All posts by thenandakumars

More Landings

Aviation, ,

Trying to make up for the last month when we couldn’t schedule even a single lesson.  This week is turning out to be all about landings. It is Srinath’s turn to fly today. Flight service gave us a bird advisory in the Livermore airport vicinity – first time I’ve heard this. We flew south of R-2531 after a left downwind departure from Livermore since the restricted area was in effect today being a weekday. This time we looked for landmarks that we had studied in the sectional chart last sunday.

A the end of two attempts at slow flight, we were at 3000′ and the aircraft and almost right above the New Jerusalem runway. So Srinath put the engine in idle, looked for 65kts glide speed and we circled once to lose altitude before going in for the first landing. On the second landing, Srinath took his hands off the throttle so Steve immediately put in full power for a go-around. Srinath did a total of 5 landings and one go-around at New Jerusalem, Steve did one landing to show Srinath. Then Srinath did a 6th straight-in landing back at Livermore.

[Aug 14] Steve and I both have a hard stop in the morning so we decide to shoot landings at Livermore airport itself. We start at 7:30am and get 13 landings in an hour before calling it a day.

9 Landings

Aviation,

We traveled to see the Grand Canyon NP right after the previous flying lesson. By the time we came back, Steve was on vacation for a week. The following week he was in town but we couldn’t arrange a suitable time with him. Then he went to the EAA’s OshKosh Airventure for a week. We finally managed to fly again today after just over a month since the last lesson.

First for some refresher on the charts (Section and TAC). The plan was to fly to New Jerusalem and practice landings. Steve told us how to find New Jerusalem based on the charts and then he pointed out a restricted area R-2531 just to the southwest of Tracy airport. The landmarks were a tall tower on the east side of the restricted area and a road that runs to the south of the area. They didn’t operate the restricted area on weekends so it was OK if we inadvertently few over it – well, OK we did it on purpose, not inadvertently.

Steve didn’t want me getting too comfortable with right downwind departures from KLVK so this time we decided to take off from 25R on a left downwind departure. A few minutes into the flight, the controller announced there was another airplane at 11 O’clock heading towards us at 3800′. We were at around 3000′. By the time we spotted, it was a couple of hundred feet above us. Since we were climbing, I temporarily leveled the plane until we crossed each other before resuming the climb.

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There was nobody at the New Jerusalem airport where we headed for touch and go’s. I did 8 landings of which I pulled off one of them without Steve having to touch the controls. In general, the landings were hard because I haven’t figured out how high I’m above the runway. When I thought I was inches above, I turned out to be about 10 feet above. We then returned to Livermore for the 9th landing of the day which was a straight-in approach.

More steep turns, Ground reference maneuvers

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It was a fairly warm day and right from the initial climb the engine ran hot. There was a crosswind at takeoff, managed with right rudder and right aileron.

First off some more steep turns. Srinath is still inadvertently making them too steep and needs more practice. You can see me at 4:06 in the video holding on to dear life as Srinath pulled up steeply to correct a nose down pitch attitude during the turn.

Engine heat was getting very close to the red line. So it was time for an engine out simulation to cool it down. After setting glide speed and scouting for a place to land, at about 300′ we decided to climb back up with throttle simulating a go-around.

Next, at 800′ altitude Srinath started S-turn ground reference maneuvers. In the area north of Byron, we found a long pipeline running east-west for reference. Always enter the turn on downwind, Steve instructed. The first turn is to get a feel for the wind speed and direction to judge where to turn and how much.

The next maneuver was 8-turns around a pylon at around 800′ altitude. The two anchor points were a white tank and a pickup truck. Midway through the maneuver, the truck started moving so we had to choose an outhouse as a different pylon. We noticed another plane making 8-turns at an altitude below us. At one point we came pretty close and the instructor took over to avoid. We turned back to Livermore and on the way back before we climbed the hills another plane was at the 9 o’clock direction. He was coming in the opposite direction, passed us on the left and turned left behind us.

Steep turns, instrument hood, stalls, touch-and-go

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My brother-in-law was visiting us and I had asked Steve if we could take him on the next training flight. He had never been on a GA aircraft before. Steve’s first concern was that we may be close to the weight and balance limits and that the aircraft wouldn’t perform well with the load, making training a bit challenging. We decided to take him along for the next flight at 7:30am with the plan of one of us sitting out when he went on the flight. The weather was cool that morning, my brother-in-law wasn’t very heavy and Steve felt we could all ride along. He did let us know of emergency procedures and that he would take over the plane if such a situation occurred. We also checked to make sure that there were air sickness bags, if our guest needed it for his maiden flight in a small airplane. There were two at the ready but we never ended up using them. Normally we would climb at around 80kts but today with the load we couldn’t climb at more than 70kts.

First Srinath flew under the instrument hood.

Then he was introduced to steep turns (advanced performance maneuver). Steve demonstrated the first turn after he made clearing turns. We felt a bump at the 360° rollout of the turn. Steve explained this was our plane crossing our own wake turbulence (or is it wingtip vortex?). Srinath was looking at the instruments rather than outside to judge the angle. So Steve put a patch on the attitude indicator. Then Srinath did a turn on the left and one on the right. Here is a good cover story on slow speed flying as well as steep turns from AOPA’s Flight Training magazine.

Next was full stalls and recovery in the clean config. Power idle, pull back yoke, right rudder to maintain heading. Soon the stall warning horn goes off and there is the incipient stall when the plane buffets. Then the stall occurs when the nose drops. Relax the back pressure to allow airspeed to increase over the wings and produce enough light to break the stall. Wings level flight and then power to produce more lift back to straight and level flight.

Later, Steve introduced us to an approach to landing stall (at 2:27 in the video). At altitude, do clearing turns. Then run through a landing checklist as if you are going in for a landing. Lower airspeed and then flaps in standard increments. Then pitch up to enter the stall. Stall recovery is identical to the clean configuration. Once the power goes back up, turn off carburetor heat, raise the flaps gradually a notch at a time as if you are executing a go around. Raising the flaps too soon will cause the plane to lose lift too soon. Steve demonstrates this at 5:05 in the video. Losing lift too soon after recovering from a landing stall can be disastrous.

Wind was gusting from 220 up to 22kts at the Byron airport, coming down over the Livermore hills. So we decided to land at Tracy instead. Another pilot was landing at runway 8 just ahead of us. We ran into her at the airport terminal and she was getting endorsed to go on her first solo. Srinath and I exchanged places on the left seat. We decided to take off quickly to clear the area for her and after takeoff, wished her well with the solo. I did a couple of steep turns with Steve demonstrating what happens to the nose if it is not coordinated (4:09 in the video).

Finally for the day, we headed to New Jerusalem for three touch and go’s before heading back to Livermore.

Instrument hood, Slow flight and Landings

Aviation, ,

Today was an early morning flight at 8am. We got to the hangar and started preflight before Steve arrived. It is my turn to fly today and we started with some instrument work under the hood.

Next, we worked on slow flight. Twice I put the plane into slow flight. On the second attempt, Steve asked me to make a shallow left turn. I banked to the left (wings lower on the left) and to keep the turn coordinated, I had to relax the right rudder just a little bit. I relaxed it a bit too much so there was more yaw to the left as I was also banking. The plane has an over banking tendency since the outer wings are moving faster than the inner wings leading to more lift on the outer wings. Since the plane was close to stall speed (stall horns blaring constantly during slow flight) I thought the plane could go into a stall and left spin so I instinctively went for the throttle to give it a little power. This is when Steve caught my arm and pulled it back (see 6:21 in the video). He mentioned that power in that situation could have got me into a lot of trouble. Later, he demonstrated (at 7:05) what would have happened if I had given it throttle in the middle of the left turn close to stall speed. He didn’t give any power but his demonstration showed that we would have entered a spin. He quickly corrected it but you can see that the plane was in an unusual attitude of a very high bank angle to the left. If I had given power in that situation, we could have gone into a steep spiral. Phew.

We then did three touch and go landings at New Jerusalem. But first, we flew over the airport to check wind conditions since there was no weather information for the non-towered airport. After the landings, in the way back to Livermore, at 14:08 in the video Steve demonstrates how a fixed pitch prop’s RPM increases with nose down pitch when the airspeed increases.

Radio communications for VFR

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The FAR/AIM chapter 4, section 2 defines the general framework for radio communications. Starting with the facility being called, then your full aircraft identification, state your position when operating on an airport surface, type of message to follow or your request itself if it is short. Here are some examples that I’ve encountered so far.

Just before starting to taxi out of the hangar after receiving a weather briefing (Yankee)

Livermore ground, Cessna 2 5 Echo Sierra Northeast Hangars taxi for takeoff with Yankee

Ground responds

Cessna 2 5 Echo Sierra Livermore ground runway 2 5 right taxi via Bravo

Pilot’s acknowledgement

2 5 right via Bravo 5 Echo Sierra

After getting to the run-up area and completing the pre-takeoff checklist

Livermore tower Cessna 2 5 Echo Sierra 2 5 right ready to go right downwind

Tower responds

Cessna 2 5 Echo Sierra Livermore tower number 2 for departure hold short of runway 2 5 right

Pilot acknowledges

Hold short 2 5 right 5 Echo Sierra

Tower asks to wait

Cessna 5 Echo Sierra runway 2 5 right, lineup and wait, traffic in the pattern

Tower gives clearance for takeoff

Cessna 5 Echo Sierra, the upwind traffic is in the right pattern, right downwind approved runway 2 5 right, cleared for takeoff

Pilot’s acknowledgement

Cleared for takeoff 2 5 right, 5 Echo Sierra

Approaching Byron for a landing. It is a non-towered airport.

Byron area traffic, Cessna 2 5 Echo Sierra is over Discovery Bay, inbound for right traffic runway 3 0, Byron

Approaching Byron airport for a landing. It is a non-towered airport.

Byron area traffic, Cessna 2 5 Echo Sierra is on the 45, inbound for right traffic runway 3 0, Byron

At Byron airport, getting ready for a takeoff followed by a landing. It is a non-towered airport.

Byron area traffic, Cessna 2 5 Echo Sierra is taking runway 3 0 for right closed traffic

Ready for a takeoff from Byron, heading to Livermore and on the way flying midfield over the runway. It is a non-towered airport.

Byron traffic, Cessna 2 5 Echo Sierra is taking runway 3 0 for an overhead 2 7 to Livermore

Flying over midfield over Byron airport. It is a non-towered airport.

Byron area traffic, Cessna 2 5 Echo Sierra is crossing midfield at 1200

Approaching New Jerusalem airport to check the runway, traffic pattern and wind direction. It is a non-towered airport with nobody around at the moment.

New Jerusalem traffic, Cessna 2 5 Echo Sierra is about 3 miles to the northwest inbound for an overflight for wind check

After circling the runway in a left traffic pattern, we announce our location.

Cessna 2 5 Echo Sierra is left crosswind to runway 3 0 New J

Lesson 1 – part 2

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Today we flew over the Sacramento delta just north of Byron. Srinath got to do slow flying, engine out scenario, donned the goggles for instrument work, did a couple of takeoffs and landings with full stops as well as fly over midfield at Byron airport before returning to Livermore. For the engine out scenario, he spotted a dirt track and we came down to within 100′ simulating a landing before climbing back up. Byron airport is used for parachute jumping but since there was nobody there today we were able to fly midfield.

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Staying Alive in the Plane with SOPs

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Attended an FAA Safety seminar at the San Carlos Flight Center, presented by Jason Miller of the finer points. Jason has been evangelizing safety standards for GA pilots since the accident rates in this community is almost 500x the accident rate of commercial airline pilots. He credits the success to the rigorous use of standard operating procedures (SOP) by commercial airline pilots. Some learnings from the seminar:

  • Review Part 91 accident reports and codify learnings into an SOP. GA community does not have a standardized way to disseminate the learnings across the community unlike commercial airlines.
  • Do a “final walk around” after all the passengers are buckled up and before starting the engine, as a redundant check against the preflight inspection. It is possible that during the preflight inspection the state of the aircraft may have been disturbed and the final walk around guards against that. On my very first demo flight, I failed to close the oil tank door on the cowling after checking the oil level. We didn’t notice it until after starting the engine and we were ready to taxi out of the hangar.
  • Abort takeoff if 70% of the rotation speed (Vr) has not been reached by the time you reach midpoint on the runway. While landing, if all the wheels haven’t touched down by the time you reach midpoint on the runway, immediately initiate a go-around. These will help eliminate preventable accidents.
  • Distinguish between a “do” list and a “check” list. It is OK to run a “do” list when you are on the ground and have no other distractions. You have the freedom to read off items on the “do” list and execute them. While in the air, perform a “flow” list followed by “check” list. The idea is to mentally define a visual flow over the dashboard and scan them. Then scan the “check” list to ensure everything was covered.
  • “Stay ahead of the aircraft”. Have a game plan for each stage of your flight. Run through the actions as you hit each stage of the flight and free up time to focus on flying the plane up to the next stage. Planning the actions after hitting the stage will leave less “downtime” to fly the plane and increase anxiety.
  • Pre-takeoff briefing. Have a game plan before you get to takeoff for the flight. Strike up an agreement with your CFI or co-pilot on emergency preparedness, what you will accomplish on this flight, route, roles and responsibilities etc.

Lesson 1

Aviation,

It was a hot day. As we left home around 5:30pm for our first lesson on June 9, 2014 at 6pm, the temperature reading on the car dashboard indicated exactly 100 degrees. We had spent the previous weekend at a scouting camporee at Rancho Los Mochos and the temperatures were scorching hot and dry between 95 and 103 degrees. Comparatively today was cooler. When I called Steve in the morning to schedule this lesson at 5:30pm, he suggested we meet at 6pm instead because it was to be a hot day. He wasn’t sure if we’d be able to make it in the cockpit long enough in the heat for both Srinath and my lesson today. As we were driving, we checked the METAR and remarked that the hot day with low pressure would lower engine performance due to higher density altitude.

This was the first time we used our own access to enter the airport grounds and I was going to try and get into the hangar before Steve showed up so that I could attach the GoPro camera on the ceiling and position at the proper angle. But Steve beat us to the hangar. The ceiling turned out to be not so smooth and I couldn’t attach the GoPro (yet again). Srinath would have to handhold the camera.

I asked Srinath to run the preflight inspection this time because I had done it the last time. The oil dipstick reading wasn’t very clear. I thought the reading was between 3 and 4 quarts whereas Srinath and Steve both thought it was between 4 and 5 quarts. Srinath let me fly first because he had taken off from Livermore on our last flight. By 6:45pm we were strapped in and ready to start the engines. It was sweltering hot in the cockpit and Steve reminded us that pretty soon we would turn on the air conditioning (aka propellers). I completed the other checklists before starting the engine. Steve let me talk to ATC for clearance – Livermore Ground, Cessna 2 5 Echo Sierra at Northeast hangar, request taxi for takeoff with Lima. We were finally lined up and as I gave it full throttle I got the first of many reminders to give it right rudder. The plane snaked on the runway and we took off. Due to the high density altitude, the plane needed 1300′ to reach rotation speed instead of the customary 700′. After a shallow turn crosswind and a shallow turn downwind, we were headed east towards Byron. Steve remarked that it was still 95 degrees outside.

ATC told us that there was an aircraft at 2400’ at 11 o’clock to us. We scanned the skies and could see it. We were climbing and were roughly at 2000’. A few minutes later ATC told us there was an aircraft at 12 o’clock to us at 1800’ which I was able to see executing a descending bank. Again a few minutes later ATC told us there was an aircraft at 6 o’clock to us which I’m not sure how we would ever be able to spot. As we were heading to the practice area, Steve noticed that I was making very shallow turns. To allay my fears me showed what a steeper turn looked like. The combination of the steep bank combined with a loss of altitude got me excited (a little dizzy). After leveling out, I was back at the controls and climbing to 3000’. Steve pulled back the throttle, dropped flaps and trimmed the aircraft to just above stall speed. The stall horns were continuously sounding (even though the airspeed indicator was only at the bottom of the green not the white). I flew the aircraft maintaining airspeed by controlling pitch and executed a 180 turn keeping an eye on the turn and bank indicator to not exceed the “notches” while banking.

This is when Steve noticed that the oil temperature was rising quickly. We continued the slow flight and soon the oil temperature was at max. We increased throttle, pulled back the flaps slowly and dropped the nose to increase airspeed thus cooling the engine. After trimming for a roughly 100 KIAS, we cruised around while the plane was slowly losing altitude. During this time Steve reminded us about how to plan for emergency landings. The oil temperature needle was visibly but slowly retreating into the green until we were down to just under 1000’ now. Executed a slow climb and flew straight and level parallel to a canal, using a distant point as reference on the windshield to keep it straight, all the while keeping an eye on the oil temperature to ensure it wasn’t getting dangerously high.

Today’s lesson was Medium Turns, Straight and Level, Slow Flight and I logged 1.2 hours. Cooling an overheating engine by increasing airspeed was a nice bonus. Perhaps I should have taken a second reading on the oil during preflight and used a tissue to wipe the dipstick clean before taking the reading to improve accuracy. Perhaps I should have suggested that we add more oil given it was going to be a hot day (and more oil will absorb more heat). An over heated engine runs the risk of either failing or catching fire, neither of which would have been welcome occurences on my first official lesson.

Still learning to give right rudder pressure but I started getting a visual feel for when the plane starts to yaw to the left due to P-factor. Still learning to keep one hand on the throttle at all times as the other hand gently holds the yoke. Back at the hangar around 8:15pm we debriefed on the lesson before calling it a night. We left the oil door open on the top of the cowling  and by now the outside temperatures had cooled down considerably.

Demo Flight

Aviation

Last saturday morning I called Steve and he gave me the good news. The propeller on C172 (N25ES) has been replaced and the test flight was to be later that afternoon. So I called him again on tuesday and when he confirmed the test flight was successful, we scheduled the demo flight for today. Srinath and I met Steve inside the Livermore airport and we drove to the hangar.

Steve walked me through the preflight inspection after which we towed the plane out of the hangar. I had my GoPro camera ready to shoot a video of the flight. A few days ago I purchased the GoPro Aircraft Cable by Nflightcam for $49.99 from Amazon.com in order to directly record audio on the flight intercom. I couldn’t figure out a way to clamp the camera within the cockpit so I planned to later get a suction mount. Today I will have to hand hold the camera with the audio input plugged in.

GoPro Aircraft Cable by Nflightcam
GoPro Aircraft Cable by Nflightcam

Srinath took the controls, he walked through the checklist before starting the engine. Once the checklist was completed, we looked out and Steve noticed that I had left the oil tank door open on top of the cowling. Running a “final walk around” before starting the engine could have caught this issue. We closed the oil tank door, Srinath communicated with ATC to get clearance for taxi and after an uneventful takeoff, we turned crosswind and then downwind.

As we neared Byron, I noticed a streak of smoke above the runway and thought that must be a jet exhaust. Steve quickly spotted it and called to our attention that it was an aerobatics pilot below us. We quickly changed our heading south east towards Tracy. Srinath maintained 3000’ altitude and Steve asked him to stall the plane and recover. The first time he showed Srinath how to reach a stall by asking him to pull back the throttle, then pitch up. The stall horns went off and I was getting nervous in the back seat since I hadn’t expected to be stalling the plane on our very first flight. Soon stall was reached, the nose pitched down as I had read in the books and watched on videos. Srinath eased back pressure, gave it full throttle and I felt like I was on a roller coaster. First the acceleration as the nose pitched down and the aircraft descended, then a sudden surge up as the full throttle generated lift. After recovering lost altitude, Steve asked Srinath to perform another full stall and recovery.

Steve intended to dispel myths about flying and demonstrating stalls was one of them. He next simulated engine out. At 3000’ altitude, he pulled back the throttle to idle and trimmed the aircraft to a gliding speed of 65 KIAS. While the aircraft glided downwards, he talked us through the process of identifying a suitable landing area. Better to land on a brown field than a green field. Better to land along the furrows than across. Be sure to look out in all directions, including on the right side which pilots typically overlook.

It was time to land the plane at Tracy, bring it to a complete stop and turn off the engine. I traded places with Srinath, started the engine, taxied for takeoff. It was my turn to do a couple of stalls. On my first one I was a little slow in recovering from the stall so the nose dropped quite a bit, accelerated downwards before I gave it full throttle to climb back up. The second recovery was quicker. Now it was getting fairly late in the evening and I was flying into a stiff headwind. The sun was pretty close to setting and I was thinking about landing the plane before the “59 minutes after sunset’ regulation. Our ground speed was noticeably slower and as I approached the Livermore hills the ride got quite bumpy. The aircraft was trimmed so I let it fly by itself for the most part through the turbulence. I learned to land “with my feet” using the rudder to stay lined up with the runway instead of using the ailerons as the aircraft descended. Steve took over when we were about a hundred feet above ground. I taxied the plane to refuel, and then back to the hangar. Today’s lessons were Preflight, Climbs, Turns, Stall, Engine out.