramp I call ground and advise them that I would like to depart VFR to the practice area with information alpha.

They clear me to taxi and hold short runway 34L. I read back my clearance and take a look around. I haven’t flown at long beach before and can’t seem to figure out where that taxiway is (never a good sign ). Read the rest of this entry »

Pass Your Check Ride book review

The Private Pilot check ride can be one of the most stressful events in you’re flying career or it can be a somewhat relaxing or even fun event if well prepared.

The best advice I received when preparing my check ride was from my flight instructor. He said “just remember, the examiner doesn’t want to fail you, he just wants to make sure you know what you are doing and that you will be safe, so relax and fly like you always do.” He was right, but at the time all I could think was “Yea that’s easy for you to say, you aren’t the one going on the check ride” So what can we do to better prepare for the coming check ride, and what tools are available? Read the rest of this entry »

As some of you are aware, there are two different schools of thought when it comes down to how we think about controlling airspeed and altitude in an airplane.

Some refer to it as Navy vs Air Force. I find that over the years I have become the “Navy” type of pilot.

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Thanks to Jason Schappert of MzeroA.com. This is one of the best videos I have found on the subject.
My favorite method of determining holding pattern entries.
Just a few things I would add: (please let me know your thoughts and or tips)
1. Ask yourself “where am I in relation to the holding fix?” Are you proceeding direct to the fix? If so continue with the method mentioned in this video. If on the other hand you are on an airway and still need to make a turn before reaching the holding fix this method will not work out well. Wait until you are inbound to the fix before using this method. Read the rest of this entry »

I originally discovered this video at www.aviationchatter.com and found it quite educational so I figured I would share it with our viewers.

A number of years ago NASA conducted a study on tailplane icing and made this video for all pilots. It outlines some of the distinct differences in both the symptoms and recovery techniques used during a tailplane stall due to tailplane icing. You never know, someday you might need to know the difference.

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While in route to Martha’s Vineyard my friend and fellow flying club member Stephen and I experienced an alternator controller failure (basically a voltage regulator). It wasn’t a big deal since we were in day visual conditions and the engine does not require electrical power to operate. I have learned a few things from watching the video.. Read the rest of this entry »

On Saturday March 13th I attended the Mattituck TMX 360 Engine Assembly Workshop in Mattituck NY. The original plan was to attend the event with some of my fellow flying club members but due to scheduling conflicts I went solo. Bad weather was forecast in the Northeast so I made the call early on to drive. The weather turned out to be quite bad so there were no regrets about scrubbing the flight. Read the rest of this entry »

Finally some IMC!
After all of  my IFR flight training you would expect to see some actual IMC (instrument meteorological conditions) flight time in my log book, but after about 42 hours of IFR time there wasn’t much. Just a few flights at altitude in and out of the cloud layer, not what I would consider IMC. Well yesterday I made up for some of that. I didn’t think my simulated instrument time provided enough experience to just hop in the plane solo, takeoff into the soup and fly an approach to minimums; so I opted to fly with an instructor. After calling the flight school the dispatcher let me know that one of the instructors would head up to the airport in about an Read the rest of this entry »

I have been working on my IFR rating for about a year now and after a few months of pretty intensive training I went for my IFR check ride with my DPE (FAA Designated Pilot Examiner).
My first step was to sign up for the IFR ground school at American Flyers in Morristown NJ. I attended the IFR ground course and studied at night. After the 3 day course I took the IFR written exam and passed with a 90%. It wasn’t the 100% I was aiming for but I will take it.  Read the rest of this entry »

A lesson to us all. Video of a crash at (SBH) St. Barthelemy Airport

How many landings have you done where that little voice in your head (put there by your flight instructor) kept telling you, GO AROUND, GO AROUND, GO AROUND? This is a good lesson to every pilot out there. I know after watching this accident I will be a bit more careful. The good thing about powered flight is that we “normally” have the go around option. Read the rest of this entry »

POLK COUNTY (Bay News 9) — The Sun ‘n Fun Fly-In starts today and already there were some tense moments in the sky for a pilot headed to the event.
The pilot, Kyle Davis, 22, and his passenger, Joe Surowiec, were flying from Winter Haven to Lakeland Sunday when they experienced engine failure. Read the rest of this entry »