Preflight 20081227 (20090104)

Flight briefing: 0830

Mission: Use VOR to fly to BGM, Greater Binghamton Airport
Talk to ATC
Touch & go at BGM
Use VOR or pilotage/de'd reckoning fo return trip to home airport

Mission Status: Scrubbed due to weather until later date
Update: Mission Status: COMPLETE 20090104

Debrief 20081226

Well today as stated, I went up. The weather held out and still is rather nice out. Calm, but enough wind to warrant a crab correction depending on the heading. Well I ascended to 3,000 feet and did some approach stalls. I worked with the trim some during slow flight trying to keep her at 65 knots. After working on approach stalls and glides for awhile I decided to pick a heading 150 which took me directly over my house. I did a couple turns and circled around the house. I did an ascending 180 degree turn to head back toward Towanda where I practice my turns, level, descending, and steep. I made the steep turns, steep. That was fun.
Then I decided to head back cause it was almost an hour since I took off, I had one tenth to go before it was an hour. There was one guy in the pattern, a Cessna 182 Skylane with passengers, including a dog. He entered the pattern on "left" base for runway 5, but went all the way around the pattern. Maybe he didn't like the way he had the pattern set up, it could've been any number of things including that the pilot just felt like taking a trip around. He called the left crosswind and then downwind. I could see him as he went by, that thing was bookin! Haha, but I fell in behind him and called out that I was entering the pattern downwind for 5. I did a lazy 360 to get some spacing between me and the skylane. As I exited the 360, he called out that he was on final. I called that I was on base. He cleared the runway and called that he was clear of the active, so I called out final as turned and headed toward the runway. (Little did I know someone was waiting for me to get done to go flying!) I taxied back to the end of runway 5, I wanted to do the last thing on my list for the day, a slip. I called out that I was taking off. Man did she climb well today!!!!!! Oh man she was working real well today. Skipping the xwind>>>> On downwind as I approached the end of the runway I pulled the throttle, the I called out that I was on base for runway 5 and put her into a nice slip. I held her at 65 knots for the duration and kept correcting the amount of aileron as was needed. As I closed in close to the runway, I recovered from the slip floated over the runway at about seventy-some knots and slowed her down to 65 by raising the nose a little. Then I pulled right into my flare as I felt the plane sink and touchdown. I got on the binders and taxied back to the FBO. As I shut the plane off and exited, I realized I forgot to fill her up. DAMN!!!!! I went in the briefing room where I met Lee. We talked for a bit while I filled out my logbook and such, then Jerry came in. They were going up to do dutch rolls, another fun thing I did earlier! So I was happy with today. 1.0 hours on the nose.
Preflight 20081227 coming later tonight... over and out

Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas! Today was great. Family, Food, Friends. Three of the four "F's" in life that everyone enjoys...family, not all the time...everything in moderation. So here are some things I recieved for Christmas.

David Clark H10-76 Headset
Blue Angels T-Shirt
A mile ruler for sectional charts
REMOVE BEFORE FLIGHT keychain
Alien Vs. Predator
The Outsiders
The X Files
Diary of the Dead
Naval Aviator Wings

Those were the ones I'm most happy about.

I hope everyone had a very good Christmas and has a great New Year! Still waiting on the ROTC, gettin nervous!!!!!!!!

Peace

Preflight 20081226

I'm starting a new thing. Everytime before I go flying, I'm going to write a preflight. It will be titled Preflight [Date of expected flight]. This is the first one. Tomorrow the 26th of December, I am hoping to go up at about 0900.
Mission: Do a couple trips around the pattern.
Leave the pattern, ascend 2,500 to 3,000 ft (depending on clouds). Fly to practice area.
Practice:
Approach stalls
Slow Flight
One final trip around the pattern, slip to land.

Mission Status: Complete (20081226)

Hopefully all goes well and I'll be able to get up in the air tomorrow morning! Saturday I'm hoping to go as well. But if the weather is going to be worse than crappy, I may ask Jerry to go up on Saturday. The more I wait for the Binghamton trip, the more nervous I get about it. I shouldn't be nervous, I've handled everything fine thus far!

Weekend Update, amongst other things

Well this weekend got really really snowy and icy. The runway was much too slippery to fly. It was supposed to be real bad on Sunday, the day I was going to fly with Jerry. The weather, was a bit chilly but really nice. Not much wind, blue sky, the only thing was, the runway and taxiways were still too slippery. It only made me more disappointed as the day kept getting nicer and nicer until about 1730 when the sun set. So no flying took place this weekend. I got my present (The David Clark Headset) all wrapped up. Even though I know what I got for Christmas, it still excites me because I know it's a gift I'm going to use a lot. I plan on keeping this headset even in the military (if they let me, which they should considering it's a military issue headset!).
SO yes, I have some good news though! Other than my awesome headset. I was accepted into Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University at Daytona. So now I have been accepted to my top choices...in a way, I'm glad, but I'm also upset. Both Westminster and ERAU are very well known, and have good educational quality. I haven't recieved scholarship information yet, but that may decide where I go to college. Hmm..$27,000 a year with a $6,000 a year scholarship (Actual scholarship from Westminster) vs. $48000 at ERAU? I think I'll take the money over location convenience! I don't know yet though. All I got to wait on is the NROTC. I'm hoping I get the scholarship. Lady Luck, don't run out on me now!

VOR Flight 20081214

So I was wrong, today we just went up and did VOR stuff. We flew around while tracking VORs, intercepting VORs and Direct to VORs. It was bumpy below 3500 feet, but 3500 and above was oddly smooth. Overall I did real well today. I was kind of nervous about doing the VOR at first but now I think I got the hang of it. It's pretty nifty. We were headed back and he told me to fly over the airport at 3300 feet. While I kept the plane at a level attitude, I kept losing altitude. It was getting increasingly more turbulent. I nosed up to climb attitude, but lost another 50 feet by the time we reached the airport. He pulled the engine and called, "Bradford County Traffic, Cessna 94609 spiralling down to runway two three." He asked me what I'd do if this were to happen to me. Although I'd heard him say "Spiral," I knew that's what I'd have to do, so that's what I answered. It was a perfect spiral, Third time around, I was lined perfect with the runway comin out of the spiral and landed. Didn't even need the flaps. Jerry said, "Man, you're makin me look good!" It was a good day today. Definately happy with how this weekend went, I even got to spend a bit of time with my girl. Great weekend. Hope to have a few more like it.
Next week's mission: Follow VOR to Greater Binghamton (BGM), touch and go, VOR back to N27.
Jerry thinks that if all is well and I'm comfortable, he hopes to kick me out on a solo cross country over Christmas break.

Pictures from today

Note* I was not looking through the camera during these. I was scanning for traffic and obstacles while also scanning my instruments. Multitasking: it's a beautiful thing.

20081213 Flight

I woke up bright and early today at 0730. I showered ate and got dressed. I got to the airport at about 0845. There was still a light coating of snow on the runway and taxiways. This did not present a problem however. Jerry came in, he was going to Pittsburgh today. He told me I should wait until the sun melts some of the snow off the runway. I was content in doing so but Niel, another flight instructor offered to ride around with me. I said sure. I wanted to build some solo time(and I did), but there was no harm in learning a thing or two about soft field operations. He went around two times with and since he was goin with me for free, he went around once. The Hobbs meter said .8 hours but Niel thinks that the meter messed up. After we got done with our bull session, he signed my logbook. The guy who was supposed to come in after me cancelled, so the plane was free for the rest of the day. So I went back out and had some fun. I flew up an down the river again. I'm getting braver. I went over the Golden Mile that leads to the Towanda bridge. Also, I snapped some great pictures. It was such a beautiful day. Winds at 0knots, hardly any clouds, smooth as glass. Loved every moment of it. I spent a total of .7 hours by myself. I decided I was in need of fuel, so I went back to the airport and set her down. I was way high on final, but that was no problem. I just pulled the power and full flaps, slowed her to 60. It was a nice landing. I filled her up at the fuel farm and took her back to the hangar. I was very happy with today. It couldn't have gone any better. (I can't upload the pics yet, my computer is freaking out right now, but rest assured, they will be up sooner or later.) Tomorrow's flight is at noon with Jerry. We're working on VOR stuff. Fun Fun fun. Can't wait, peace!

The weekend of December 12th

I decided I'm going to go up on my own tomorrow. I have the plane from 9 to 11. I figure two hours is good enough for the day. I'm really excited about it. I finally got that mic for my headset. I can't remember if I've told this story already, but all well. I bought a David Clark H10-76 headset from ebay for $122. The thing with this headset is, it's military issue and is supposed to be used for helicopters. It came with "the" adapter I needed to make it work in the Cessna, or so the guy who sold it to me said. So the Saturday I was going up that I had the headset, I took it up with me and tested it out. The earphones worked great. Crystal clear. The mic however, did not work at all. I went hom and check some stuff out. Apparently, I needed a 133 dollar adapter to change the impedence of the whole thing. Well I don't have 133 dollars so I looked for an alternative. Thankfully, another person on ebay had my solution. A new mic that should work with the headset and the adapter. She sent it to me for free to test out, and if it worked, I could pay for it. She gave me free shipping cause of me being the Navy DEP. I really hope it works. The mic is only $40 though. So that's good. Much cheaper than the david clark adapter. It's a really nice headset though, and I'm really happy with it. It's been a stormy, snowy, icy week thus far and thankfully it ended today. After 1800Z was a real nice time to fly, the runway was cleared, the sky was over 10sm visibility, winds were from 350 but were so low that they showed up at 0knots, and was lightly snowing. I can't wait to see what it all looks like snowcovered. I'll definately be reporting this one tomorrow afterward. Sunday, I am going up with Jerry. We're doing another XC flight. I think this time we're going to Tri-Cities again to work on the VOR. This should be fun. Two updates in two days! Lucky me! Peace.

Blog for last flight

It's about time I update this thing about last Sunday. Beautiful day...sort of. It was overcast, but it was smooth as glass up there. The winds were about 4 knots when I took off, and died to zero after I landed. I had what Jerry called my Graduation Solo. After three trips around the pattern, two landings and a go around, he got out of the airplane told me to do land once more and then after i took off again to go fly around. I asked him what he wanted me to do and he said, "Whatever you want, this is unstructured play. Just don't get lost." I told him I wouldn't. So I took off from 23 again, called my crosswind and downwind. On the downwind I had climbed to about 2900 feet MSL. As I reached the end of the downwind I turned to a Northerly heading and called, "Bradford County Traffic, Cessna 94609 exiting the pattern Northbound, Bradford County." So I flew up the Susquehanna river aways until I was pretty much on top the Ulster Bridge. It was my first time leaving the pattern alone. I liked it. A lot. Not that I don't have fun with Jerry in there, I definately do, it was just really cool. Different. That's the best way to describe it. In a good way though. So I put the 152 into a slip, listened to the air flow over the non-aerodynamic edges of the plane. About 2500 feet I returned to normal flight. I kept an eye on the river, sylvania & asraam and the Ulster bridge. I banked the plane roughly 70 degrees and pulled back on the wheel to do a steep turn. I wanted to test out something I'd read. I read that if you flex your abdominal muscles while in combat with G-forces, it keeps the blood from pooling. It worked. I did it a couple more times. I think I got her to pull her max g-rate. Haha, I don't think so, probably not, if so I won't do that again, I don't want to overstress her and have her get bent. Not run-up my own prop, but I'm not too shabby at this aviation stuff. If my eyes are healthy enough, i just might have a chance a Naval Aviator. The Hobbs meter was getting close to the time Jerry had wanted me back, so I headed back toward the airport. I kept my nose on Sylvania, it's a group of green buildings. Flying toward sylvania & asraam along the river puts you in perfect pattern entrance position, 45 degrees to the middle of the runway, upwind for today. I descended to 1800 feet, pattern altitude, and called out, "Bradford County Traffic, Cessna 94609 entering the pattern upwind runway two three, Bradford County." I called out the other legs of the pattern and landed perfectly. Jerry made the comment, "I think goin out the past couple weeks and gettin the shit beat out of ya helped, you've become master of the airplane." Ah man that felt good to hear. To be quite honest, I'm not worried about the cross countries, the solo ones will be weird at first, but I know that feeling will leave soon. Anyway, I topped the 152 off with fuel and taxied her back to the FBO. It was a good day. 1.3 hours.

20081206-New York

My father, a friend of mine, and I went to New York last weekend. While in New York, it was my idea to visit the Intrepid, a retired aircraft carrier turned into a museum. It was not a very good day to be on the flight deck but we'll get to that later. There are a bunch of exhibits, like a mock helm, and the bunks that the sailors slept in. I figure I better get used to it if I'm going to be in the Navy, so I laid down for a bit.



There were a couple planes in the museum part of the carrier called "Hangar 1." There was an old WWII torpedo plane, a Devastator maybe? anyway, I couldn't believe the size of the prop on that thing! Holy! An A-4 Skyhawk was also amidst the

airplanes inside. That jet is very compact. Very pretty plane. I would've loved to fly one.

The Intrepid had a couple of "modern" attractions, one was some sort of ride that took you on a flight or something of that nature. It may have been a flight simulator but I don't think so. The one I went on (I made my friend come with me. His name is Dan. He's been my best friend since I can remember) was a G-Force simulator. It was some weird cockpit that had a screen inside. You couldn't see outside the pit. There was a vent that made it seem like you in an airplane and had the vent to outside open. Anyway, it was very realistic I felt. I took me and Dan all over the place, We went up and did a barrel roll or two. It was a WWII simulator type. There was a bunch of Japanese Zeros to shoot at, but I wasn't in long enough to get a kill. I was trying my ass of though, until Dan hit the SWITCH PILOT button and drove us into the ground. That was funny. He hit the switch again and I resumed control. That was a blast.
Up on the Flight Deck:

It was a rainy cloudy, crappy day. The deck had pools of rainwater on it that I constantly stepped in. My feet were friggin cold afterward, but it was worth it.

The plane I'd wanted to fly since I was a little kid called the bow of the carrier home. The F-14 Tomcat sat on the deck. It wanted to fly. But they'd taken her engines, her afterburners were empty, stripped. The afterburners would never again blast out 20 foot fire cones. Her wings would never fully extend and sweep back again. It made me sad to see this beautiful fighter grounded. There were a bunch of other planes as well. An SR-71 Blackbird was directly
across from the majestic F-14. Along with these two planes were the MiG-17, MiG-19, F-86 Sabre, F-16 Falcon, A-4 Skyhawk, A-6 Intruder, and a bunch more I can't think of at the moment.
The F-14's tandem seating cockpit. The Tomcat had one Hell of a run. I hope I get to fly one someday. That would be the ultimate.

I'll report on my flight later. I have an 3 page english paper to work one. Peace.