March winds

The high from earning my multi-engine private last week was somewhat muted by being stuck on the ground for the following days.
Strong winds moved into the area last Thursday, gusting well into the 30s, and we had little choice but to wait them out. Problem is, they seemed to have their mind set on staying around here.
March winds were a little early this year and made for blustering conditions but I found solace in time spent with my wife and stepdaughter, Emily, who came to visit from Boston last week. We spent time at the air and space museum in Washington, D.C. on Thursday, where Emily and I took a fun ride in a full-motion F-18 simulator. Before we took our positions in the pod, she assigned me to flying the aircraft while she would destroy everything around us with missiles. I aknowledged her orders and prepared for the flight.
The ride was short, but exhilerating. We made low passes over tanks and war ships, played chicken with tracers and when all hell broke lose from Emily's precise and unrelenting gunmanship I'd apply full power and perform barrel rolls and loops to confuse the enemy.
She totally kicked their asses.
When Jen and Em left a couple of days later, I sadly remained grounded as the weather continued to play tricks on us.
Then came Monday and with it the enticing plan to fly IFR to Charlottesville, VA, Lynchburg, VA and Wilmington, NC, stop for food and return to Manassas at night. Route surveyed, kneeboard and approach plates neatly organized and flight plans filed: ready to go! I braved the cold winds to go and preflight the Seminole while Ron, my trusted instructor, enjoyed the heat of the terminal for just a few minutes longer. When he finally joined me on the ramp we hopped in, shut the door and ran through the start-up procedures.
The winds outside were howling at about 30 knots, but I didn't care and neither did Ron. We just wanted to go flying and in spite of the breeziness the sky was beautifully clear and inviting and conditions calmer at our various destinations.
After priming the left engine and pumping the throttle twice I hit the starter, eagerly awaiting it to cough and sputter to life. Nothing. Just the high-pitched sound of the starter spinning in vain. Dead.
Even after repositioning the prop nothing will do and even if it had, Ron noted he didn't want to get stuck in Wilmington.
He makes an escape plan so that we can secure the airplane as fast as possible and avoid the bone-chilling wind and minutes later we find ourselves brooding over the situation in the terminal, two very unhappy and frustrated pilots once again defeated in their plans to take to the skies.
This morning arrived and I awoke with low expectations. No way was I going to get all pumped up about going flying only to be disappointed again. Yet, when I caught a glimpse of the sky through the shades it appeared to be clear. Compelled by a rekindled optimism, I dashed outside to confirm what I had seen. Sure enough the sky was blue, peppered here and there by high cirrus clouds and the tree branches, hitherto battered by the wind, stood reasonably still in the chilly morning.
The weather held up and in fact got nicer as clouds to our west cleared as the day advanced. Hours later we were finally taxiing out to runway 34R for my first IFR flight here outside of the sim.
In mildly turbulent skies, we headed northwest to Winchester to shoot the ILS 32. The ATIS, however, noted that the glide slope was out of service so I quickly briefed the stepdowns and higher minimums for the localizer 32 and began the approach. In spite of a few bumps here and there it went well and since the good people at Potomac Approach declined our request for a full missed approach to the hold and back for a second flight in, I pointed the nose of our trusted craft toward Casanova VOR where we could begin the VOR A into Culpeper.
This approach went well too, although I lowered flaps to 25 degrees, which we don't do on a circling approach unless landing is assured. Spotted the airport at the missed approach point, circled to a left downwind for 22 and went missed. Climbed and turned left to 2,900 direct to CSN, entered the hold and shot the approach a second time, without a hitch, then back on the missed and re-entered the hold from where Ron called approach to get the ILS into KHEF or at least the GPS34R.
But again, our good friends at Potomac declined our request, in spite of light traffic, so Ron vectored me to a left base for 34R, where I made a nice landing as the sun began to set.
The flight was straightforward and while I didn't get to enjoy the view from up there (which Ron later informed me was spectacular) I had a blast. It was just nice to get off the ground and go fly around for a bit.
With any luck this clement weather will continue and we'll be able to go up every day from now on. Clouds and rain are supposed to roll in later this week but since they'll be bringing warmer temperatures with them I'm looking forward to some good actual time.

Multi-engine pilot

He wasn't particularly friendly and his reputation as a bit of a gruff examiner had me quite nervous. But after our brief encounter yesterday he shook my hand and congratulated me on becoming a multi-engine pilot.
I sat in the Seminole for a minute as he headed inside to complete the paperwork and breathed a deep sigh of relief.
The retest went well and I performed the maneuvers within standards. The examiner also threw in a few surprises of his own. On a 4 mile right base to 16L into KHEF, for instance, I began the gear down/before landing checklist, a six-item memory list. The very first one is "gear down--three greens." Well, no greens at all.
First unsure about whether the sunlight made it impossible to see the lights indicating that the landing gear is down and locked, I hit the dimmer switch, which is used at night since the three greens are quite bright.
Nothing.
I knew I could then run through a number of items to troubleshoot the problem, including pulling the power back to under 15'' MP or dumping 25 degrees of flaps or more to see if the gear horn would sound, thus indicating the gear were still in the wells, but since we were close to the airport I went for the quick way out.
I leaned over the examiner to examine the three rows of circuit breakers. The four at the very right side of the first row are linked to the landing gear system. Number one of those four was the one I was particularly interested in: "Gear lights." Sure enough it stuck out. I promptly pushed it back in and, quite satisfied, resumed the checklist and landed safely.
The experience was sort of anti-climactic since it was a retest and failure was definitely not an option. Also, as mentioned above, this particular examiner has a reputation and many students have had insults and objects of various kinds tossed at them. No such thing happened during my ride, eventhough he was a little gruff at times.
In spite of this, I enjoyed flying with him thoroughly. In fact, I look forward to taking more checkrides with him because he loves to teach. He doesn't do it in a necessarily friendly way, but his goal, more than pocketing a handsome examiner's fee, is to make the candidate a better pilot. He cares, in his own way, and that I find to be a very important trait in any examiner or instructor.
So, I'm committing myself to yet more fear and nervousness and will probably trigger him to scream at me once or twice, but I know I'll get something out of it and if he can help me become the best and safest pilot I can possibly be then I'll take a few loud moments in the cockpit.
He knows what people say about him. As he handed me my temporary certificate, he said: "We'll be spending a lot of quality time together," then shot me a grin that both amused me and terrified me all at once.

Serenity now!

Today brought a nice change of pace.
After weeks of maneuvers and all sorts of emergencies in the airplane and the simulator, my instructor and I headed from Manassas to Raleigh-Durham.
Since my multi-engine private retest is scheduled for this Tuesday, we departed the ADIZ and practiced a few steep turns and power-on stalls, which went well. Minutes later I called up Potomac Approach to pick up our IFR clearance and we were on our way.
Sadly, haze masked much of the countryside around us and therefore made picture-taking a somewhat futile excercise.
To our west, however, the haze hung as a mesmerizing veil over a ridge of mountains and took on the orange tint of the declining sun. It was nice to once again taste the peaceful feeling of being aloft and I savored the tranquility and sense of well-being and complete serenity. As my eyes followed a winding river at the foot of the mountains, which appeared to be on fire because of the evening light's reflection in its calm waters, my instructor told me how much he loved flying, and I could only echo the feeling.
Half way between the Gordonsville and South Boston VORs (which reminded me of home) on the South Boston FourArrival, the radios were quiet so I asked the controller if we could go direct to ALDAN intersection, which would take us away from the headwind.
"Proceed direct Raleigh," he said.
Even better!
As we neared our destination, I briefed the ILS 5R at KRDU, which I loaded in the GPS, ran through the approach checklist and followed approach's vectors, which took us about 2 miles inside the FAF. Chopped the power to catch the glideslope and slipped down along it all the way to the runway for a nice landing.
Taxiing past the terminal where Delta, Continental, Southwest and Northwest airliners awaited or disembarked their loads of passengers was awesome and gave me a taste of what may be one day soon.
After checking the weather to keep track of bad weather coming in from the west, we decided to hop in the crew car and have a bite to eat at a pizza parlor run by an annoying gold-chain sporting character with the worst fake New York City accent in the world. I wouldn't be surprised if the kitchen there serves as a "processing" spot for the local mob. He certainly fit the mould.
A little over an hour later, bellies full of mediocre pizza and soda, we were on our way to 5R again, where a Delta Connections CRJ was preparing to take off. The Seminole lifted off easily and we cut through the still and calm night sky effortlessly all the way up to 9,000ft for an uneventful ride home.
Night flying is gorgeous and while my experience there remains limited, I look forward to more.
Shortly before 9 p.m., I finally picked out the airport beacon out of the sea of lights surrounding it and made a visual approach for 34R.
My landing sucked. After the round out I felt we were higher than it appeared (a typical night illusion) and bounced the aircraft. Not enough to ruin a great 4 hours of flying though.
Tonight was what this whole flying thing is about. What a breath of fresh air! Just what I needed before the multi-private retest Tuesday and the instrument ride probably the following week.

When things go bump in the clouds

The past few days are a bit of a blur!
After busting my multi private, it was unclear for a while what would happen because the examiner was not immediately reinstated. I spoke with him today and it looks like that won't happen any time soon so we will schedule a new complete checkride with another examiner tomorrow (shooting for Friday if the weather cooperates, which it might not.) The idea of going through a full checkride a second time is less than appealing, but it'll be a chance to do all the maneuvers again so I do get something out of it.
In the meantime we've moved on to instrument training, which is moving along smoothly. Before coming here I'd completed most of my instrument curriculum on the 172 back home so nothing is brand new at this point. We shot a few normal approaches in the sim a few days ago to see how rusty I was. Not too much was the conclusion and so we began partial panel and single engine approaches.
The former kicked my butt big time. Our sim is quite touchy so without failing the airplane would get away from me while I covered up the artificial horizon and HSI. I'd then wrestle with it and the VSI needle took on the appearance of a relentless windshield wiper. But with practice I slowly managed to get the beast under control and do reasonably well.
Single engine approaches have not been too much trouble at this point, so my instructor threw me a partial panel, single engine approach today, which actually went pretty well. While I shouldn't expect such an approach on my checkride, I thought it was good to give it a go in the sim. Since both vaccum pumps are engine driven and one could legally launch into IMC with one inoperative, the potential for such a bad scenario does exist.
I personally would be reticent to go in the clouds without both pumps working, especially at this level of experience, but the situation is certainly not unsurmountable as I found out.
During these approaches, my instructor also failed my landing gear, flashed random annunciator lights, threw in turbulence and icing to distract me. While I wouldn't say this if it was in real life: It's a lot of fun!

In spite of the pink slip last week, I'm having a lot of fun and am thoroughly enjoying training and learning so much about flying. On an educational point of view, the experience is different than my private training because I look at this in the broader context and longer-term view of making a living from it. Everything I'm learning now I'll teach in a few months, and I want to be as good as the two instructors here.
Both are excellent at what they do, each with their own style, and are inspiring me to do the very best I can and go the extra mile to learn more than is required. It has actually assuaged one of my main fears in coming here, that the the school preps you to pass checkrides instead of teaching to fly professionally.
I'm sure the quality of instruction varies from location to location, but I have not one single complaint about these two guys. They've been excellent at teaching me systems, aerodynamics and procedures and since I was catching on reasonably well they actually had me teach a couple of students to see if I could explain all of this clearly.
Of course, my performance wasn't anywhere near theirs, but it was a great experience that led me to explore areas that I might have otherwise overlooked and made some details a lot clearer.
So it's true: the best way to learn is to teach. I'm excited to continue doing the latter and can't wait do the former.

Pink slipped

I reluctantly accepted the pink slip from the examiner's hand the other day, and stuck it in my log book next to the white sleep I kept from my private checkride a couple of years ago.
This was definitely not the way I'd envisaged the multi checkride going and certainly not a good way to start this program. Every pratice flight, save one, went well last week and today and even during the worst of the lot my performance was always better than that prescribed by the Practical Test Standards. I never got complacent, but I certainly didn't expect to get pink slipped today.
For the most part, the checkride went very well, even with the FAA examiner in the back, whose job it was to recertify my examiner. My Vmc demo and emergency descent were probably the best and cleanest to date. Stalls and slow flight as well as short-fields went very well also. But I screwed up my steep turn to the left, typically the easiest one. It's a hard bullet to bite because I never, even in my PPL days, have trouble with steep turns. Plus, my turn to the right was spot on, with almost no altitude change at all. I'm not sure what happened, but there were some downdrafts today. Nerves might've played a role too.
In addition, the examiner thought I was too low on a single-engine approach to land. We'd transitioned from an emergency descent over Culpeper from 4,500 ft to TPA (1,300). I joined on a left downwind. Abeam the landing point gear and flaps came down, as I checked that the fuel selectors were on. Mixture and props full forward, fuel pumps on and begin a gentle descent.
Half way on base, at about 700 AGL, the examiner told me I was too low and gave me my "failed" engine back for a normal landing. I knew that wasn't a good sign and stupidly didn't ask him to at least let me continue the approach.
I know we would've made it to the runway safely. Because of today's chilly temperatures, the operating engine was giving me great performance and I could hold altitude with it set for 65-70 percent, so a climb, if needed, would've been feasible.
When I queried the examiner after the ride, he told me that yes, all was working fine today but on a hot and humid day I might not have made it to the airport. Probably true. On a hot and humid day, however, I would have flown that pattern differently, staying closer in and as high as I could hold until final.
I just wish he'd let me continue the approach. Had we rolled out on final with 4 reds on the PAPI, then sure, fail me unless I correct it by at least holding altitude until on a proper glideslope. Ending the maneuver on base with 700 ft below us and no obstacles taller than 50ft on final, I think the decision was too harsh.
If the examiner is recertified by the FAA, we'll go up tomorrow and redo steep turns and the single-engine approach to land.
It's a terrible feeling to have failed, especially after having done so well with my instructor and after having worked so hard and learned so much. If anything, I will probably learn a thing or two on the retest from a guy with 21,000 hours.
He wasn't immediately reinstated, but we decided to do the retest with him when he does, in the next 10 days or so. The day after the checkride he came into the office to debrief my CFI and told him I'd done very well on most of the maneuvers and that if I had a few more total hours he'd trust me to fly his Aztec. The instructor got a feeling that had the FAA inspector not been there I would've easily past.
Somewhere inside me I believe that too, although I don't want to make excuses. While the single-engine approach to land deal was debatable (and the next day it surfaced he had an issue with the school's checklist more than my performance) I did blow the steep turn to the left and deserve the pink slip.
For now, we've put this behind us and started instrument training, which is going very well. Once the examiner is recertified, I'll go up and do steep turns, power on stalls and single engine approaches again and take the retest.
I'm sure it'll go well. It's just a bummer since none of us expected this outcome.
Life goes on, and so does training and with it a heap load of fun.

Going multi -- Days 5 and 6

Yesterday afternoon we fired up the Seminole, got our ADIZ clearance and set off to Culpepper for a little engine failure practice. I did a decent short-field landing on 22 and taxied back. Normal take off, power set. Within seconds the aircraft points left. Engine failure. I retard the throttles and maintain directional control.
After a normal take off, at about 500 AGL, the Seminole yawed and rolled left again. Here is where I'm supposed to pitch for blue line (88 KIAS in this case), maintain directional control and run through the memory items (mixtures, props, throttles full forward, flaps/gear up, identify the engine out with dead foot, verify by closing the throttle, feather and cut off the mixture), declare an emergency and circle back to land.
I'd chair flown the flows over and over again and thought I'd be ready to demonstrate them in the plane. Instead, on the first engine out on take-off, I fell behind. For starters, the gear horn sounded a lot like the stall warning, which led me to pitch down too much. Caught that and returned to blue line but while I expected the memorized checklist to come out, my brain was a mess while I was trying to run through the steps and make sure I had the right engine identified.
With a little verbal help from my instructor, I got things done and was on downwind, my forehead drenched in sweat. In my defense, it was pretty warm in the Seminole yesterday.
Landing on one engine didn't trouble me too much, although I found that pulling the power out quickly over the runway WILL send the nose yawing like crazy! I resolved to pulling the throttle with a little more finesse next time.
After two circuits, my engine failure checklist was coming out more comfortably and I was executing the procedure well. My landings improved too as I managed to balance the amount of rudder correction vs. power reduction or increase, therefore keeping the aircraft pointing forward and putting it down on centerline.
We ran through engine outs for about an hour and a half, and with my instructor satisfied, headed back to Manassas.
On our way home, I took a minute to look outside, something I haven't had the luxury to do yet during our flights. A few build-ups hovered lazily over a mountain ridge to our northwest, tainted in pink by the setting sun. The sky was a mix of blues, purples and pinks and smooth as silk, giving us a pleasant evening cruise back to Manassas.
On downwind, I heard a student pilot telling the tower controler he was about to drop his instructor off and return to the runway for his first solo. My instructor and I keyed our mics and wished him good luck with a quick "woohoo." Seconds later I did a nice short-field landing and returned to the ramp in time to see the student pilot take off in the cool and peaceful evening sky.
I stood by the Seminole and watched him lift off, then turn crosswind. I smiled a little, wondering how he felt up there. As he turned downwind, I remembered my own first solo, which took place on a similar evening almost two years ago. It's a day I'll never forget for as long as I live, a moment that radically changed my life forever and one of my very fondest memories.
The student pilot turned base, then final and made a nice and stabilized approach to 16R. With no winds and little traffic on that runway, he made a nice landing, bouncing just a tad but bringing the 172 back to the ground in one piece. I smiled again and the slight tension that had inhabited my muscles as he approached the runway left me. One day soon, I might be sending someone off to fly alone for the first time. What an amazing feeling it must be, and what a tremendous responsibility...
Witnessing this solo was a special moment. I don't know the student pilot, but it made me very happy to see him fly a neat pattern and land safely. He must be over the moon. Whoever you are, congratulations! You will always remember this day: Friday Feb. 3rd, 2006.

* * *

Today, Saturday, was socked in so we went through everything for the oral portion of Monday's checkride. I'm quite comfortable with systems, aerodynamics and so on so it shouldn't be too much of a problem, even with the FSDO inspector present.
Two instructors and I also went through the inner workings of turbo props, turbo jets and turbo fans, learning about axial flow compressors and their centrigufal brethren. Obviously, this is of no use to me now but it was very interesting nonetheless and I guess it's just never to early to learn about it!
Back to studying. More flying tomorrow and Monday before the checkride.
I may take the evening off though. That'll be sweet.

Me and Mrs. Nole -- days 3 and 4

It's been busy as all heck and it seems I can't get WiFi at the apartment anymore, so couldn't update the blog yesterday.
We went up in the Seminole yesterday for the first time and went through all the maneuvers: steep turns, stalls, Vmc demo, inflight engine failure (shutdown, troubleshoot, secure and air start, which is pretty damn cool to see!), emergency descents, slow flight and a couple of landings. The plane is awesome, it handles well and as John noted is quite stable.
I was a little behind on the procedures yesterday, since my attention was diverted by an unfamiliar airplane but it was a good learning experience. We then headed to Culpeper (CJR) for a couple of landings. That went quite well. The Nole lands flatter than the Cessna and doesn't really flare, so a little adjustement was required.
Spent the evening yesterday running the flows and procedures through my head. It was pretty funny actually because I did that while fixing dinner, while using the bathroom, going out for a smoke break and again this morning in the shower. It worked!
Came in this morning and while my instructor was busy with another student, I hopped into the sim and banged out every maneuver twice. The procedures came to me much faster and I performed well.
Around 2 p.m. we headed out to the practice area and did them all for real. Since they all fell within PTS, we then headed back to CJR for short-field landings and take-offs. The first two were clumsy but sorta within PTS. My skills improved, however, after those and the remaining four were nice so we headed back to CSN VOR, picked up our ADIZ clearance and made a nice landing back at KHEF.
I love the Seminole. Just love it!
The multi-engine private checkride is scheduled for Monday morning at 1130. I probably won't get to fly between now and then because the weather looks pretty awful, but we're planning on going up early on Monday to make sure everything is up to snuff. The studying is also coming along OK and I should be ready for the oral.
Flying a twin isn't that much harder than a single, not the Seminole anyway since it's not super powerful. But the experience is so much different. I'll try and write more about that soon.
For now, I must go. More sim, more studying and more prepping for Monday.
Later, all.