Dan’s Pilot Times

I apologize for the lack of posts this past week, but I was busy flying literally across the country for work. Of course, for this cross-country, unfortunately, it was United Airlines flying, not me. I had meetings in Baltimore, Maryland (BWI), then Kansas City, Missouri (MCI), then ended the week in Los Angeles, California (LAX). During that trip, I had the opportunity to listen to a LOT of “Channel 9″ on United. For those of you who aren’t familiar, that’s the live Air Traffic Control radio station you can listen to in your seat while flying on United. So, although I wasn’t actively piloting any aircraft last week, I did get to imagine plenty of busy airport radio calls!

I know this may be slightly off my usual topics, but while in L.A. I ate at Simon|LA and it was absolutely fantastic and I felt I had to write about my culinary journey. Actually, I scribed this late Friday night after getting back from the restaurant, slightly tipsy…but I figure how more honest can you get for a review than half-in-the-bag?! Here you go…

Started with the “Zen Martini” which was vodka, some sake, and “essence of cucumber”. Awesome drink, a little sweet, not lingering, fresh cucumber flavor and tiny sliver of actual cucumber. Great drink.

The special salad of the night was an arugula salad with blue cheese, apricot, and aged balsamic vinaigrette. The perfect blend of peppery arugula, the bite of the blue cheese and vinegar, with the balance of the sweet balsamic and apricot. The apricot was nice and firm, great bite to it. The arugula nice as well, just perfectly blended salad.

Entree was their Ahi Tuna, sounds normal, but was spectacular. Three huge mini steaks of ahi tuna, perfectly seared on the outside with salt and pepper, just only 1/8th of inch cooked, the rest of the 1.5 inch think steaks were raw, and even cool in the middle (which I love). There was a teriyaki and shitake mushroom glaze on them that didn’t overpower, just perfectly worked with it. Underneath it all was a wasabi mashed potatoes. The potatoes were very blended and very wasabi-ish, so it was like real sushi underneath. Perfect dish.

The finale was “Cookies and Milk”. 6 cookies, 3 different types. Chocolate chunk, peanut butter, and PB-oatmeal. All were fresh out of the oven, the PB-oatmeal just incredible. Served with a tall thick freezing cold glass of whole milk. Just awesome.

Seriously, I wasn’t expecting this! Wow. Good job Simon|L.A.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So there you have my first attempt at being a restaurant critic. I promise my next post will be about a cross country flight where I pilot.

Today (May 22nd, 2008) was the big day! I SOLOED! The weather held up nicely and the skies were beautifully clear … I had a good feeling on my drive to the airport. I got to Westosha for my lesson and my CFI told me to pre-flight, start the plane up, and taxi it to the clubhouse by myself. I did all that, picked him up, and we ran the pattern at Westosha a few times. Everything wet swimmingly - the winds were at a slight crosswind for Westosha, but my landings were right on the mark. My CFI then said to head over to Burlington (BUU) to try some landings over there. After a short 10-minute jaunt I was on final for Runway 11 at BUU, with a perfect slight headwind. The landing was incredibly easy (as BUU’s strip is almost double the width of Westosha) and my CFI told me to taxi over to a hangar were he proceeded to get out and asked me a final “you ready for this?” I of course said yes and he told me to run the pattern a few times … by myself!

I taxied to the end of Runway 11 and called out my first solo radio announcement: “Burlington Traffic, Cessna 920, Departing Runway 11, Remaining in the Pattern, Burlington” and was off. Full throttle and I was kickin’ down the runway, accelerating faster than ever before. The plane felt like it leaped off the ground without the added weight of my CFI. I was soon in the air realizing, holy crap, this is all me! I was 10000% responsible for getting me on the ground. It was incredibly exhilarating and scary at the same time.

There was another plane around the airport that was taxiing towards the runway as I was making my way around the pattern. I was turning final and had made all my proper radio calls, yet he still took the runway in front of me and proceeded to takeoff. In retrospect there was plenty of room to land after him, but I wanted to give myself tons of space so I executed a go-around on my first pass…no biggie, but I was a little disappointed and spooked. However, I worked the pattern a 2nd time and was again lined up for final. My glide was perfect and my first solo touchdown was very smooth…I was elated! I did it, I officially became a pilot at that moment!

Although I had plenty of room to touch-and-go, I went full stop and taxied back around and ran the pattern again. All in all, I did three takeoffs and landings solo, a full 30 minutes worth of flying. I picked up my CFI and he said the landings looked great and I handled the traffic just fine. We headed back to Westosha and I finished the day with a nice moderate crosswind landing.

I fueled up the plane and my CFI came out and cut the my shirt tail off my back (the tradition for first solos). You can see a picture of what’s left of my shirt here. I don’t think I’ve been more proud of a destroyed item of clothing before!

I can’t wait for my next solo flight! This lesson I logged 0.9 hours and 5 landings dual, 0.5 hours and 3 landings SOLO, baby!

I came across a very useful free tool on the internet today that I thought I must share. It’s called “Tim’s Air Navigation Simulator” and it simulates how various navigation instruments (VOR, HSI, ADF, RMI, DG) act in flight. I found this incredibly useful as I’m starting to learn/practice navigating in my training. The tool is quite accurate at replicating the instruments and is a very clear and easy to understand.

What I found particularly useful was the ability to add a wind vendor. In theory, you could even simulate general wind effects on flight maneuvers. I’m definitely going to use this tool as I’m preparing for my eventual cross-country flights.

Anyways, check this tool out and I hope you find it as useful as I have! Good work, Tim (the developer).

One of the first questions I’ve gotten when I’ve told people I’m taking flying lessons is some variation of them asking: “is it safe?” Or, the statement I’m sure most pilots get frequently: “I’m never getting into one of those planes, they are so unsafe“. My wife still vows to never fly with me (although she’s already buckling I can tell). Naturally, I’ve personally felt that general aviation planes are safe (otherwise the government wouldn’t allow us to fly), but I also love to prove people wrong and I knew there must be data to back me up. Thankfully the NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) keeps incredibly detailed records about every aviation accident - big and small, fatal and non-fatal.

The AOPA (Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association) Air Safety Foundation prepares an annual summary report of this data from the NTSB - called the “Nall Report”. The most recent Nall Report shows that general aviation is the safest it has been in its history. In an estimated 24+ million flight hours in 2006, there was 1,319 total accidents, 273 of those being fatal accidents. I found this statistic to be very telling in that only 1 in 5 aviation accidents are fatal (much less than what my friends/family seem to think). To put that into perspective, that means for every 100,000 hours of general aviation flight time, there are approximately 6.32 accidents (and only 1.26 being fatal).

For the heck of it, I took this summary stat one step further and translated it to 1 accident per every 15,823 flight hours, or 1 fatal accident per 79,365 flight hours. In realistic terms (albeit hypothetical), if I flew 2 hours a day, every day for the rest of my life, I wouldn’t statistically have a fatal accident for 108 years! I think I’m comfortable flying! (Note - I KNOW this is NOT a statistically sound way of evaluating this data, but I like fun-with-numbers.)

The report has a ton of other great information and I highly recommend reading it. The ASF has other great articles and reports well worth reading as well.

My CFI had been nice enough to let me use one his extra headsets for my first couple of lessons (I hear stories of some CFI’s and FBO’s even charging rental fees for sets). However, I knew I’d eventually have to get one of my own. Me being me, I had to research the crap out of headsets and find the “best bang for the buck”…my usual mantra. Of course, I picked the brain of my CFI and got some general thoughts on what to look for in a headset: comfort, comfort, comfort, noise reduction, and reliability. I heard wonderful things about the Active Noise Reduction (ANR) headsets, but they start at around $400 (and go up to $1,000+) and I knew that was simply out of my price range. Furthermore, eventually this first headset would become my passenger set (hopefully years down the road), so I didn’t want to break the bank on something I have no experience with before.

Therefore, I quickly decided a passive set (PNR) was the way to go for me. I found a neat little headset comparison tool on MyPilotStore.com which I found useful to compare general features. I checked the manufacturer websites as well. My CFI mentioned that Flightcom made good quality sets that rivaled David Clarks (the apparent Lexus of headsets). The DC’s come very highly recommended all over the net, but they are a little too pricey for my first set. That being said, I knew one of the three Flightcom models would work. I settled on the middle of the road model, the Flightcom 4DLX. It had good padding, good all-around features, and didn’t break the bank. Actually, the LC Flight Shop had the lowest prices I could find on the net (barring used sets on Ebay).

The 4DLX does provide great ear protection and is pretty darn comfortable. Though, I do have to admit it starts to pinch my head a little after an hour or so (but maybe I need to re-adjust it a bit). The fact all passive headsets seal around your ear by a clamping action leads me to believe this isn’t anything out of the ordinary. What does slightly worry me is that the microphone seems to need a loud voice to register (although my CFI mentions the pilot side mic jack in the plane we use has always been finicky…so I don’t know if the problem is the jack or the headset…only testing in another plane will tell). I should probably do that before the 30-day money back guarantee is up!!

Anyways, I’m fairly happy with my purchase though and I must admit this makes me feel more like a “real” pilot!

I realized last night that I never realized wrote about my first flight in a general aviation aircraft, my “Discovery Flight.” As I mention on my About Dan page, after moving out to Volo, Illinois this past year, and working in Lake Forest, I drive down Route 120 every day from work. Along this drive, in Grayslake, there is “Campbell Airport” (C81). I would see the sign for this strip every day and eventually I had to Google it to learn more about it. They have a nice little website which advertises their $59 “Discovery Flight“. For $59, it was worth a shot…I booked it.

I get to Campbell airport early on a Saturday morning in February 2008 and was surprised at how “small” things seemed. (Comparing that to my cozy Westosha airport now, Campbell is pretty bustling.) Anyways, I meet my pilot for the day (a CFI) there and we preflight a Piper Warrior (here’s a pic of a Piper Warrior - not the one we flew though). He was very nice in showing me (almost a pre-lesson) how to generally pre-flight a plane. We jump in and he tells me about how the flight will go and that, if I was interested (which of course I was), I could handle most of the controls and definitely follow along at all times.

We take off (I did the pull up) and I was hooked…I KNEW I had to continue learning how to fly somehow. Anyways, we putzed around for about 30 minutes in the sky, even flew right over my new home. It was very cool. I would highly recommend anyone even remotely interested in aviation (regardless if you want to become a pilot) to take advantage of these “Discovery Flights” at most local airports…they are just a blast!

Well, I realize this story wasn’t as amazing as I thought it would be, but I think it’s important to share all my experiences about this great journey I’ve undertaken. Hopefully I’ll have a lesson tonight (if the weather cooperates)…and hopefully Saturday morning too! Will write then.

So my CFI calls me right before dinner to let me know his “airplane ferrying” gig fell through this week. Bad news for him, great news for me! So, we’re booked to fly tomorrow (Tuesday) after work, I’m psyched! I tell ya, after getting my Medical Certificate today, all I have been thinking about is flying.

I think I’m gonna’ hit the Gleim Reference book and start reading about navigating. I’ll probably also review the section on stalls since I know we’ll be working on that again. Goodnight!

Before you can fly solo (as a student) you need to be examined by a physician certified by the FAA. My CFI mentioned that I would probably want to get this sooner rather than later so my not having it wouldn’t be a hindrance when I was ready to fly solo. After checking the FAA website and starting the appropriate forms, I called my local AME (Aviation Medical Examiner) and he had an opening the same afternoon! I made the appointment, went, and passed with “flying colors” today.

Basically the doctor just checked my eyes, made sure I wasn’t color-blind (which I’m not), and made me pee in a cup. Apparently I’m clean and have adequate eyesight. My blood pressure was a little elevated, but I’m always nervous in doctor offices. He said I was still in the normal range. My new Medical Certificate Third Class and Student Pilot Certificate also doubles basically and officially as my “learners permit” for flying. I must admit it was nice NOT to having to go to some governmental agency and stand in line for hours to get this!

Anyways, I’m one step closer to becoming a licensed pilot! My next planned lesson is Saturday, but I’m going to try to see if another CFI at my airport is available tomorrow afternoon for a lesson. I doubt it, but I’m itching to fly!

I guess it was only a matter of time that I’d experience a scrubbed flight…especially being from Chicago. I was in beautiful Las Vegas for most of this week, but yesterday after arriving back at home the snow started falling heavy and fast. I knew by 9pm the night before my planned lesson today that we would have to cancel. Sure enough, after talking with my CFI we decided it wasn’t going to be nice enough to fly. Granted, this morning I DID see a small plane in the air, but even so I wouldn’t have been comfortable landing on icy/snowy runways (let alone dig the plane out of a snow bank).

Oh well, that’s weather for ya! I’m going to TRY to fly earlier in the week, maybe Tuesday…but of course I hear we have more snow on the way. It’s almost April and we’re still getting snow! Oh well, I’m from Chicago…par for the course!