CPO : A Pilot in Training : This is my Journey

asechrest said:
I like your CFI's calm demeanor and measured, slow speaking and responses.
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Me too. I typically don't pair well will really laid back personalities, because mine is a bit more aggressive....but she has just the right level of "calm and methodical" to keep me from getting in my own way. I am enjoying my time with her, and her experience becomes evident during our training.
 
It's interesting how it all comes together in practical application. I know *most* of this stuff...I've studied it to death. But when you get in the cockpit, it's all sorta thrown at you at once, so my brain has to learn to multi-task all of those little things. It's one thing to *know* how to fly, and another to *do* it. :)

It's like someone hands you an orange, and tells you to take a good look at it. Feel the weight. Check out the color. Become familiar with the size. Then, they hand you an apple, and request the same thing. Then a banana. Then a grape. Individually, everything is clear, and I feel like a I have a command of each of the individual pieces of fruit. Then...they put you into a cockpit and start throwing all of the fruit at you at once! :) It's really, really fun to learn to juggle...but it takes practice.
 
cipio said:
Thankfully, you have to push the button to change the mixture (I assume without some hard tugging) or twist it. I'm hopeful I would have noticed that it doesn't easily move if I would have tried it! :)
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That's true. How quickly I forgot. Every cessna I have flown is like that. DUH!! :mad2:
 
Was it a gust or did you just balloon a bit from pulling the yoke back to quickly?

My biggest thing with instructors and I have been lucky in this regard is keep your hands off the contols unless it is necessary. My first instructor and the person I use now were/are great at this. Give you just enough rope to hang yourself but not kill yourself and then say, "do you see what you did there? Don't do that." :D A few times I flew with one instructor I couldn't tell who was flying the plane he got on the controls so much. :mad:

I know what you mean about juggling the most frustrating part for me after a looong break was learning to do all the things that used to just be automatic. Once some of the things become more automatic you can start to focus on other things and it wont seem so hectic.
 
DFH65 said:
Was it a gust or did you just balloon a bit from pulling the yoke back to quickly?
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Well...I can't be certain, but it felt like I was steady. In the video, right before the lift, I appear to be holding steady back pressure (as steady as I can) but I'm not experienced enough to tell. I can see when I felt the lift that I relaxed the pressure for a bit before bringing it back, then she added power. In the debrief, she said it was a gust, and its common on that runway. \_0_/
 
2 points: 1) don't think of it as "flaring" if that causes you to think that you need to raise the nose up above the horizon. You want to just level off by bringing the nose to the horizon, and the let the speed bleed off. Then as you are flying level down the run way, you have to keep pulling back more and more to generate the same lift as your airspeed bleeds off. Your nose will gradually point more up as you do so, and eventually, the wings will run out of lift and set you down gently on the runway. If you pull back to arrest the descent, but you initially bring the nose up too high, your airspeed will cause you to balloon. If you are having to jerk the control back in order to stop from hitting the runway, you should pull back a little sooner so you can more smoothly and deliberately raise the nose up.

2) the cockpit sucks I.Q. points out of your head. Simple math that is easy on the ground (e.g. what's the reciprocal heading for 250?) becomes much more taxing, and requires more of your brain's attention in the cockpit. It just takes more mental attention/capacity/energy in the cockpit, and you need to plan for it. As you become more comfortable, the impact is less-- right up until you put yourself in a stressful situation and it comes right back.
 
The simple answer to your "what's the reciprocal of 250" question is to use a different marker on your DG and just use 250. Most of them have eight markers. For the reciprocal, use the one on the bottom.

Saturday, I used several of them to fly Pattern A around a heading of 120.

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CPO is discovering why you can't learn flying out of a book. It sure doesn't hurt, but quite a lot of the learning is about feel and managing fears and reflexes.
 
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I thought I saw something that looked familiar this afternoon. ;) @ 2G4
 

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CPO Flight Lesson 3 : Almost!

Sorry for the shaky video...that window where the GoPro is mounted seems extra loose this morning. If it's too shaky to watch, just listen...the actual video is not really important.

This was my third flight lesson...almost. Sometimes things don't work out the way you plan. Sometimes there's a lesson in that.

 
cipio said:
CPO Flight Lesson 3 : Almost!

Sorry for the shaky video...that window where the GoPro is mounted seems extra loose this morning. If it's too shaky to watch, just listen...the actual video is not really important.

This was my third flight lesson...almost. Sometimes things don't work out the way you plan. Sometimes there's a lesson in that.

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Normally if you taxi out and can't fly, you don't get billed for the plane, it's just noted and written off same as a maintenance run.
 
Henning said:
Normally if you taxi out and can't fly, you don't get billed for the plane, it's just noted and written off same as a maintenance run.
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Well... I'll check on that. Thanks.
 
cipio said:
Well... I'll check on that. Thanks.
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I've tried to beat a front getting out a few times and decided, "Nope, missed it" and turned back, I was never billed for it. It's not really good form to bill for it because it encourages people to make questionable calls. I never paid for a plane I didnt leave the ground with.
 
cipio said:
...that window where the GoPro is mounted seems extra loose this morning.
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Does that window open? If so it can fly open in flight... Might lose your GoPro...
 
You made a good decision and learned something that may just save your life. Don't lose the ability to make that decision on your own. I think that was a great lesson actually!
 
OkieAviator said:
Does that window open? If so it can fly open in flight... Might lose your GoPro...
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My primary was in a 152 and as long as the window was latched correctly, never had one pop open.

I think whether or not to bill for the time is going to be depending on the flight school's policy but I tend to agree with Henning. You're not able to log the time, so if it were me, I wouldn't ask you to pay. Of course the instructor should get her share for the ground portion.

Sounds like you're never hesitant to cancel a flight if you're unsure about it. Definitely a good thing. There's never a takeoff that you HAVE to make.
 
fiveoboy01 said:
My primary was in a 152 and as long as the window was latched correctly, never had one pop open.
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I've had mine fly open twice... first time was a long XC flight and I was taking a sweater off and hit it with my elbow... second time I didn't have the piece that it clasps to secured correctly, so it blew open about 10 mins after take off. I'm sure it will happen again sometime to me.
 
CPO Flight Lesson 3 : C152 Power on Stalls, Slips, and Landings

This lesson number 3. Finally! The practice area was swarming with Cessnas...but I managed to get in some power on stalls before heading back to KFME for a few landings and some pattern practice.

Everything feels better after doing it a few times, so I expect that these things will become more refined over time. I seem to be able to develop more "feel" for the aircraft each time I fly. I need to work on all of it...but that's why we train, right?

I did learn a few good lessons here...like don't hit the brakes too hard after touchdown. :) I am also (for some reason) cutting my turn to final a bit tight. I think it looks like I don't have much room to make the turn (buildings in front of me, etc) but after I make the turn, I realize I had more room (and in fact, I turned way too tight). Also, more opposite rudder on stall recovery (or stay coordinated when it stalls to avoid too much roll).

I will say that I find "doing" these things helps me solidify what I "read" or "saw" about them. I think my learning style is to get the head knowledge, do the task, and then go back and re-do the head knowledge. I need to experience some things in order for the knowledge to have proper context in my brain. :)

Another observation... It's crazy how hard it is too see other traffic sometimes. It really shows how attentive you have to be! There was one point in the video where my CFI pointed out traffic at about 9 o'clock and low...3-4 miles out. I never did see that plane. That wasn't a safety risk to us in that situation, but it was clear to me that it's likely impossible to see everything there is too see up there. Mostly though, we would point out traffic to each other and both could identify them. That one, though, I never could find. I can definitely see the value of having a co-pilot!

My radio usage is up to about 50% now...I'm slowly taking on more and more of that, but my CFI is kindly managing that with me so that I'm able to focus on learning the flight techniques without also having to balance the radio traffic. I imagine that within a few more lessons, I'll be taking on all of the radio as well.

I also changed the camera position for this flight. It worked out great, because you can now see us moving around during the stall maneuvers. What I don't like...is when reviewing the video, I can't see the left-most gauges. I'm trying to avoid placing multiple cameras...but that would be the best of both worlds.

 
OkieAviator said:
I've had mine fly open twice... first time was a long XC flight and I was taking a sweater off and hit it with my elbow... second time I didn't have the piece that it clasps to secured correctly, so it blew open about 10 mins after take off. I'm sure it will happen again sometime to me.
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My CFI, one time before we took the runway, said she wanted to let me know how to deal with something that may or may not happen on any of our flights. She said, *if* the door were to pop open on one of our flights, it is not an emergency. Just keep flying the airplane, and we will decide if it can be corrected in flight, or if we should land to resolve. I get the feeling that this happens more often than I would have thought... :)
 
LOL! I was just looking at the screenshot for the flight 3 video, and it looks like such a calm and steady landing! Everything looks different when you press play! LOL!
 
cipio said:
My CFI, one time before we took the runway, said she wanted to let me know how to deal with something that may or may not happen on any of our flights. She said, *if* the door were to pop open on one of our flights, it is not an emergency. Just keep flying the airplane, and we will decide if it can be corrected in flight, or if we should land to resolve. I get the feeling that this happens more often than I would have thought... :)
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Happened to me on takeoff for my first lesson- door popping open didn't scare me; the CFI leaning out of the plane *did*.

And yes, these emergencies are not actually emergencies; but there are a lot of pilots who've crashed over the years because they lost focus when the baggage door popped open.
 
During my primary training, I left my partially folded sectional on the glareshield. It basically fell into my lap area on takeoff, blocking the majority of the panel and covering the yoke. I ignored it till I was past 500' AGL. I could read the ASI and even if that had been blocked, I would have just kept a safe pitch attitude. There was some swearing by me, and my CFI laughed. He let me learn that one on my own.

If it's not an engine problem or some other thing that is going to kill me, it gets ignored till some altitude is gained.
 
warthog1984 said:
Happened to me on takeoff for my first lesson- door popping open didn't scare me; the CFI leaning out of the plane *did*.

And yes, these emergencies are not actually emergencies; but there are a lot of pilots who've crashed over the years because they lost focus when the baggage door popped open.
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Haha, that happened to me early in my training as well. I wasn't firm enough when shutting the door. When we took off it popped open and I said one or two four letter words.:D

In hindsight it wasn't a huge deal, and I learned to always try to force the door open to check that it is in fact completely latched.
 
cipio said:
My CFI, one time before we took the runway, said she wanted to let me know how to deal with something that may or may not happen on any of our flights. She said, *if* the door were to pop open on one of our flights, it is not an emergency. Just keep flying the airplane, and we will decide if it can be corrected in flight, or if we should land to resolve. I get the feeling that this happens more often than I would have thought... :)
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Those styles of doors will stay mostly shut due to the wind resistance. I did a Cessna 162 Skycatcher checkout a couple of months ago, which has the 'lambo style' doors that open upwards towards the wing. First time ever in that plane, which has a PFD instead of the steam guages I'm used to in the 172s I fly... and about 300 feet above ground on first takeoff, my door pops open. We just called tower and told them what happened and that we needed to come back around to land and latch the door, instead of departing out the way we originally planned. Got the all clear to stay in the pattern, and those were some interesting left pattern turns :) Back on the ground, pulled off the first exit from runway to the parallel taxiway and latched the door properly. Wouldn't you know it, I had to sit behind 6 aircraft for 20 minutes to get back up in the air again :)
 
You're doing very well, and kudos for broadcasting your efforts, learning to fly can be a very humbling experience. Not wanting to appear a Monday afternoon QB, but i noticed a few things:
1) as you taxied towards the runway both you & your CFI were looking down the runway, rather than both down -and up the approach path. Check there's no one on final.
2) as you recover from a stall, call 'Positive Rate' when the airplane starts to climb, it's a cue to continue the flap retraction schedule, and a reminder to ensure you've taken flaps out!
3) Pattern work is 'by the numbers' a certain airspeed, power setting and rate of descent. It helps greatly if you know the target power settings for Downwind, Base & Final. You can compare known/expected airspeed, RoD & power settings to the picture outside. None of this 'take out a little power' stuff, until you're frankly a little more mechanical and can recall the power & airspeed profiles.
Scanning for Traffic will improve, but read this http://www.skybrary.aero/index.php/Visual_Scanning_Technique and http://flighttraining.aopa.org/students/presolo/skills/midair.html as well as the AIM.
I love the fact you called out your CFI on handover of controls, good for you. The more discipline you fly with now, the easier you'll find the checkride, and the safer pilot you'll be.
keep up the good work..
 
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neilki said:
You're doing very well, and kudos for broadcasting your efforts, learning to fly can be a very humbling experience. Not wanting to appear a Monday afternoon QB, but i noticed a few things:
1) as you taxied towards the runway both you & your CFI were looking down the runway, rather than both down -and up the approach path. Check there's no one on final.
2) as you recover from a stall, call 'Positive Rate' when the airplane starts to climb, it's a cue to continue the flap retraction schedule, and a reminder to ensure you've taken flaps out!
3) Pattern work is 'by the numbers' a certain airspeed, power setting and rate of descent. It helps greatly if you know the target power settings for Downwind, Base & Final. You can compare known/expected airspeed, RoD & power settings to the picture outside. None of this 'take out a little power' stuff, until you're frankly a little more mechanical and can recall the power & airspeed profiles.
Scanning for Traffic will improve, but read this http://www.skybrary.aero/index.php/Visual_Scanning_Technique and http://flighttraining.aopa.org/students/presolo/skills/midair.html as well as the AIM.
I love the fact you called out your CFI on handover of controls, good for you. The more discipline you fly with now, the easier you'll find the checkride, and the safer pilot you'll be.
keep up the good work..
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Thanks for the feedback, and taking the time to review. I appreciate all perspectives I can get! The only thing I really can comment on is just to clarify that before we started to the runway, we did a clear of the approach path, and also the pattern. I cut the video short, but I think that context may be missed, so I wanted to clarify that. Anyway...lots of great feedback. Thank you again.
 
CPO: nice video. A couple of random comments:

At a touch over 100 hours (extremely low time), I continue to be surprised at how difficult it is to see traffic in the air. Two weekends ago I was just off Miami South Beach and was unpleasantly surprised by traffic going to and fro. I think this is just a reality of flying in a congested area. You learn how to look for traffic, do your best, keep your eyes peeled, and beyond that trust in the Big Sky Theory. Because sometimes you just can't see them until they surprise you at 11 o'clock low. In my limited experience, the worst is when they're approaching from the 3 or 9 o'clock position and don't seem to be moving relative to your A/C. I end up craning my head around, trying to keep them in view while at the same time discerning what direction they're going. Ugh.

On that same flight of mine, I let my future brother in law take the controls for an extended period. This was the first time I had someone take the controls for a sizable length of time and I was struck by just how much we learn to "feel" the plane during our training. My passenger had trouble controlling straight and level -- not unexpected, of course -- and he oscillated up and down with constant overcontrolling. While trying to help him understand how to prevent that and verbalizing a strategy to do so, the importance of learning the "feel" of flying was reinforced. For VFR flight, you use all your senses to understand what the plane is doing. You learn your sight pictures and compare nose to horizon; you learn to hear subtle changes in the engine, for example you hear it laboring slightly when you're in a shallow climb; you learn to hear the wind over the airframe. The airplane talks to you in a number of different ways and it's important to keep that in mind when you're training. The old "look outside, glance inside" adage is good here. The gauges are alright, but it's your eyes, ears, and butt, that help you fly when VFR.

The hardest feeling to "get" for me has been yaw. I'm still not great at discerning the ball slightly outside the center just by feel. Hoping to get better at that.
 
I finally got another lesson in today… get about one out of every four I have scheduled now. We got some reprieve from the wind today so I was glad to get out. I have video, of course, but it wont be up at least until tomorrow.
 
CPO Flight Lesson 4 : C152 Turns Around a Point, S Turns, Forward Slips

Finally got to lesson #4! Today we did some ground reference maneuvers. I'm trending at about one lesson per week, thanks to the crazy spring winds around here. Hopefully, I can pick up the pace soon. All in all, I think things are going okay. I am still looking forward to some dedicated pattern work... I feel like I have a long ways to go on the landings to be ready for solo. It will come. I'm actually in less than a hurry than I was before I started. I am enjoying and taking advantage of this time with my instructor. As usual...feedback and suggestions are always welcome!

 
Thanks, CPO. I continue to appreciate the time you spend in preparing and publishing these videos. Admittedly, I wish I could read the instruments better, but *seeing* the attitude of the plane and hearing your conversation with your instructor are, by far, the best parts for me.
Thanks again.
 
Something that might help you is finding a maneuver guide for a 152, or even modify your own based off one for a 172. You can memorize and practice the maneuvers from a chair or in a flight sim vocalizing it out. You do the same in pattern work and those flows become engrained in your brain. You can also do the ATC calls as well.
 
Nice lesson, with 2 critiques:

1) on a Cessna, a clearing turn clears under the raised wing- not through the windshield or the lowered wing. You are looking in the direction of the turn, and never look under the raised wing where your visibility is.

2) That is not a forward slip (or much of one at least). A 152 slipping at full rudder deflection looks like a brick going sideways- even more so with flaps deployed. In a forward slip, you look out the side window to see where you're going.
 
A clearing turn is fairly subjective. Most people will tell you to turn left first (in case of traffic on your right overtaking you), and it will be either 90 or 180 degree turn. I personally have always done 90 degree turns but I look to the left below me, out my windshield as I'm turning and up and to the right. Then the opposite on the right side. Key is to make sure you're looking and not just doing the movements.

I do agree on the forward slip, I noticed that but though she either didn't want to freak him out with an abrupt slip or didn't have a comfortable altitude.
 
Another thing about clearing turns is you should try to start the maneuver as soon as you are done with the clearing turns. If you wait a few minutes and get the airplane set up, the area may not be clear anymore. When I teach slow flight and stalls, I have the student slow the aircraft down and add flaps in the clearing turns. On the second clearing turn we use that as our base turn for our power off stall and then go right into the stall.
 
jordane93 said:
When I teach slow flight and stalls, I have the student slow the aircraft down and add flaps in the clearing turns. On the second clearing turn we use that as our base turn for our power off stall and then go right into the stall.
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This was how I learned it too and is what I was talking about in terms of structured maneuvers. Here's a cut and paste from a 172 maneuver guide.

SLOW FLIGHT
1. Clear the area using clearing turns.
2. Fuel: BOTH - Mixture: FULL RICH
3. Establish and announce altitude and heading.
4. Power, approximately 1500 RPM
5. Airspeed in flap operating range, extend flaps in 10-degree increments to desired
setting. (85 KIAS – flaps 10; 75 KIAS – flaps 20; 65 KIAS – flaps 30)
6. As airspeed diminishes, adjust power and pitch attitude to maintain level flight.
7. Establish and maintain an airspeed at which any further increase in pitch, load
factor, and/or reduction in power would result in an immediate stall.
8. Recognize and announce the first aerodynamic indications of an oncoming stall
(e.g., stall warning, mushy flight controls, buffeting).
9. Perform coordinated turns, climbs, and descents as directed by the instructor.
10. Recover to cruise flight by simultaneously applying maximum power, flaps 20.
Adjust pitch attitude to maintain altitude. Retract flaps to 10 degrees at Vx, and
full up at Vy. (The recovery is analogous to a Go-Around procedure.)
 
Student pilot here, so grain of salt included with this post...

Warthog, I thought the slips looked right, not sure which one you were referring to, but I assume when she/he says rudder full they're pressing it to the stop. I think its just hard to tell with the limited outside view. On CPO's slip after he turns a little to the right(I think, if so, would that mean not enough opposite aileron initally?) you can see a house on an island out his left window which appears to be stabilized, I think he was headed toward that point right before he takes out the slip.

CPO, thanks for posting these, I feel like we're getting free backseat time. I can offer you a landing tip, maybe it'll help or maybe you can just commiserate with me. I had a dual lesson yesterday, got 5 landings in the pattern with gusting shifty winds. My takeaway from that session was to try not to commit to a setup based on what the last report said or even your last lap and try to work with what its actually doing. For example one of my approaches, since the crosswind was from the left the first two times, I was trying to side slip into a crosswind which had dissipated. So I slipped in for no reason and made the landing more difficult. On another landing the wind actually shifted from left cross to right cross somewhere on short final approach and I was all sorts of confused, slipping for a left cross and getting blown off to the left.

I think thats what your CFI was referring to as 'dancing' as the wind constantly changes. Guess I need to learn to dance better!

Thanks again, later
 
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