One Zulu Delta: A Student Pilot Adventure

denverpilot said:
I think you've got a good attitude about it. (See what I did there? Attitude... Awe cmon it's not that bad of a joke...)

I can't tell what altitude AGL you were at when it started but if your CFI had the altitude and knew you were in something rated for spins in the Utility category and that you were in the Utility envelope, I think he could have let that progress to what was seen in the second video and had *you* recover it.

He also knows you better than I and had to balance whether it would completely trash your confidence or scare you. No good reason to scare anybody on purpose. It's about teaching. And you appear to have gotten the lesson and the experience.

Definitely find time and money and do some spin training. It can only make you better as a pilot, not worse. You'll probably enjoy the heck out of it and it'll remove the fear and replace it with knowledge and a deep sense of caution and respect for them.
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Epic joke! We have the same sense of humor. My CFI suggested spin training afterward, but I don't know what airplane we would do it in, not sure if the 152 is certified. This was my mock checkride, so we were focused on that, and I'm not sure if we had sufficient altitude, and like you said, he was probably
balancing whether it would completely trash my confidence or scare me, so that's probably why he recovered it for me. We text regularly, and after he read this blog post he told me he felt really bad for me right after it happened. He could tell I was pretty upset with myself.

I didn't include it in the blog because I don't want to talk about money publicly (POA is fine, though hahah), but most of why I was so upset was that I knew my flying money had run out. I had enough for the mock checkride and the checkride and that was it for a while (post-wedding-honeymoon broke man blues). So when it happened, I knew that he couldn't sign me off for the checkride, and I knew I was out of money and wouldn't get it done for a while. So I was pretty bummed. I haven't flown since then.

jimbilly said:
Seemed to me like the main problem was rushing the recovery. But, like you said the nose up trim probably rushed it for you. My CFI has me pause for maybe a second after reducing the angle and before adding power. With a little more time you might have noticed and countered the trim pressure before it was out of hand.
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That's a very good point, I didn't think of that!
 
AND I made a Facebook page, because my FB friends were getting a little tired of me constantly posting aviation-related links. So I made a one-stop shop, and if they don't want to follow they don't have to. But I bet you all do!

https://www.facebook.com/onezuludelta/
 
Caramon13 said:
Based on all the stories lately of people who can't read a fuel gauge, I'm just gonna go ahead and guess that it was fuel-related..
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Nah. Some kind of major engine malfunction. CFI landed it. They take incredibly good care of their planes, and their CFIs are EXTREMELY conservative on the fuel, top it off constantly. It's a good outfit.
 
onezuludelta said:
Nah. Some kind of major engine malfunction. CFI landed it. They take incredibly good care of their planes, and their CFIs are EXTREMELY conservative on the fuel, top it off constantly. It's a good outfit.
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Yea I fly the twin out of your flight school. Great maintenance, instructors, and reliable planes.
 
onezuludelta said:
Nah. Some kind of major engine malfunction. CFI landed it. They take incredibly good care of their planes, and their CFIs are EXTREMELY conservative on the fuel, top it off constantly. It's a good outfit.
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That's what they always say, but you know what..most times it ain't. :) I'll wait for the report
 
Caramon13 said:
That's what they always say, but you know what..most times it ain't. :) I'll wait for the report
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Hard to say. The one time a plane at my club ended up on a road, the cause ended up being exactly what you would have guessed. The fuel selector on a PA28 is there for a reason. Though that airplane is topped off all the time, it still landed with one tank completely empty and the other full to the top. And just barely missed all the transmission lines coming out of a nearby substation. At night. The plane was fine, but it was sheer luck.

You're right, though, there isn't much point in speculating. With all the pilots being fine and the airplane in really good shape, the investigators will have a relatively easy time.
 
Wow, thanks for rubbing it in, POA website, with your "This thread is more than 1 year old" warning. YES. I AM AWARE.

So, 16 months since my last flight, I AM FLYING AGAIN! I am GOING to finish my PPL this summer. Here's a quick, silly blog post about the first time back in the air:

http://onezuludelta.com/back-in-the-saddle-again

P.S. Thanks for some of you who would check up on me periodically. This break was all money-related (or lack-thereof-related), but it warmed my heart to know that I had people rooting for me.
 
onezuludelta said:
Wow, thanks for rubbing it in, POA website, with your "This thread is more than 1 year old" warning. YES. I AM AWARE.

So, 16 months since my last flight, I AM FLYING AGAIN! I am GOING to finish my PPL this summer. Here's a quick, silly blog post about the first time back in the air:

http://onezuludelta.com/back-in-the-saddle-again

P.S. Thanks for some of you who would check up on me periodically. This break was all money-related (or lack-thereof-related), but it warmed my heart to know that I had people rooting for me.
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Congrats! Perseverance pays off sometimes! I'm taking an extended break myself after getting my PPL/instrument and commercial and I HATE not being in the air..
 
onezuludelta said:
So, 16 months since my last flight, I AM FLYING AGAIN! I am GOING to finish my PPL this summer. Here's a quick, silly blog post about the first time back in the air:

http://onezuludelta.com/back-in-the-saddle-again

P.S. Thanks for some of you who would check up on me periodically. This break was all money-related (or lack-thereof-related), but it warmed my heart to know that I had people rooting for me.
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I can't seem to access your posts on the blog. Is there a new link?
 
GMascelli said:
I can't seem to access your posts on the blog. Is there a new link?
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That link doesn't work? Or you can't get to the other posts from the main page? Are you on mobile or desktop? I set this website up like 3 years ago, I hope there's nothing wrong with it because I sure don't remember what I did.
 
GMascelli said:
Can't get to the individual posts from the main page.
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Ugh, that sucks. I have that video part at the top and you have to scroll past it, but sometimes the scrolling is weird. I just should ditch the little video thing.
 
I built the website using this fancy thing that I didn't realize was more for building cool business webpages and less for a blog-style page, and then they ditched some features, so now it's a little clunky to mess with, but I'm not sure how (or if I should) reset/re-style it.

In other news, I'M GOING FLYING AGAIN TODAY. 4 PM CAN'T GET HERE FAST ENOUGH!
 
I'm up to 7 hours since I restarted my flight training, and it has basically all been checkride prep. Flew Saturday and Sunday, and flying again today. If all goes well, I get the sign-off and we call the DPE to schedule. I can't believe I'm this close again.

Saturday was atrocious because it was bumpy as hell and busy as hell. We were getting slammed all over the sky, there were 7-8 planes in each practice area, and the Approach controller was yelling at VFR pilots to stop calling him for flight following. Sunday the winds were calmer, but it was a typical FRG Sunday, waiting at the hold short line for 30 minutes while there's 9 people in the pattern. The flights weren't a TOTAL waste, but you definitely get 500% more done on a weekday in this place.
 
I can't deal with weekend flying anymore at FRG. The last Saturday that I flew, I was held short on RWY 1 for 45 minutes because a jet blocked Bravo waiting for his release. Finally, they started intersection departures but the line was so big that Bravo runup was blocked.

The only exception is leaving before 8am, there are very few planes up that early. You can do an hour (7:30-8:30) and get 6-7 landings in. After 8:30, it becomes chaos. I found the best (read: most economical $) time to fly was weekday late afternoons. At 5pm (summer time only), the place goes dead. No more jets, no more SUNY Farmingdale students. I was often the only plane in the pattern. I would get cleared for T&G's while turning downwind. I was so used to getting extended 3-4 miles each time, that the first time they cleared me like that, I thought they got me confused with somebody else.

Try that, you will love it.
 
orange said:
Try that, you will love it.
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I'm going today at 4 PM so it should be better!

I knew it would be bad this weekend but I just forgot HOW bad. I don't know why any of the Tower controllers would want to stay at a job there, they always sound SO frustrated and I don't blame them.
 
The number one reaction from friends and family, upon hearing about my new private pilot license, was some variation of this:

Congrats! So…what can you do with it?

So, I thought I’d share what I can and can’t do, and what a private pilot license means and doesn’t mean.

(All of you probably already know all this stuff)

http://onezuludelta.com/what-to-do-private-pilot-license
 
onezuludelta said:
I did a little bit more writing to answer a lot of the questions family and friends have post-checkride, about WHAT'S NEXT:

http://onezuludelta.com/whats-next-for-me-as-a-private-pilot
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Put unusual attitudes/spin recovery on that wish list. Especially the latter. It doesn't take much more than a few hours and might save your bacon someday.

If you have access to a glider operation, a glider add-on is also a great way to get solid stick and rudder (lots of rudder in some gliders!) practice and a feel for flying that you can't get as easily in powered aircraft.

Cool plan. Enjoy the heck out of the new rating.

Don't let it get boring -- always challenge yourself. Especially at first, make some time to go out and see if you still meet the ACS standards or better for all the required "stuff". A little air work from time to time, a little short and soft field takeoffs and landings, and if you're planning on travel by airplane, keep those night skills up and stay current on that as well.

There's always more to learn and experience. Have fun!
 
denverpilot said:
Put unusual attitudes/spin recovery on that wish list. Especially the latter. It doesn't take much more than a few hours and might save your bacon someday.

If you have access to a glider operation, a glider add-on is also a great way to get solid stick and rudder (lots of rudder in some gliders!) practice and a feel for flying that you can't get as easily in powered aircraft.

Cool plan. Enjoy the heck out of the new rating.

Don't let it get boring -- always challenge yourself. Especially at first, make some time to go out and see if you still meet the ACS standards or better for all the required "stuff". A little air work from time to time, a little short and soft field takeoffs and landings, and if you're planning on travel by airplane, keep those night skills up and stay current on that as well.

There's always more to learn and experience. Have fun!
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Great advice!!! I figure if I ever do any aerobatics courses I'll also do whatever upset/spin recovery course they have on offer, because that's really my reason for doing it, not to learn loops, etc. Also, I'm pretty sure there are a ton of glider operations in New York State, not that far from the city, so I'll definitely check that stuff out too.

As of now, money is slightly tight so I'm going to try to do some kind of flying once a month minimum. If we don't have time or money for a longer trip, the plan would be to go grind out some landings, but I like the specificity of your idea: make sure I meet the standards for everything required, instead of just "practicing landings, etc."

Thanks!!!
 
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