Tag Archives: instrument

PPL-ASEL Checkride

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Last week I called my DPE as previously discussed and got a cross country from KLHM to KMRY for planning. Also, I got the weight and balance details which I worked out in advance. Otherwise, I was asked to prepare per the ACS.

I arrived at Lincoln last evening and stayed overnight. Lincoln airport charges a $5 transient parking fee for overnight tie down. You can pay at the self-service box on the ramp. You can get an Uber from the airport to one of the local hotels. I had tried calling the airport twice to find out the availability of courtesy cars but only reached their voicemail.

My checkride started this morning at 9am. I met the DPE at their hangar. DPE wanted to start off by understanding how I got into flying and what I expected to do with the license. Since I’m interested in volunteering, DPE suggested I go a step further and see if I could work with companies who need photographers/pilots (eg. Sierra Pacific, US Fish and Wildlife). A commercial license will be helpful in that case.

After a few minutes, we started by reviewing and signing my IACRA online, reviewing identification documents, knowledge test, pilot and medical certificates and the pilot logbook for all the necessary endorsements. Next, I was asked to show how the aircraft is ‘qualified’ for our flight today. I went through the annual for airframe, engine and propellor, reviewed the ADs that have been completed with our 50-hr inspections. We had a discussion around whether or not our planes need a 100-hr inspection considering our club is owner-operated. These planes are not considered ‘for-hire’ for flight training (because the instructors are paid directly and they are not employed by the club). DPE explained that especially for today’s checkride, since it is not flight training we don’t need a 100-hr inspection. We talked about always logging accidents and incidents with the NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System and the associated form at the back of FAR/AIM (on page 1127 in the 2018 edition).

The oral exam was a combination of scenario based and direct questions. DPE let me refer materials (I had all the handbooks and manuals on my iPad) whenever needed and occasionally even pointed out specific sections in documents to refer.

First scenario was that of a private pilot taking friends to Monterey who offer to pay for the trip. Upon landing at Monterey, FAA agent does a ramp check. We talked about this at length, including ADM, hazardous attitudes, PAVE checklist especially external pressures since friends are involved. We also discussed IMSAFE and personal minimums. It helped in the discussion that I had one already filled out. A variation on the scenario was that I had flight following but my radios died before entering Monterey class Charlie. What would I do next?

We looked at weight and balance for the aircraft. I was asked to explain how I know if it is still valid.

If placards have faded, is the aircraft still fit to fly?

We had a discussion around inoperative equipment. How do we know if fuel gauge isn’t working and would we fly with such a gauge? How about a failed attitude indicator? How should we deal with inop equipment? Then we went on to minimum equipment list, equipment list from the POH listing required equipment, A TOMATO FLAMES checklist.

Know the ADs for your aircraft, when they were complied with and in the case of recurring ADs the frequency at which to inspect.

Then we had a detailed discussion of the electrical system and fuel system. What if either the alternator or battery fails during flight. A related question was why the alternator generates 14V when the battery is only rated for 12V.

Next we reviewed the cross country plan and discussed the route, altitude choices, airspaces along the way, requirements for the airspaces, special use airspaces and their requirements, flying over water and class Bravo considerations. If the cross country was planned at night what I would do differently, do I need oxygen. Requirements for flying under class Charlie shelf and over class Delta. DPE liked the fact that I had the plan on Foreflight/iPad as well as a written cheat sheet with landmarks, headings and ETA.

We took a break before starting on the flight portion of the test. DPE said I can take all the time I needed to adequately set up for each maneuver. Flight following was at my discretion and if I chose then I should only ask for it until the maneuver area south of Sacramento.

Winds were really picking up outside so I could call for discontinuance if I was ever uncomfortable either before or during the checkride. DPE wanted to see one go-around during the course of the test. As expected, we’ll start the cross country but wouldn’t go beyond Sacramento and DPE wanted me to check the weather at all the local airports and point out the ones I wouldn’t be comfortable landing for a diversion. Mather and Auburn were at or above my 10 kts crosswind component limit and the rest were manageable.

We started with a soft field takeoff and I called up Norcal for flight following (just because I could) and started tracking heading for first checkpoint on the cross country plan to intercept a radial from SAC VOR. Then I turned towards the VOR for my second checkpoint when the DPE said passengers in the back seat were feeling airsick. So I changed destination to KSAC. We landed then taxied back for a soft field takeoff departing right 45 towards Folsom lake for maneuvers. First, I realized my window was open when I took off and tried to close it on upwind but the winds were blowing me around. Steve’s advice to “fly the plane” rang in my ears and I left the windows alone to stay with the climb out at 75-80 kts and stabilizing before trying again to close the window. Second, in the distraction I almost busted into Sacramento’s class Charlie. En route, I donned the hood for instrument work and two unusual attitudes.

Next we started with slow flight in the landing configuration. DPE asked me to start a shallow turn at 60 kts when I was still getting configured towards my usual flying slow flight at 50 kts. So I was a little bit caught off guard. We discussed this later in the debrief after checkride. Then I did power OFF stall in the landing configuration, power ON stall in the takeoff configuration, steep turns to the left then right. From there we proceeded to Lincoln for some landings.

First was a soft field landing, touch and go back for short field landing. Then we did a forward slip to landing. My approach was too high so went around and tried it again. KLHM was too busy so I was #3 and the aircraft in front of me was too slow so I did a left 360 and rejoined final for a full stop and the conclusion of checkride. I was allowed to use a combination of Garmin 430, VOR, Foreflight on iPad and scribbled notes for navigation. We taxied back to the hangars and the DPE congratulated me that I had passed the checkride as we were getting out of the aircraft.

Some feedback that I received after the checkride:

  1. My radio work was excellent both on towered and non-towered airports
  2. Recovery from unusual attitudes under the hood were very good and prompt
  3. DPE never felt that safety was a concern (even when I realized my window was open).
  4. Use one full arc nose-up trim on steep turns and a little bit of power as needed then the plane should fly the steep turn without elevator back pressure.
  5. Stay on the centerline with lots of right rudder especially on soft field takeoff when the nose wheel is off the runway. So there is even less directional control with sole reliance on the rudder which itself is inherently not very effective on the high angle of attack configuration.
  6. Don’t start working on instrument approaches until perfecting instrument scan and holding altitude/heading accurately.

We started at 9:10am and I was done by 2:30pm. Felt at ease throughout and never felt rushed. I had sufficient time to review my maneuver checklist before each one. I gave it my best shot and I’m sure I used the full latitude of ACS standards i.e., my performance  was by no means perfect. After all, what I’ve just earned is a Private Pilot’s License to learn.

Checkride Route

VOR Morse Codes

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The weather was beautiful this weekend and I had a chance to fly 906MD on both mornings. Among other things, I had a chance to practice VOR radial intercepts. Recently FAA has decommissioned the Manteca VOR but nearby Linden and Modesto are intact and functional.

The sectional chart shows the following snippets for the two VORs in the San Francisco airspace. The aircraft is equipped with Garmin 430 GPS and I tuned to them to show how the morse code identifier sounds. The morse code helps to confirm that the right station is tuned before relying on it for navigation.

Crosswind landings, stall recovery under instruments

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We started off with Steve handing me stylish eyewear i.e. flying under the hood. After maintaining a heading and then tracking a VOR, I practiced two stalls in the clean configuration and recovery. Using only instruments under the hood. Then I practiced an approach to landing stall. First by initiating a descent, slowing down to 1500rpm and deploying flaps. The idea is to simulate a landing approach. Then pulling up the plane in this configuration and initiating a stall the plane. Recovery is similar to a stall in the call configuration with the exception that we have flaps deployed. So slowly retract flaps step by step when a climb has been achieved.

Next, I practiced slow flight with shallow turns. And then Steve pulled the power out simulating an engine out situation. We scouted a field and when we got pretty low, Steve pushed the throttle and we headed over Byron.

The winds were really strong at 20kts but fortunately it was a headwind on Rwy 23. Still the ride was really bumpy, perhaps the bumpiest of all our flights thus far. We practiced a couple of touch-and-go and then headed to Livermore for a couple more.

On the second touch and go at Livermore, we ballooned after touchdown due to the wind so Steve immediately did a go-around. I wasn’t quick enough to react and this was a good learning experience. After one more landing, we called it quits for the day.

Srinath’s first solo

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Today we turn left downwind towards our usual practice area. Winds 300@15. As soon as we turned downwind, the controller asked us if our transponder was working. It turned out that we had not turned on the transponder! Note to self: add this to the checklist when we check if the radios are set.

Steve handed Srinath stylish eyewear and Srinath flew under the hood, maintaining 3000′ on heading 095. Later he navigated using a couple of VOR stations that Steve tuned in. After reaching our practice area, Srinath was asked to stall the plane in a clean configuration under the hood (using instruments only) for the very first time. Next, Steve asked Srinath to forward slip the plane in order to lose altitude since we were pretty close to crop circles and Steve was planning a ground reference maneuver for turns around a point (maintaining 600′-1000′ AGL typically). After turning around a crop circle, Srinath turned around a lone tree nearby for another ground reference maneuver.

At this point, Steve pulled the power and simulated an engine out. Srinath had to react quickly to establish a glide slope and scout a place to land. New Jerusalem was close by but with the engine out, we could not make it that far. Steve spotted a road nearby and as we got pretty low, it was time to gun the engines and make a go for New J.

Srinath did three landings at New J. On one of the approaches, Steve said there is a cow on the runway, prompting Srinath to react quickly and do a go-around. On the third landing, Steve took over the plane and declared that Srinath was going to fly solo. It came as a surprise to both Srinath and I, neither of whom were mentally prepared for this occasion. Later, Steve would tell me that he solo’ed Srinath because his landings were consistently good.

While Steve signed Srinath’s logbook and his student certificate (3rd class medical) with the solo endorsements, I reminded Srinath that Steve would not have solo’ed him unless he felt Srinath could handle it. But that Srinath had to be very mindful of maintaining airspeed especially on the turns to base and final and not hesitate to do a go-around if he didn’t feel things were going well on the approach. Even more importantly, never to get over confident especially when things are going well.

Soon Srinath was on his way and Steve and I watched him like grounded hawks, listening to the engine drone and running a commentary guessing his actions based on auditory and visual inputs. There he pulls back to 1500rpm and there he pulls the first notch of flaps etc. His first landing was great and Steve was so excited that he jubilantly pumped his fists in the air, shrieked and and danced in joy. I was excited too, but more importantly I was videotaping his landing. Seeing the plane on a steady approach gave me confidence. His next two landings were good too and he turned around on the runway to taxi back towards us.

Later while viewing the in-cockpit video, I could tell that Srinath’s voice and tone got more and more confident with each go-around. Clearly he was understandably excited after completing his solo. My only worry again was that he shouldn’t get over confident. It was a proud moment for a father to see his son complete this milestone.

After a few minutes, Steve and I get into the plane to head back home. Srinath cranked the engine. The prop turned once then seized. No luck even after pumping the throttle and retrying. Steve got off the plan to hand crank the prop the old fashioned way. Three tries and still no luck. The prevailing theory was that the battery was dead and a spare battery was in our hangar at Livermore. We were stuck at the New Jerusalem airport. In the middle of nowhere (which is the reason Steve likes to solo his students here). Nobody in sight.

We unload the plane and scouted around for decent sized rocks to secure the wheels. It was dusk and pretty soon it would be pitch dark. Steve called a couple of club members and got hold of Doug who was once Steve’s student. We hoped that Doug would drive up to Livermore from his home in Pleasanton and fly the Cessna 182 to New J to pick us up. Tomorrow, Steve would haul the spare battery and drive up to New Jerusalem with somebody else to start the engine and fly the 172 back to Livermore. However, given how late in the evening it was, Doug was not comfortable flying the 182 knowing it would be nearly dark by the time he arrived at New J. The runway is not lit so it would be a challenge for somebody flying solo to locate the airport at all. Doug made a good call of driving over in his truck. And he had the presence of mind to call one of his friends who lived in Tracy to head over to New J to meet us, since it would take a while for him to drive over. His friend showed up within 10 minutes.

In the meantime, we secured the plane, carried all our gear and walked towards the gate. Unfortunately the gate was locked from the outside and we couldn’t find an opening to get out. Doug’s friend drive along the fence and came back to report that there was no exit! As if Srinath’s solo wasn’t exciting enough for the day, Escape from New Jerusalem was going to keep our adrenaline pumping for a bit longer.

Steve had worked for Caltrans and was hoping that Doug or his friend would have a shovel in their truck. This was an old trick Steve had employed in his past life. Stick the shovel’s handle through the chain link fence, halfway to the top. Once person would hold the shovel on the other side of the fence while we stepped on the protruding part inside the fence to hop over. Unfortunately, neither Doug nor his friend had a shovel. We tried improvising but nothing worked. By now it was dark so they had to turn on the headlights towards us so we could plan an exit strategy.

Doug had two large water drums on his flatbed truck. So we planned to toss one inside the fence and pull up the flatbed truck all the way to the fence. That way we could step over the drum, jump over the fence and land on his flatbed on the other side. Everything seemed to be going well until it was my turn. Since I wasn’t tall enough, I was barely able to kick one leg over the fence and land on the flatbed on the other side. Unfortunately the other leg was still on the drum and I was stuck straddling the fence at the top. The chain link caught my jeans at an unspeakable location and it wouldn’t free itself. Neither could I force it off. After much struggle and with help, we were able to tear the jeans off the fence so I could cross it.

So now the drum was still inside and all of us were outside. We couldn’t leave it this way so were stuck again, trying to find a way to haul the drum over. Miraculously, Doug had a shovel in his flatbed unbeknownst to him. So finally we had a chance to try Steve’s trick. Doug hopped over the fence onto the protruding shovel handle, tossed the drum over and then jumped off the shovel safely onto the truck. We were all clear. Finally! What a surreal night.

Using the maps app on our smartphone we navigate our way out of New Jerusalem’s backroads in the darkness to Tracy and then to I-580. It was almost 10pm by the time we got back to our hangar in Livermore. After filling out our logbooks we were back home around 10:45pm. Hopefully N25ES would be safe in New J for the night.

Here is the flight track log.

Wings of Freedom

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The annual Wings of Freedom Tour is going on this weekend at the Livermore airport. As we pulled up beside our hangar, a B-17 Flying Fortress “Nine 0 Nine” was going through its run up check prior to takeoff. The Collings Foundation offers tours on its fleet of WWII aircraft as they tour around the country. The sound of its Wright-Cyclone engines thumped through the air and echoed off the nearby hills. Our hangar is one of the closest to the run up area and a group had gathered for best views and to photograph the spectacle.

We took off on 25R and headed right downwind. As we were climbing, Steve spotted a B-25 on our right heading towards the airport to perform an overhead break. Very soon Steve handed me stylish eyewear, his term for the instrument hood. After maintaining different headings, Steve asked me to stall the plane. Under the hood! Without realizing, I ended up in a falling leaf stall so I did it again, this time consciously and without the hood. The plane was clearly unhappy as it bounced around in a stall condition.

Today we tried boxing the sky for the very first time. Using full rudder to move the nose to the left and right while at the same time using the ailerons to keep the wings level. After a few boxes, we headed to the New Jerusalem airport. It was pretty close by and we had quite a bit of altitude to lose so we did a side slip with nose slightly nose down and fully cross controlled. We did 5 touch-and-go at New J before heading back to Livermore.

As we got close to Tracy to turn west towards Livermore, the B-17 passed ahead of us and we followed it all the way to Livermore. He was lower so we didn’t have any threat from wake turbulence. We did watch where he landed so we could touchdown farther to avoid the wake turbulence on the runway. The bombers were done for the day and we taxied past them on our way to fuel.

had never seen these WWII aircraft in airworthy condition, let alone flying or taxiing amidst these heroes. Today was a memorable day! Here is the full flight track for the day.

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

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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.

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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