DutchessFlier
Line Up and Wait
So..it finally did stop actually raining today. Just for that, in celebration of passing the written and in hopes of finally (don't get excited yet) flying, guess what...Can you spell.........oh man, am I out of practice!!!!
How many basic, you should have known, and 'have you ever heard of the carb heat control, make right traffic, thats right traffic' messups can one person pull and still manage to keep one's wits about oneself. SHEESH I am learning the difference between Flight Following, and Flight Plan Filing, who to communicate with and how to do it.
Granted, alot about today's lesson was very very new, and combined with the four weeks it has been since I flew last, it was not my best showing. We planned to do diversion work anyway. We HAD to do it today because unlike what the TAFS and METARS told us and the briefer thought would be improving conditions, the clouds would not cooperate, and actually grew together the further east we flew (something to do with dew points and temps being almost equal) and holy sh---- not only do I look up from the paperwork and charts and plotter and whatnot in my lap, but the freeking cloud bases are like 50 feet over our head. I looked at my CFI and said, I don't think we can go here...(like DUH).
I should have done that something like about 450 feet ago. We found a hole and climbed to 5,500 and did an over the top VFR flight for a while, it was beautiful and scary not to have any ground reference points, and as the cloud deck became deeper and more solid, we did the diversion work, after turning around, finding another hole in the clouds, and my CFI took us down in a shallow turn until we were back under the bases. Pilotage to find a reference point, find a diversion airport, head in the general direction of that airport, plot the course, heading, distance, time and fuel burn, and fly the plane...set up and do it again with another airport in the opposite direction and BTW stay the hell out of the clouds.
So, divert we did. I have to say, with the utmost humbleness and respect that I am in awe of how much work it is to do these things. For those of you here who have many hours of training and flight time or a natural innate talent for this, my hat is off to you. For me, the more I learn, the more I realize how much I still have to learn. It took me what seemed like 20 minutes to do the work. I got ahead of myself for much of the flight. Have to learn to slow down, think things through, be systematic and organized in my cockpit work and relax. The diversion procedure worked okay, but I have alot more personal work to do here.
Worked alot on understanding VOR's, tracking to and from them and some triangulation with 2 VOR's to find my location . My CFI also gave me an opportunity to fly into the clouds and execute a 180 out...for my student peers who have not had that experience, listen to everything you are told about the difference between simulated IMC and real IMC and how your senses can play tricks on you as to your attitude, direction, turn rate and how you have to trust those instruments and if you are not rated, get the heck out as soon as you can, safely.
Oh well, home again, another lesson, another set of information and experience to digest and learn from. And yes, another front to the west, bringing real crappy WX our way....just as long as Saturday 8AM is clear and I can go back and do it some more!!!
How many basic, you should have known, and 'have you ever heard of the carb heat control, make right traffic, thats right traffic' messups can one person pull and still manage to keep one's wits about oneself. SHEESH I am learning the difference between Flight Following, and Flight Plan Filing, who to communicate with and how to do it.
Granted, alot about today's lesson was very very new, and combined with the four weeks it has been since I flew last, it was not my best showing. We planned to do diversion work anyway. We HAD to do it today because unlike what the TAFS and METARS told us and the briefer thought would be improving conditions, the clouds would not cooperate, and actually grew together the further east we flew (something to do with dew points and temps being almost equal) and holy sh---- not only do I look up from the paperwork and charts and plotter and whatnot in my lap, but the freeking cloud bases are like 50 feet over our head. I looked at my CFI and said, I don't think we can go here...(like DUH).
I should have done that something like about 450 feet ago. We found a hole and climbed to 5,500 and did an over the top VFR flight for a while, it was beautiful and scary not to have any ground reference points, and as the cloud deck became deeper and more solid, we did the diversion work, after turning around, finding another hole in the clouds, and my CFI took us down in a shallow turn until we were back under the bases. Pilotage to find a reference point, find a diversion airport, head in the general direction of that airport, plot the course, heading, distance, time and fuel burn, and fly the plane...set up and do it again with another airport in the opposite direction and BTW stay the hell out of the clouds.So, divert we did. I have to say, with the utmost humbleness and respect that I am in awe of how much work it is to do these things. For those of you here who have many hours of training and flight time or a natural innate talent for this, my hat is off to you. For me, the more I learn, the more I realize how much I still have to learn. It took me what seemed like 20 minutes to do the work. I got ahead of myself for much of the flight. Have to learn to slow down, think things through, be systematic and organized in my cockpit work and relax. The diversion procedure worked okay, but I have alot more personal work to do here.
Worked alot on understanding VOR's, tracking to and from them and some triangulation with 2 VOR's to find my location . My CFI also gave me an opportunity to fly into the clouds and execute a 180 out...for my student peers who have not had that experience, listen to everything you are told about the difference between simulated IMC and real IMC and how your senses can play tricks on you as to your attitude, direction, turn rate and how you have to trust those instruments and if you are not rated, get the heck out as soon as you can, safely.
Oh well, home again, another lesson, another set of information and experience to digest and learn from. And yes, another front to the west, bringing real crappy WX our way....just as long as Saturday 8AM is clear and I can go back and do it some more!!!
