tag:www.markdame.com,2008:/pilotlog//2 2008-03-27T15:56:58Z This is my aviation weblog. It contains info about my flying experiences and commentary on aviation topics. Movable Type 3.34 tag:www.markdame.com,2008:/pilotlog//2.55 2008-02-10T01:14:13Z 2008-03-27T15:56:58Z

I finally started using my CFI certificate today. I've done some ground training, but nothing formal, and up until today, my scheduled training flights had been canceled for various reasons. So today I got my feet wet by giving a...

Mark T. Dame http://www.markdame.com/ I finally started using my CFI certificate today. I've done some ground training, but nothing formal, and up until today, my scheduled training flights had been canceled for various reasons. So today I got my feet wet by giving a BFR and doing a checkout flight for the club's Archer. The executive summary is: I really enjoyed it. My "student" has been flying longer than I have and has over one hundred hours flying Archers (along with lots of hours in other Pipers). The only issue was he hadn't flown a powered plane in a couple of years (just some glider time). So we started out with a thorough preflight to cover all the systems on this particular plane and then taxied out to the runway. A normal takeoff to start, then off to the practice area. All was going well, but it was a little windy and getting windier. This resulted in a bumpy ride so our stalls and slow flight practice where challenging, but successful. We went over the engine out procedures, then flew on to Miami (Oxford) University to do some landings. We practiced all the various takeoffs and landings: normal, short field, soft field, and various flap configurations. I could definitely see his rust, but it wasn't too bad and he was obviously competent, so we headed back home to sign him off. So I signed my first log book with 1.8 hours of training. When it was all over, I was looking around for someone else to fly with. In the end I just took the Saratoga for a sight seeing tour on my own. It was fun. I'm looking forward to my next lesson. tag:www.markdame.com,2007:/pilotlog//2.39 2007-08-19T20:02:27Z 2007-08-28T18:38:15Z

We took the Saratoga to Clevelend this weekend to visit with family. We were supposed to go on a fishing trip on Lake Erie, but some unforeseen circumstances put a kink in that plan. Since we already had the plane...

Mark T. Dame http://www.markdame.com/ We took the Saratoga to Clevelend this weekend to visit with family. We were supposed to go on a fishing trip on Lake Erie, but some unforeseen circumstances put a kink in that plan. Since we already had the plane reserved and reservation for boarding the dog for the weekend, we decided to make the trip anyway. The flight up was beautiful. There was hardly a cloud in the sky. It was somewhat amusing. There were a few mild bumps. Nothing major, but my wife doesn't like any bump. I had the autopilot on, and I think the autopilot tends to induce a few osicillatons when recovering from bumps, so they seemed worse than they were. Our six year old was sitting in the right seat and wanted to fly the plane. I let him put his hands on the yoke and pretend to fly, but he isn't strong enough to overpower the autopilot so he wasn't really driving. My wife, however, just saw him with his hands on the wheel and the plane was bumping and rolling. She wasn't amused. I was. We arrived at Cuyahoga County with a gusty crosswind and I used a lot of runway trying to make a smooth landing. My wife, not knowing anything about aviation complained about the landing. Thanks for the support. Anyway, we hung out for the weekend and woke up Sunday morning to rain showers. They were light, but constant and the radar showed stronger showers moving in. It looked like we would have about three or four hours before they got into the area with no breaks until at least Monday, so we packed up and headed out early to try to beat the worst of it. We arrived at the airport as the showers started to intensify, but the radar showed that the strong stuff was still well to the west. So I went out to load and preflight the plane in the rain. I hate preflighting in the rain. After thoroughly soaking myself, I loaded up the family and started up. Since I was sitting at the edge of the tie down area with nothing behind me, I decided to do my run up in place so I would be ready to depart when calling clearance delivery/ground. I had filed /G direct to KHAO which would take me right through the south eastern approach corridor for Cleveland's Class B. I knew they wouldn't clear me for that, but I figured it would be easier to let them decide where they wanted me to go to stay clear, so I filed it anyway. To my surprise, I was cleared as filed for immediate departure. Not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth, I copied the clearance and accepted the immediate departure. The rain was pretty good by now and I could barely see out of the windshield until we started our takeoff roll. Visibility was still pretty descent for the conditions (about 3 miles and maybe 1000 foot ceiling), but I decided to hold the plane down until we were well above rotation speed just in case I needed to abort. Once off the runway we made a brisk climb out and were cleared to turn on course at about 700' AGL. It was actually a smoother departure than our CAVU departure from Cincinnati on Friday. They did modify my clearance slightly to steer us clear of most of the Class B, but it was just a simple "turn to 210 until further notice" and about 15 minutes later "cleared direct". It doesn't get much simpler than that. The most interesting thing was that the flight was smoother when we were in the clouds than when we were in the clear (or at least the haze). We were hardball IMC for about half an hour and in less than VFR conditions for most of the rest of the flight until they lowered us from 6000 to 4000 about 25 miles out of Hamilton. The smoothest part of the whole flight was the part in the clouds. Go figure. tag:www.markdame.com,2007:/pilotlog//2.36 2007-08-01T02:32:44Z 2007-08-01T12:57:42Z

This year I've spent a ton of time training. First my Commercial certificate, then my CFI. I think I've made two flights all year just to go flying. I've gotten a little burned out, to the point that I dove...

Mark T. Dame http://www.markdame.com/ This year I've spent a ton of time training. First my Commercial certificate, then my CFI. I think I've made two flights all year just to go flying. I've gotten a little burned out, to the point that I dove (no pun intended) exclusively back into scuba diving for the last couple of weeks. But today I had to get in my mandatory hour for the month. My flying club charges you for one hour of flying per month whether you fly or not. This has the effect of giving people the incentive to fly regularly, theoretically keeping current. My problem is that I've been working on my CFI certificate, so I've been flying Pro Aero's Arrow. The CFI checkride must include time in a complex aircraft. (Although I think it's easier to do the whole thing in one plane, some people prefer to do only do the complex part in a complex aircraft and the rest in a fixed gear aircraft that they may be more familiar with.) Since the all of the club aircraft are fixed gear, I needed to rent the Arrow. Just to make things easier on myself, I didn't fly anything else this month. The result is that here it is the end of the month and I haven't flown any of the club planes. So I decided to take up one of the 172's for a spin. No purpose (other than getting my hour in). I just took off and started flying. I ended up near Oxford, so I did a few touch and go's, but that was it. I just enjoyed the act of flying. It's been a long time since I've done that. Usually I at least have a destination in mind, fly there, have a coke, and fly back, but today, it was just about the flying. And flying a 172 instead of the Arrow and Saratoga (the only other planes I've flown in two months) was a big change. It feels like you're forgetting something: no prop lever, no gear. And since the one I flew was fuel injected, there isn't even carb heat. Not to mention I'm used to approach speeds of 75 to 80 knots instead of 60. I need to get back to flying at least once a week just to fly. Maybe next week I'll see if we can start up airport night again. tag:www.markdame.com,2007:/pilotlog//2.30 2007-07-20T17:30:14Z 2007-07-20T19:07:41Z

My CFI training is finally over! I passed the checkride today and have my temporary certificate in hand! This checkride has been the worst one I've done as far as being worked up for it. The actual test itself wasn't...

Mark T. Dame http://www.markdame.com/ My CFI training is finally over! I passed the checkride today and have my temporary certificate in hand! This checkride has been the worst one I've done as far as being worked up for it. The actual test itself wasn't bad. You definitely need to know your stuff, but if you are prepared, it's not particularly difficult. Just long. One thing to remember is that the examiner is not asking you questions to see if you know the answer, but to see if you can teach it. Use the tools at your disposal. Make sure the room you use has a whiteboard and use it. And when you are teaching from the whiteboard, make sure you are facing the examiner when you are talking. My examiner complemented me on doing that and mentioned that a lot of CFI candidates talk to the board. Remember that you are acting as an instructor on this test. Be in command of the information and don't guess at what you are unsure of. Bring your entire reference library with you. Know where to find everything. When the examiner asks you a question that no one on earth would know off the top of his head, pull out the right book and turn right to it. One example, I was asked how to fill out the address field on an 8710 if your mailing address is a post office box. That's not something that I've ever had to worry about, but I had read the instructions for the 8710 and remembered seeing something about that. So I picked up the 8710, turned to the instructions and pointed out exactly what you are supposed to do. My examiner liked asking questions that required me to go to the FARs, obviously testing me on my knowledge of where to find things rather than what I had memorized for the test. The only thing he really corrected me on during the oral was one of the wing diagrams I drew showed the wing from the right side instead of the left side like you normally see it. He wanted everything to be drawn from the standard viewpoint. His point was that when you teach weight and balance it's easier to show the view of the left side of the plane (since positive numbers indicating distance from the datum are more logically displayed increasing to the right). So you should make all of your airplane drawings from the same view for consistency. To be prepared for this test you must understand everything you had to know for your private and commercial checkrides, plus your privileges and responsibilities as an instructor. By understand, I mean you need to know the why, not just the what. You will spend far more time studying for this checkride than you have for any checkride before. As for the flight portion of the checkride, it's pretty straight forward. Just make sure you can fly every maneuver from the private and commercial PTS from the right seat to commercial standards while explaining exactly what you are doing and why you're doing it. Anyone who can pass the commercial checkride can do the flying portion of the CFI checkride. You just have to practice from the right seat. It took me about 10-15 hours to get to commercial standards in the right seat (mostly the landings). The difficult part is being able to explain what you're doing while you're doing it and understand how to correct the mistakes students will make. I really think that if I wasn't so worked up over it being a checkride, it would have actually been fun. But it was a checkride, so fun doesn't really describe it. I'm just glad it's over... tag:www.markdame.com,2007:/pilotlog//2.29 2007-06-12T01:17:34Z 2007-07-12T21:56:22Z

This year we went back to the Outer Banks for our family vacation. We took the Saratoga and now I'm more in love with it than I was with our old Cherokee Six. With one exception: the pilot seat needs...

Mark T. Dame http://www.markdame.com/ This year we went back to the Outer Banks for our family vacation. We took the Saratoga and now I'm more in love with it than I was with our old Cherokee Six. With one exception: the pilot seat needs more padding! My butt was sore after the first hour. I was starting to get a little concerned about the decision to fly. Last year we drove to the Outer Banks. It took over 13 hours and $165 speeding ticket. I vowed then and there I would never drive on a long vacation again. My wife vowed to never be stuck in a car with me that long again. So this year we flew again. The plan was to depart Sunday morning bright and early and arrive at Dare County Airport before noon. We couldn't check-in until 4:00, but I wanted to get there before the afternoon summer pop-ups started. Well you know what they say about the best laid plans... The first "problem" was that the Saratoga was getting a new engine. It was scheduled beginning the Monday before we were to leave. Since Murphy's Law indicates that there's no way the engine would be done before we were scheduled to leave, I was, to say the least, frustrated. The last thing I wanted to do was drive, and no other plane was available for the week. Fortunately, the engine was swapped out by Friday and the plane captain took it out for its initial 3 hour break-in. Here's where Murphy woke up: while he was out flying, the vacuum pump went Tango Uniform. But luck was on my side: the shop managed to get a new one in the next morning and have it replaced by Saturday afternoon. But that was the end of my luck. I had been watching the weather the last several days. Tropical Storm Barry was tracking up the east coast. It appeared that I had two choices: try to beat it in or wait it out. Unfortunately, there were the typical afternoon thunderstorms over the Appalachians so we couldn't leave Saturday afternoon and by the time those calmed down, Barry was rolling into the Carolinas. So we spent all day Sunday monitoring the weather hoping maybe we could get out sometime that afternoon. Once again, the afternoon thunderstorms took care of that. Not to mention the entire eastern half of the country was covered by sigmets and airmets for turbulence and convective weather. The worst part, of course, is that the family doesn't understand all of that. All they know is that they aren't at the beach yet. (On a side note, as an instructor, I think that will be the hardest thing to teach a new student: how to make the right go-no go decision while your family is riding you.) Fortunately, we woke up earlier Monday morning and the weather was perfect from Cincinnati all the way to the east coast. There were a few overcast skies in the forecast, but no thunderstorms or turbulence. So I filed my flight plan and off we went. The visibility was below VFR for most of the trip, but it was haze, not clouds. We only spent a few minutes in actual clouds. Unfortunately, with the new engine we had to maintain 75% power, so we couldn't get any higher than 7,000 feet, so we did have a few bumps to deal with, but on a whole it was a very easy flight. Especially with the Saratoga's autopilot coupled to the Garmin 430. Normally a flight that long leaves me pretty drained, but with the autopilot, I was a little stiff, but not totally exhausted. Landing at Dare County was, as usual, bumpy with the gusty winds, but I was expecting that. Departing the following Sunday was a little less bumpy, but we left first thing in the morning so the winds hadn't really picked up yet. The trip back was about like the trip out. Dare County doesn't have a frequency to use for clearance delivery, so I opened my flight plan in the air with Washington Center. Again, needing to maintain 75% power, I had to fly back at 6,000 feet for most of the trip. When we got to the mountains, I asked for 7,000 on the off chance they would give it to me, but they didn't so I needed to climb to 8,000 for a while. I couldn't maintain 75% power, so I had to do that portion at 65%, but that shouldn't hurt the break-in any. By the time we got home, the temperature was building so we had a bumpy final 20 minutes, but the visibility was amazingly clear for this time of year. I had the airport in sight and canceled IFR 15 miles out. For this area, this time of year, visibility over 10 miles is almost unheard of. Even with the one day delay leaving, I'm glad I chose to fly instead of drive. Driving would have meant an extra 20 hours of travel time, which almost makes up for the lost day. tag:www.markdame.com,2007:/pilotlog//2.28 2007-05-26T23:52:52Z 2007-07-12T20:17:06Z

In prepping for my CFI checkride, I decided to take a non-pilot friend flying and "teach" him to fly. So we drove up to the airport, pulled the Archer out of the hangar, preflighted, and climbed in. I sat right...

Mark T. Dame http://www.markdame.com/ In prepping for my CFI checkride, I decided to take a non-pilot friend flying and "teach" him to fly. So we drove up to the airport, pulled the Archer out of the hangar, preflighted, and climbed in. I sat right seat, which is the first time I've sat right seat without and instructor in the left. It's odd, but the right seat is starting to feel like the normal seat. I had talked to my friend yesterday about this flight and he had seemed up for the idea then, but today, he changed his mind. His allergies were acting up, so he had dosed up with his allergy medicine before driving out to meet me. So much for the the little training cruise. That didn't stop us from flying, though. It was a beautifully calm morning without a bump in the sky. The visibility was pretty bad for this time of the year, but we had about five miles, so all was good. As we got closer to Portsmouth, however, the visibility started to close up a little bit and I was starting to think that we may have to file to get home. On the ground, you couldn't tell how bad the in-flight visibility was. It looked like a bright sunny day with blue skies. As they say, looks can be deceiving. Anyway, we had lunch at the Skyline Family Restaurant (no relation to Skyline Chili), a nice little burger joint on the field at PMH. It's one of my favorite $100 hamburger stops. After lunch, a quick check of the weather showed no change in visibility (reporting greater than six miles). I decided to depart VFR and if the visibility looked like it was going to be problem, file in the air. Fortunately, the visibility had actually improved somewhat. Unfortunately, that improvement was caused by vertical air currents that made the flight home feel like we were flying a popcorn maker instead of an airplane. It's days like these that make me appreciate winter flying. If it wasn't so cold, it would be perfect! tag:www.markdame.com,2007:/pilotlog//2.27 2007-05-12T22:48:47Z 2007-07-12T19:51:00Z

To become a CFI, you must be trained in spin entry and recovery. The theory is that you should have some experience recovering from spins in case a student puts you into a spin during training. I suppose that makes...

Mark T. Dame http://www.markdame.com/ To become a CFI, you must be trained in spin entry and recovery. The theory is that you should have some experience recovering from spins in case a student puts you into a spin during training. I suppose that makes sense, but that didn't make me any happier about doing it. Generally, my fear of heights doesn't bother me when I'm flying. But when I'm doing stalls, it seems to get to me. It really comes down to whether I'm looking straight ahead or if I'm looking all around while doing the stall. If I'm looking straight ahead, I always feel like I'm in a much steeper attitude than I really am (like 45 degrees or something). Reality is that in a power on stall, 15 degrees is about it, unless you just yank it up hard. In a power off stall it's even less. But again, that didn't help my nerves when we went out to do spin training. We used a Cessna 152, which is incredibly forgiving and takes work to put into a spin. We spent most of the flight getting up to altitude. Once we got to about 5,000 ft, we did a power off stall, and just as it started to stall, kicked in full left rudder. Over we go and about .75 seconds later we're in a steep dive. Not much of a spin. Maybe a half turn. The "recovery" was letting off the rudder. So we climbed back up to altitude and did the same thing to the right. I remembered to hold the rudder in a little longer this time so we got about 2/3 of a turn. Then we flew home. Less than 45 minutes in the air and about two minutes of it was spent in stalling, spinning and recovering the plane. The rest was flying to the practice area, climbing to altitude, and flying home. I'm planning on taking some acrobatic training one day. Maybe I'll get to do some good spins then... tag:www.markdame.com,2007:/pilotlog//2.26 2007-05-05T21:47:52Z 2007-07-12T19:36:40Z

I finished my checkout in the club's Saratoga today. Today's flight was all about flying the plane close to maximum gross. I've had plenty of experience flying PA32-300's near max gross, but the club rules don't account for that, so...

Mark T. Dame http://www.markdame.com/ I finished my checkout in the club's Saratoga today. Today's flight was all about flying the plane close to maximum gross. I've had plenty of experience flying PA32-300's near max gross, but the club rules don't account for that, so I had to do it all. So, we filled up the tanks, found a couple of "sandbags" to sit in the back seats, and took off. Other than the obvious take offs and landings, we also did some medium bank turns and slow flight. We finished off with a no-flap landing, which I hadn't done in any plane in many years (I know, shame on me). By the end I was pretty tired, so the no-flap landing was pretty ugly, but safe. So know I'm all set for vacation in June. Unfortunately, the plane is scheduled to get a new engine right before we're supposed to leave... tag:www.markdame.com,2007:/pilotlog//2.25 2007-04-28T22:01:04Z 2007-07-12T19:28:43Z

I did my checkout flight in the club's Piper Saratoga today. Most of the time was spent messing with the GPS and autopilot. I've never used an autopilot with altitude hold before. It's actually a little disconcerting at first, but...

Mark T. Dame http://www.markdame.com/ I did my checkout flight in the club's Piper Saratoga today. Most of the time was spent messing with the GPS and autopilot. I've never used an autopilot with altitude hold before. It's actually a little disconcerting at first, but once you get used to it, it's pretty cool. It will definitely make a long trip less tiring. And of course, the Garmin 430 is pretty awesome too. I just wish there was a way to store a flight plan in a handheld like the 295 and sync it to the panel mount. tag:www.markdame.com,2007:/pilotlog//2.23 2007-04-10T03:20:12Z 2007-04-10T15:30:40Z

I had my first checkout flight in a club plane this evening. We flew the 172R. Now, those who know me know that I don't care for Cessnas too much, but this plane is absolutely the best plane I've ever...

Mark T. Dame http://www.markdame.com/ I had my first checkout flight in a club plane this evening. We flew the 172R. Now, those who know me know that I don't care for Cessnas too much, but this plane is absolutely the best plane I've ever flown. It's smooth, comfortable, and quiet (for a GA plane). I was absolutely amazed. I think it may just end up being my standard local flying aircraft. It has an autopilot that is coupled to the GPS or number one VOR. It can also just follow the bug on the DG or be a simple wing leveler (its default mode). It's simple to use and actually works (unlike the autopilots on the Archer and Cherokee Six the Meteor's had). I didn't get a chance to play with GPS. It's an older Bendix/King model, but it shouldn't be too difficult to figure out. The dual Nav/Coms are Bendix/King KX155As, which I had never used before (we had KX155s in the Meteor's planes; I hadn't known that there was much of a difference), give you bearing to/from the tuned in VOR, as well as the standard flip-flop tuning that you get with the KX155. I haven't learned everything it does yet, but it's pretty cool. The thing that amazed me most about it was how solid it felt compared to all the other Cessnas I've flown. I'm completely amazed at how much I like this plane. tag:www.markdame.com,2007:/pilotlog//2.22 2007-04-02T22:16:13Z 2007-04-10T15:33:05Z

I passed my Advanced Ground Instructor (AGI) and Flight Instructor - Airplane (FIA) written tests today (98 and 97 respectively). I proceeded straight from the testing center to the FSDO to be issued my shiny (not really) new Ground Instructor...

Mark T. Dame http://www.markdame.com/ I passed my Advanced Ground Instructor (AGI) and Flight Instructor - Airplane (FIA) written tests today (98 and 97 respectively). I proceeded straight from the testing center to the FSDO to be issued my shiny (not really) new Ground Instructor - Advanced Temporary Airman Certificate. After passing FAA checkrides for my various pilot certificates and ratings, the AGI just doesn't seem to be that big of a deal. But, here's a scary thought: I can legally teach aviation now. Granted, it's just ground school, but there's a lot of material that I'm authorized to impart on others. According to the FARs I can: Sec. 61.215 - Ground instructor privileges. (b) A person who holds an advanced ground instructor rating is authorized to provide: (1) Ground training in the aeronautical knowledge areas required for the issuance of any certificate or rating under this part; (2) Ground training required for any flight review; and (3) A recommendation for a knowledge test required for the issuance of any certificate under this part. So I can legally provide one half of the training required for any pilot certificate or rating except Instrument ratings. That includes rotorcraft, gliders, and blimps. I've never even been in a blimp, but I can legal teach ground school for it... Of course, airspace, navigation, and weather are the same regardless of the category and class of aircraft you're flying, but still. It would seem odd to be giving someone instruction for a balloon pilot's license when I've never been closer than 100 feet to one. What an odd concept. tag:www.markdame.com,2007:/pilotlog//2.21 2007-03-28T17:37:59Z 2007-04-10T15:33:53Z

...Aviation that is. The long wait is over! I got the call today. A spot opened up in Victory Aviation. Now I need to go get checked out in all the planes. The Saratoga should be easy. The Dakota will...

Mark T. Dame http://www.markdame.com/ ...Aviation that is. The long wait is over! I got the call today. A spot opened up in Victory Aviation. Now I need to go get checked out in all the planes. The Saratoga should be easy. The Dakota will require a full check out, since I don't have any time in type. The Archer and 172 should be simple. All told, it will take 8 to 9 flight hours to get checked out in all of the aircraft, but it should be fun. Now I get to see if the Saratoga is available for the family vacation in June... tag:www.markdame.com,2007:/pilotlog//2.20 2007-03-11T17:27:11Z 2007-03-12T22:58:02Z

Wow! What a beautiful day to fly! My son has been after me for the last two months to take him flying, but between training and bad weather, we haven't gotten to go. This weekend was looking like another bust....

Mark T. Dame http://www.markdame.com/ Wow! What a beautiful day to fly! My son has been after me for the last two months to take him flying, but between training and bad weather, we haven't gotten to go. This weekend was looking like another bust. Earlier in the week the weather guessers have been calling for rain all weekend. But as the weekend approached, the forecast for Sunday kept improving. It turned out to be one of the best days in the air that I can remember. I had scheduled the Arrow for 8:30 - 11:00, because it was booked the rest of the day. Since last night was the time change for Daylight Saving Time, we lost an hour this morning, so it was like getting up at 6:00 to make it to the airport by 8:15 (7:15) so we could get rolling by 8:30. We'll, neither the boy or I managed to move very quickly, so we didn't get to the airport until 8:30. But that was about the only negative to the day. The plane was in the hangar which is a five minute walk from the FBO, so by the time we finished preflighting and doing our run-up, it was already 9:00. That made things a little tight to make the 45 minute flight to Urbana (I74) (we had a headwind), eat breakfast, and get back by 11:00, but I wasn't too worried about it: worst case is that we skip breakfast. Take-off and climb out was smooth as glass. Visibility was better than 10 miles (probably better than 15). I dialed in the Hook Field NDB (HKF) and got nothing. Uh oh. I tried several other nearby beacons and nothing. Hmmm... Guess we're flying by pilotage. Even the LORAN didn't want to give us anything. Not the end of the world. With crystal clear skies and not even the tiniest little bump, I didn't care. So I pulled out the map and picked out some landmarks to get me around Dayton's Class C and turned the plane northeast. After passing Middletown (MWO) I could pick out Dayton Wright Brothers (MGY) almost immediately. Once we passed MGY, we picked up Greene County (I19) and then Springfield (SGH). We picked up Springfield about the time we were flying over Xenia, which was when the LORAN and ADF started working. Maybe the aviation gods were testing me to see if I could still navigate on the fly with just the map. From Springfield, it's almost a straight shot north to Urbana and Sunday morning brunch. Checking my watch, I saw it was already 9:30. We had an hour and a half to finish the flight to Urbana, eat breakfast, and fly back. It was still tight, but it was too nice of a morning to worry about that. About 15 miles out I dialed in to Urbana's AWOS. Wind calm. OK, I dialed up Unicom and before I could ask for an airport advisory to get the active, I heard two other planes in the pattern for runway 20. OK, they're using 20 and it's busy. I like it when Urbana is using 20. From the south, it's a quick 45 to the downwind and when leaving, you just have to make a small turn after departure to head home. Their old runway (now the main taxiway) didn't seem to work out as nicely for whatever reason. Anyway, we landed and shutdown at 9:50. Now we're cutting it *really* tight. Michael wanted to put the chocks in, so he grabbed them from the baggage compartment and proceed to run around the wing and smash the side of his head into the wing tip. Obviously he didn't believe me when I told him not to run around the plane because he might get hurt. There was no serious injury, just some tears, but maybe next time he'll listen to me. Yeah, right. It didn't hurt his appetite any, however. He had two big pancakes and finished them before I could finish my eggs and sausage. He even read the menu and ordered on his own. He's growing up way too fast. We managed to get through breakfast quickly enough to get airborne by 10:30. There was still no wind, but the active runway was now 02. That adds a few minutes to our trip back, but the bigger problem was all the traffic. As we taxied out there was one plane on final, another on downwind, another called in from two miles north and another from 8 miles north. We got out after the second plane landed, but now there was another plane that looked like it was going into the downwind, but at the last second turned left (across the departure end of 02). Then I realized that he was avoiding a plane that just entered downwind. So as we're rolling, we have one plane just entering downwind on our left and another doing a 180 turn to crosswind on our right. The joys of the first perfect flying day of the spring. As soon as I hit 500 feet, I turned west to get clear of the traffic pattern and leave the madness behind. Turning south we settled in to enjoy the perfectly smooth flight. Since we were running late, I bumped it up a little bit. With the tailwind, we reached a ground speed of 150kts. We were going to be late, but only by a few minutes. For the flight back we took a more direct route, since the LORAN was working. That helped make up some time, but not enough. About 11:00 we were just passing Warren County (I68), but it's only about five minutes from there to Butler County. I had tuned in the ASOS when we were over Caesar Creek, but the winds were still calm. While we were gone, they started using runway 11, which cut out a few minutes since we could fly directly into the downwind on a 45 degree approach instead of having to fly past the airport and turn around. In the downwind we felt our first bumps of the day. Just a couple of little tiny bumps that on any other day we wouldn't have even noticed. An easy approach and landing, taxi to the ramp and shutdown. We were 10 minutes late. I felt bad because I know what it's like to have the plane you are flying come back late and cut into your time, but then I found out the guy flying it next was still waiting on his instructor to finish up with his previous student, so no harm done. Incidentally, that was my first flight in the Arrow without an instructor... Actually, it was my first flight all year that wasn't a training flight. I guess that's what happens when you try to get three certificates and ratings in three months. tag:www.markdame.com,2007:/pilotlog//2.19 2007-03-10T01:09:07Z 2007-03-12T22:56:37Z

Today was my introduction to the right seat. It was pretty interesting, especially since I was flying a 152, which I have flown in at least five years. It was a lot of fun. 152's are so easy to fly....

Mark T. Dame http://www.markdame.com/ Today was my introduction to the right seat. It was pretty interesting, especially since I was flying a 152, which I have flown in at least five years. It was a lot of fun. 152's are so easy to fly. It's relaxing to not have to think about the gear and prop or fuel flows and EGT's. Just get up in the air and fly. One thing I noticed right away: I spent more time looking outside the cockpit when I was performing maneuvers. I guess that's because it takes more effort to look at the instruments from the right seat. Doing power off stalls without looking at the airspeed or AI was different. I don't think I had ever done that. I was surprised at how shallow the pitch was compared to what it feels like when you are focused on the instruments. When I'm focusing on the instruments, it feels like I'm pitching up about 45 degrees (and even more for a power on stall). Seeing the reality of it makes stalls pretty unexciting. I had trouble getting the plane down during our crash and dashes. I guess I am used to flying faster planes, so I wasn't getting the airspeed down quick enough. One approach was bad enough to warrant a go around, which I executed even worse than the approach. It made me realize how much of my flying is done automatically. I had to look down to find the flaps. Then I moved it up too far, so we lost two notches instead of one. I was pushing pretty hard on the yoke to counteract the flaps when I went to full throttle, so when I lost two notches of flaps, the plane got a pretty good dip before I corrected. In spite of all of that, it was still fun. I think most of my trouble was based on being in the 152 rather than being in the right seat. I'll get to test that theory next lesson: we'll be flying the Arrow next time. Almost 75% of my time is in Archers, C-6's, and the Arrow, so I won't have the "new plane" excuse. (-: tag:www.markdame.com,2007:/pilotlog//2.18 2007-03-09T16:27:33Z 2007-03-12T22:56:25Z

Well, I took the FOI written today. Sometimes I wonder if I don't purposely miss easy questions just so I don't get 100%. The FOI written is 50 questions. You have an hour and a half. My practice tests were...

Mark T. Dame http://www.markdame.com/ Well, I took the FOI written today. Sometimes I wonder if I don't purposely miss easy questions just so I don't get 100%. The FOI written is 50 questions. You have an hour and a half. My practice tests were taking me about 8 and a half minutes and I was scoring 100%. I took my time today and finished in 10 minutes. I went back and reviewed all of my answers so I used up 20 minutes. I walked out confident that I had 100%. But, no, I had to blow an easy question: "A written test has validity when it". Simple question. Simple answer: "measures what it is supposed to measure". I answered "yields a consisten result", which, of course, is the answer for "A written test that has reliability". That's two written tests in a row that I should have had 100% on and I blew it over something stupid.