Just started my PPL today (again)

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PWRDrill

Filing Flight Plan
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PWRDrill
Hello all,

I've been lurking here for a while, but I finally started my private again today after an 18 year hiatus. My prior hours were in the single digits, and pre-solo, but I'm excited to finish this time.

I'm training out of KABQ in a T-41C (172 with 210 hp). Today was my first flight. 1.2 hours on the hobbs. Did some turns and landing practice at KAEG. Wow! Even though I knew what to do, it seemed like I didn't. I was extremely busy, even though my instructor was doing the navigating and radio work. Those guys in the right seat just don't realize how busy we are do they? Always asking questions.. explaining things and such :wink2: To be honest, I hardly even knew I was flying with all of the attention I was paying to keeping my heading, alttitude, trim, airspeed, etc. I'm sure that gets better with time :)

I wasn't expecting to be challenged so much - I have flown RC airplanes and heli's for years, and have some prior experience. I think that alone lit a larger fire under my rear to get this done. IT WAS A BLAST!

Instructor of course told me I did an outstanding job, and was really impressed, but I bet he tells everyone the same thing. I certainly didn't feel like I did a good job :)

1.2 hobbs
1 hour of ground
3 touch and goes at KAEG
1 full stop at KABQ

Can't wait to go up again!

Kevin
 
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PWRDrill said:
Hello all,

I've been lurking here for a while, but I finally started my private again today after an 18 year hiatus. My prior hours were in the single digits, and pre-solo, but I'm excited to finish this time.

I'm training out of KABQ in a T-41C (172 with 210 hp). Today was my first flight. 1.2 hours on the hobbs. Did some turns and landing practice at KAEG. Wow! Even though I knew what to do, it seemed like I didn't. I was extremely busy, even though my instructor was doing the navigating and radio work. Those guys in the right seat just don't realize how busy we are do they? Always asking questions.. explaining things and such :wink2: To be honest, I hardly even knew I was flying with all of the attention I was paying to keeping my heading, alttitude, trim, airspeed, etc. I'm sure that gets better with time :)

To be honest, I wasn't expecting to be challenged so much - I have flown RC airplanes and heli's for years, an have some prior experience. I think that alone lit a larger fire under my rear to get this done. IT WAS A BLAST!

Instructor of course told me I did an outstanding job, and was really impressed, but I bet he tells everyone the same thing. I certainly didn't feel like I did a good job :)

1.2 hobbs
1 hour of ground
3 touch and goes at KAEG
1 full stop at KABQ

Can't wait to go up again!

Kevin
Click to expand...
Congratulations! Keep us posted on your progress.
 
Congratulations on starting again. I stopped in 1972 at 17 hours and resumed in March of 2008 finishing in December 2008. Good Luck and enjoy.
 
Wow- I wish I'd had access to a T-41 when I was training! sounds like fun.
Enjoy the big comeback!
 
Welcome PWR!

I also came back after a 20 year layoff. Once my youngest graduated from college last December I considered it time to restart. I had, however, gone farther than you in my first phase.

I solo'd after 5 hours when I came back to it, but ended up buying a taildragger so I'm starting over again, awaiting my tailwheel solo.

What you described as to your flying work load, it sounds normal for that stage. The first hour I came back I got in the air and wondered what I was doing there. I was able to fly right away though and felt somewhat at home. It is, to some extent, like riding a bicycle and never leaves you.

We are pretty much in the same boat, so keep us posted. I would suggest knocking out your medical and written as soon as you can, to eliminate these obstacles so you can concentrate on your flying.

My $0.02,
Doc
 
Welcome aboard! I, too have a gap between 1978 and 2000 in my GA logbook. I remember thinking "this should not be this unfamiliar!" but it came back ok. I don't know if it came back quicker than it might have if it were new info or not, but regardless - keep on flying and keep on posting!
 
I have a couple students right now that are restarting their training after a few years. Both are doing very well.
 
Thank you everyone for the warm welcome! I appreciate the feedback.

I got 1.8 hours in today. Did some foggle work, power on/off stalls, turns (ascending and descending), and 6 more landings. On the power on stall, I pushed the nose over a little too much and got some 0g time...I lost about 700ft on my first power off stall. Getting these T-41's to stall is quite hard, and caught me by suprise both times - especially during the power-on :)

I actually greased 1 or 2 of the landings without any instructor input, but I made up for it with a few of the other ones - I bounced on 2 of them. There was a bit of a crosswind, and I think chopping the throttle might have thrown me off on one or two.. I think I need to ease out of the throttle, because when I chopped it, I had a much harder time fighting the crosswind. I think this combination used up too many brain cycles, and I couldn't control my altittude and flare as well.

All in all, I feel much better about lesson 2 than lesson 1. I wasn't nearly as "busy" this time. Felt like I was in the air about 25 minutes. Again, I had a blast!

1.8 hours hobbs
0.5 hours ground
5 touch and go landings KAEG
1 full stop @ KABQ

3 hours total

Kevin

edit: also did slow flight
 
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Today I logged another 1.8 hours.

-We went over all types of stalls, power on/off, cross controlled, accellerated (not a fan of this one), and various stalls at 20-30 degrees of bank (not a fan of these either). Those T-41s sure don't like to stall easy.

-Did some foggle time and some slow flight

-Simulated engine out approach and "go around" out in the middle of the desert on some road. That was pretty neat.

-Simulated engine out in the pattern with a very short base/final.

-Did steep turns. Amazingly enough, I was able to maintain my altitude dead-on doing these both to the left and to the right - first try. I believe this is because the instructor demonstrated first, and I really tried to burn in the sight picture. Doing this maneuver is when I really started to understand how important it is to spend most of your time with your head outside of the cockpit. I'm still working on that...

Did 7 touch and goes at KAEG (some of these were greasers, while others were pretty bad...not exactly sure why the difference)

1 full-stop landing at KABQ

1.8 hours flight time

4.8 total hours

Kevin
 
flightmedic said:
Pardon my ignorance, but what is foggle?
Click to expand...

A sight limiting device that is like a semi-opaque pair of glasses that only allows you to see the panel. Some examiners don't like them because they still let you see a bit of the outside. A common alternative is the "hood".
 
gprellwitz said:
A sight limiting device that is like a semi-opaque pair of glasses that only allows you to see the panel. Some examiners don't like them because they still let you see a bit of the outside. A common alternative is the "hood".
Click to expand...

Thank you. Apparently they are exactly what it sounds like they are.
 
flightmedic said:
Pardon my ignorance, but what is foggle?
Click to expand...

You can cheat with the ones that I wear, but you would have to "look up" at an pretty high angle. During my previous flight training, we used the hood. I prefer the foggles.
 
I think I had a "Eureka" moment driving home from work today.

I've was racking my brain to figure out why my landings are so hit-and-miss, and I think I found the problem. I am giddy to talk to my instructor about it tomorrow.

I haven't seen this problem mentioned before in the various forums that I visit, but I have a problem with flying straight. I hadn't given it much thought until now. Sure, I can maintain a heading with instruments, but when the instructor tells me to fly towards an object, or when flying downwind in the pattern, I drift to the left. To my vision, I am flying straight towards the object, but a gentle tug to the right from my instructor often reminds me that I'm not. When actually flying straight, to me, it seems as if I'm drifting to the right. I guess there's some sort of sight picture that I haven't mastered yet.

I believe this is what is causing some of my landings to be not so great.

On base, as I fly what I think is straight down the runway, I start to drift left. I then correct this with aileron to get on the centerline, level out, and begin my drift to the left again. I am using the rudder to keep my nose pointed down the runway, but I believe I am actually pointing it slightly to the left. To my eyes, this is quite straight, but it obviously is not. I can hear my instructor telling me "more right rudder", but I stop the application when I think it's straight. I always land to the left of centerline, and often times it's a tad bit squirrely as my nose is actually very slightly to the left. Sometimes I nail the landing perfectly, but I believe this has been more luck than anything.

Have any of you experienced this? If so, what excercises do you do to overcome this perception? Is this a common thing? I notice my "left" tendancy when taxiing as well, but it's far easier to correct then.

Kevin
 
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Has your instructor talked about using an "aiming point"?

Pick your touchdown point on the runway. Put it on a spot on the windshield (a dead bug splat works well, but I've actually seen instructors use a grease pencil and clean it off later during primary training).

Hold an exact-as-you-can approach speed with elevator. If the spot on the runway drifts down the window, reduce power. If up, add power. If left, correct to the left. If right... You get the idea. If you're flying something with a center window brace, a rivet or mark on that works great.

As you enter the pre-flare or flare, change your eyeballs to look at a spot waaaaay down the runway. Do the same thing again with your new aiming point. Also utilize peripheral vision to see the runway edge. Is it coming closer? Moving away from you on your side of the aircraft? Correct as needed.

As far as the downwind goes... Set a wind correction angle and stop the drift toward or away from the runway. Then pick a spot in front of the aircraft on the horizon and do the same "keep it in the same place on the windshield" trick. If the drift closer or away from the runway changes, pick a new spot for a greater or less correction angle.

Constant smooth corrections. But at first if you're a little square/jerky about it, that's normal. You just keep the thoughts going. Set aiming point, look at what happens, correct, set new aiming point, wash, rinse, repeat.

Same thing on the ground taxiing. Look further away from the airplane. Three or four dashed yellow lines ahead if on a painted taxiway. A lot of people stare at the ground in front of the nose. Look up. Head up.

It'll come with practice to where you don't consciously think about the aiming points you're using and it becomes automatic after a while. But at first you may even have to talk to yourself... I find myself making bad landings I have almost *always* started staring right off the end of the airplane's nose in the flare.

The aiming point becomes a more "fluid" thing and you don't think about the individual steps after a while. Just hammer them into the brain for a few hours doing landings and then your brain will move the whole process down a layer into the subconscious so you can tackle other things like radios and GUMPS checks on your checklist.

The tailwheel guys will now probably pipe up here and say that in some aircraft, you lose your aiming point completely as you raise the nose. That's true. They have to use cues out the side windows to keep things straight and when they don't, they get a high chance of a ground-loop. Straight is good in a taildragger. Sometimes they can see what they're doing better if they keep the tail up and do a wheel landing instead of a three-pointer.
 
Success! Sort of :)

Nate, thank you for taking the time to write up that explanation. Between that and my instructors help, I started flying straight today :)

One thing that helped was I had my instructor fly straight towards a tiny cloud way off in the distance. This helped me pick a part of the cowl to keep things straight.

I had another 8 landings today, and really started to dial in my approaches. Towards the end of the day, I was flying them very well, and keeping straight down the runway. Unfortunately, when I'm in the roundout to flare, despite knowing better, I subconsciously switch from keeping centerline with ailerons to using the rudder. This then results in a not so pretty flare and my nose wanders a bit (usually to the right). I guess repetition is the key.

Today was a bumpy day, had some good thermals and windshears. I'm glad that I had some time under my belt before tackling that. It was actually quite fun, and things got a little squirrely from time-to-time.

Today I did some turns around a point, around a rectangle and S-turns across a road. I did well with the turns around a point, but the rest... umm, I'll need some work on :) It was strange flying so low to the ground for the first time, and I found myself applying too much back pressure in turns.

I did some power on and power off stalls with the foggles on. I was a bit apprehensive about those at first :) I only lost about 300 ft on the power off, and the power on was uneventful. I could barely tell that it stalled, just felt like a little extra mushy, but my instructor said that was it. Pretty scary when just staring at the dash.

Did some more simulated emergencies. Those were pretty fun, but definately gave me butterflies when the instructor just pulls out the throttle and says, "your engine's out". I thought he was actually going to have me land on the dirt road that I picked out, but luckily he let me go around as I started to get nervous :)

Steep turns: Well, not as good this time. Instructor didn't "show me" first, so I had lost a little of the correct sight picture. I did OK I guess, but I probably busted my altitude by a little, and I kept falling out of the turn a little.

All-in-all, another GREAT day!

2 hours hobbs
7 touch and goes KAEG
1 full stop KABQ
2 simulated emergency landings

Total: 6.8 hours

Business trip coming up plus some crazy work stuff... might be a week or so before I go up again :(

Kevin

edit: Oh, one thing that helped tremendously; after my simulated instrument time, my instuctor covered up all of the instruments except for the airspeed and altimeter. Man, what a difference in helping my flying ability. I wish I had started out like that!!
 
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A high percentage of pilots land to the left of the centerline, no matter how long they've been flying. If you want to overcome the tendency, just land with the runway centerline between your jewels.

PWRDrill said:
I think I had a "Eureka" moment driving home from work today.

I've was racking my brain to figure out why my landings are so hit-and-miss, and I think I found the problem. I am giddy to talk to my instructor about it tomorrow.

I haven't seen this problem mentioned before in the various forums that I visit, but I have a problem with flying straight. I hadn't given it much thought until now. Sure, I can maintain a heading with instruments, but when the instructor tells me to fly towards an object, or when flying downwind in the pattern, I drift to the left. To my vision, I am flying straight towards the object, but a gentle tug to the right from my instructor often reminds me that I'm not. When actually flying straight, to me, it seems as if I'm drifting to the right. I guess there's some sort of sight picture that I haven't mastered yet.

I believe this is what is causing some of my landings to be not so great.

On base, as I fly what I think is straight down the runway, I start to drift left. I then correct this with aileron to get on the centerline, level out, and begin my drift to the left again. I am using the rudder to keep my nose pointed down the runway, but I believe I am actually pointing it slightly to the left. To my eyes, this is quite straight, but it obviously is not. I can hear my instructor telling me "more right rudder", but I stop the application when I think it's straight. I always land to the left of centerline, and often times it's a tad bit squirrely as my nose is actually very slightly to the left. Sometimes I nail the landing perfectly, but I believe this has been more luck than anything.

Have any of you experienced this? If so, what excercises do you do to overcome this perception? Is this a common thing? I notice my "left" tendancy when taxiing as well, but it's far easier to correct then.

Kevin
Click to expand...
 
wabower said:
A high percentage of pilots land to the left of the centerline, no matter how long they've been flying. If you want to overcome the tendency, just land with the runway centerline between your jewels.
Click to expand...


Funny that my instructor said the same thing... I'm working on it :)

Hope you all don't mind my indulgence on this thread. I'm taking a page out of eMKay's thread and using this as a sort of pilot log to capture my experiences.
 
PWRDrill said:
Nate, thank you for taking the time to write up that explanation. Between that and my instructors help, I started flying straight today :)
Click to expand...

LOL, no problem. Sight picture was a problem for me in primary training. Especially in the flare.

Luckily I had an EXCELLENT primary instructor who figured it out and coached me through looking further down the runway. I've been nearsighted my whole life, so even corrected, the bad habit is to look closer in than I should. There's a whole world out there past 200 yards, ya know? (GRIN!)

Realizing there's tricks to it, like lining up things that are "up close" with things "far away" to force the eyeballs to focus "out there" helped me personally, a whole lot.

And your posts are cool, 'cause I landed at KAEG on the way to Vegas a couple summers ago. I was trying to find the photo of the Skylane parked at the self-serve pump, but it's on the wrong computer... and I haven't moved it over here to post it yet.

KAEG was my second takeoff with the wind steady-state above 25 knots. Got to practice my "position controls appropriately for the wind" there, that day! :)
 
No flying today, but my instructor began to talk to me about my *gulp* first solo. He gave me a couple written tests to satisfy the requirements of my part 141 school, and the Aero Club.

I still have a few lessons between now and then, but I still can't believe those words were coming out of his mouth.
 
denverpilot said:
KAEG was my second takeoff with the wind steady-state above 25 knots. Got to practice my "position controls appropriately for the wind" there, that day! :)
Click to expand...


The winds can get pretty bad around here quickly. Maybe one day I'll see you down here again?
 
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