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Will Kumley

Will Kumley

Line Up and Wait
Joined
Aug 6, 2019
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699
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Pacific Southwest
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Display name:
Will
Happy to report that after a month and a half of no flying due to weather and airplane maintenance I finally got to go up for some pattern work. Clouds were close to my personal minimums but since it was pattern work I wasn't overly concerned as I could easily just land and call it quits if the clouds got too close. I hyped myself up thinking the landings were going to suck and they were actually pretty darn good in my opinion. My instructor came in to take care of some things and watched from the ground once he realized I was flying. His comments were that I looked great! The only major flaw I had today was not recognizing that the radio selector switch was on comm2 for the entire flight so even though I was self reporting my intentions and position, nobody heard me as comm 2 was on a different frequency. It wasn't a busy day with only 2 other aircraft taking off or landing the entire time I was up so there were no close calls.
 
Are you still a student pilot, or did you finally schedule and complete the checkride successfully? If the former, were you really flying solo without your instructor knowing about it initially?
 
RingLaserGyroSandwich said:
Are you still a student pilot, or did you finally schedule and complete the checkride successfully? If the former, were you really flying solo without your instructor knowing about it initially?
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Is that a requirement?
 
Naw, I fly solo all of the time and my instructor rarely knows it. Although I did get a ‘Hi’ over the radio the other day.
 
RingLaserGyroSandwich said:
Are you still a student pilot, or did you finally schedule and complete the checkride successfully? If the former, were you really flying solo without your instructor knowing about it initially?
Click to expand...

Im actually wondering why it is important to you, a complete stranger. Or are you one of those, just trying to be helpful?
Im guessing that him and his instructor have the situation well in hand. But if not, oh well.

How are you? Anything about you that We should know about? Are you current? When was your last BFR?
 
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RingLaserGyroSandwich said:
Are you still a student pilot, or did you finally schedule and complete the checkride successfully? If the former, were you really flying solo without your instructor knowing about it initially?
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Why would that be a regulatory issue if he was a student pilot and endorsed by his CFI for solo flight in the make and model he was flying?
 
Stan Cooper said:
Why would that be a regulatory issue if he was a student pilot and endorsed by his CFI for solo flight in the make and model he was flying?
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This. As long as the endorsement was within 90 days, he’s legal.

many schools won’t rent without the instructor knowing about the flight, and they present that as if it’s regulatory. I was under that impression when I was a student. The instructor can also put a limitation on the endorsement, but it’s not regulatory and binding, it’s more to try to reduce their liability if something goes wrong.
 
Similarly, if you're endorsed for multiple flights between 2 airports there is no need to seek approval.

IIRC only XC (over 50nm) needs individual endorsements.
 
Salty said:
This. As long as the endorsement was within 90 days, he’s legal.

many schools won’t rent without the instructor knowing about the flight, and they present that as if it’s regulatory. I was under that impression when I was a student. The instructor can also put a limitation on the endorsement, but it’s not regulatory and binding, it’s more to try to reduce their liability if something goes wrong.
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It can also be an insurance provider's requirement. That's the situation at our Club's flight training unit. But it can be any of our instructors that can sign out the plane for a student to practice solo, not just the instructor assigned to the student. They are mostly checking for the student's pre-flight prep (W&B calc, weather decision making, that sort of thing).

We fly as much as 1400+ training hours in a month with our fleet and our insurance costs have been going up less than the other training units on our home field because of these sorts of procedures and our safety record. It just keeps the costs down for everyone to do this.
 
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Stan Cooper said:
Why would that be a regulatory issue if he was a student pilot and endorsed by his CFI for solo flight in the make and model he was flying?
Click to expand...

Salty said:
This. As long as the endorsement was within 90 days, he’s legal.
Click to expand...

Darn it... Y'all took away their shovel before they could dig any deeper...

:(
 
Yes, I'm a student pilot. Do I need a signoff to take the plane? Usually I just grab the keys if its available, fill it up with gas from the pumps, and go fly wherever I want. Is that not right????


In all seriousness, I've got all my signoffs and have been attempting to get my checkride for the past 2 1/2 -3 months so a lot of my flying now is to keep everything fresh but its 95% solo time now. I too, get the occasional "Hi Will" over the radio and I fully understand minimums, what is safe, what isn't safe, that its okay to ask for help over the radio if I ever do something stupid and put myself in an unsafe place. Chair flying is something I do regularly to include what if scenarios. But hey, I'm glad your concerned with my signoffs and if its legal for me to fly because if I was doing something illegal the first thing I'd do is come to a public forum and chat about it.
 
To the OP, nothing like getting up after being kept on the ground a while. I've been sidelined due to low clouds and ice for about 3 weeks. It's driving me nuts.

When I was training I don't think I ever told my instructor after my solo. I just scheduled with him when I could and alone when I needed practice.
 
Salty said:
This. As long as the endorsement was within 90 days, he’s legal.

many schools won’t rent without the instructor knowing about the flight, and they present that as if it’s regulatory. I was under that impression when I was a student. The instructor can also put a limitation on the endorsement, but it’s not regulatory and binding, it’s more to try to reduce their liability if something goes wrong.
Click to expand...
When my instructor gave me a signoff he placed limitations on crosswind speed. The airport knows me well and the bulk of the instructors have flown with me as I played the instructor shuffle for a period of time while preparing for my initial checkride. Now, I've got a note in my login for scheduling that says I can schedule at my own will, my biggest limitation is that I cannot take passengers. But that's standard across the board for any student pilot as per the FAA.
 
lancie00 said:
To the OP, nothing like getting up after being kept on the ground a while. I've been sidelined due to low clouds and ice for about 3 weeks. It's driving me nuts.

When I was training I don't think I ever told my instructor after my solo. I just scheduled with him when I could and alone when I needed practice.
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I feel your pain. Weather sucks here this time of year so I'm doubtful my current checkride will stay on schedule but maybe the planets will align properly.
 
I don't think there's anything stopping you from flying solo forever as a student as long as you keep getting the endorsement every 90 days.
 
Will Kumley said:
In all seriousness, I've got all my signoffs and have been attempting to get my checkride for the past 2 1/2 -3 months so a lot of my flying now is to keep everything fresh but its 95% solo time now. I too, get the occasional "Hi Will" over the radio and I fully understand minimums, what is safe, what isn't safe, that its okay to ask for help over the radio if I ever do something stupid and put myself in an unsafe place. Chair flying is something I do regularly to include what if scenarios. But hey, I'm glad your concerned with my signoffs and if its legal for me to fly because if I was doing something illegal the first thing I'd do is come to a public forum and chat about it.
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I wasn't accusing you have not having the proper signoffs or not being legal. Sorry if I was misleading about that. Something often emphasized by the FAA and on these forums is that what is legal and what is safe are not necessarily the same thing. I was a little surprised to see (judging from the sampling of responses in this thread) how common it is for CFIs to allow their students to go fly with no day-to-day oversight. My flight schools have always had student pilots such as me (previously) meet with a CFI (didn't necesssarily have to be my primary CFI) before any day of flying solo. I don't know if insurance contributed towards that policy, but it seems like a very good policy and I thought it was an extremely common best practice. As a CFI in the future I likely will require the same of my student pilots.

People come on forums and confess to violating rules/laws/regulations all the time, though.

smv said:
Is that a requirement?
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It depends on the flight school / CFI, clearly.

Morgan3820 said:
Im actually wondering why it is important to you, a complete stranger. Or are you one of those, just trying to be helpful?
Im guessing that him and his instructor have the situation well in hand. But if not, oh well.

How are you? Anything about you that We should know about? Are you current? When was your last BFR?
Click to expand...
When aviation isn't conducted safely, it is bad for all of us pilots. You can disagree with me about a particular practice I think is unsafe, but calling into question my character because I'm trying to make the skies safer is very contrary to the purpose of forums like these. Personally, I don't like to assume people are being safe and may weigh in when the topic is brought up in a public forum. I'm not going to do something crazy like slash the plane's tires to prevent the student from flying due to my philosophical differences with the CFI.

Stan Cooper said:
Why would that be a regulatory issue if he was a student pilot and endorsed by his CFI for solo flight in the make and model he was flying?
Click to expand...
Nobody said it would be a regulatory issue and I apologize if I was misleading about that. I'll reiterate my previous point that legal does not necessarily equal safe. I was reacting strongly (potentially overreacting, but I'm not sure) to a practice that seems to be more common than I thought.

smv said:
Darn it... Y'all took away their shovel before they could dig any deeper...

:(
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I'm not sure the hole represents what you think it does.
 
Yep, no requirement for me to specifically meet with any of the instructors prior to taking the plane out for a solo flight with the signoffs. If the weather is questionable there are plenty of people at the school that would give me some sage guidance and convince me its not worth it. I've never tested that theory but at the same time I believe they would tell me if my plans were a bit overzealous. All in all, its a good school and I believe they have prepared me properly to be a safe pilot that can make good decisions with the data provided. As I said before, they've also all seen me fly on my good days and not so good days and how I process the stress on my not so good days.
 
I learned to fly in 1964 as a member of the Vandenberg AFB aero club while stationed there on active duty. I was signed off for solo in the club's C150 by my CFI with 5.5 hours of dual, and was then free to schedule the 150 anytime it was available by simply calling the club manager who would put my name on the calendar. At the time there was no 90 day recurrent endorsement requirement and no restriction on how far I could take the airplane. Most of my pattern work was done at Santa Maria (SMX) and Oceano (L52). It never occurred to me that our procedures were in any way deficient or unsafe.

Times have changed a lot in the subsequent 56 years; some of the changes have been good and some not so good. I guess I was taught well (or maybe it was just dumb luck) since I've never been involved in any accident, incident, or pilot deviation.
 
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Finally took the time to upload the landing in case anyone wants to see how it went. Its not the same quality you see in some of the mainstream flying channels but it gets the job done for my own review.

 
Just another experience on the whole flying-without-instructor-present-after-solo:

When I soloed the first time, it was three laps around the pattern, then she told me to taxi back to the FBO, asked - "are you ready?" After grinning profusely, said yes, she told me make one lap and come back. I did.

Next lesson was a second solo, if you will. We did a couple of dual laps together, then she had me take her back, drop her off and I did a couple laps solo. After that, I remember my CFI asking if I could find my way to the practice area and back. After saying yes, she endorsed me for the solo flight to within 25 miles (or something like that) and told me to come out as much as I could and practice. Never had her with me when I came out to practice and the FBO handed me the keys as always and said, "have fun up there."
 
Good video. Also good effort keeping it on the centerline. Did you have a target for where to touch down?
 
Deelee said:
Just another experience on the whole flying-without-instructor-present-after-solo:

When I soloed the first time, it was three laps around the pattern, then she told me to taxi back to the FBO, asked - "are you ready?" After grinning profusely, said yes, she told me make one lap and come back. I did.

Next lesson was a second solo, if you will. We did a couple of dual laps together, then she had me take her back, drop her off and I did a couple laps solo. After that, I remember my CFI asking if I could find my way to the practice area and back. After saying yes, she endorsed me for the solo flight to within 25 miles (or something like that) and told me to come out as much as I could and practice. Never had her with me when I came out to practice and the FBO handed me the keys as always and said, "have fun up there."
Click to expand...

My first solo sounds similar. Three landings, followed with a lets go park. He signed my book, said go do it again and have fun on your first solo.
 
RingLaserGyroSandwich said:
Good video. Also good effort keeping it on the centerline. Did you have a target for where to touch down?
Click to expand...
thanks, loosely aiming for the 1000 ft. Really just wanted a smooth landing on the centerline. So I was a bit short but not enough to beat myself up.
 
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