clumpinglitter (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} clumpinglitter) wrote,@ 2006-12-07 21:50:00 |
|
ground & Duchess
Student has elected to do another ground session instead of a flight. Part of it has to do with the weather -- it's nice and clear, but it's cold. She needs more oral prep than flight prep, anyway. I'm going to leave the private pilot study guide for her to do on her own. Today, we're going to start digging into the PTS. I'm going to go through it section by section, because I can't specifically recall any checkride of mine where the examiner didn't use his copy of the PTS as a guide and exam checklist. We get through half of Area of Operation I. This is going to be slow going, but Student has been working through the blue oral exam guide outside of Official Ground Skool, and that is making a clear difference. We're going to fly this weekend, and we decide to block the flights with an hour of oral prep before and after.
I've had an extremely long day and it's crystalline cold outside, but B and I have an appointment to split some time in the Duchess. And it's clear, so we won't have to cancel for weather tonight. By the time I arrive at the MIC flight school, he's out in the hangar. It's a nice sight -- he must have completed the preflight and everything! I rush over to the hangar and unload my stuff. B and I each grab a prop and drag the Duchess out onto the taxiway. I get the left seat, because B wants to prepare for his MEI and II. I learn that B has not, in fact, done the preflight, so I do the walkaround. It's cold and miserable, but it kind of makes me work slower and more carefully than usual -- I want to compensate for the temptation to rush. I realize that I've forgotten my blankie, and I have to run back to my car and get it. Literally run. Because it's cold outside.
The inside of the airplane is all frosted up -- the panel is all moist and foggy, and a pretty frost pattern is forming on the windshield. The engines take some extra effort to start, especially the right one. You can't run this airplane's heater on the ground, and the defroster isn't working very well yet, so I taxi out to the runway very, very slowly and deliberately. And coldly. The throttles are numbing my hands. I do the takeoff, and en route to STC, B puts on his Jepp shades and sets up for ILS-31. He goes missed into the published NDB hold, which I talk him through. He's slightly behind the airplane most of the time, because it's unfamiliar, faster than we're used to, and partly because he's rusty. He asks for some help with power settings and intercepting NDB bearings, and I have to take over the radio a couple of times to help out with the workload. But it comes back quick and ends up being good productive practice. After a few turns in the hold, we come in for a landing. Tower has assigned us the longest runway, but it has a slight tailwind. This makes me unhappy, so we get the upwind runway for departure.
I get to fly back to MIC. One of my goals is to practice engine shutdowns and single-engine approaches and landings, but I'm not comfortable doing it in this cold weather. I would feel too guilty. It's supposed to warm up to more seasonable temperatures this weekend, so maybe we'll have a chance then. I start decreasing MP about 15 miles out, pulling back about one inch per minute. Going into MIC, tower also assigns us a downwind runway. WTF? I ask for a wind check before entering the pattern, and tower says it's increased to maybe 7 kts. I ask for 14L instead, and then I have to slow down and get down fast, because it will be straight in instead of the downwind pattern entry I originally planned for. But it isn't too hard to make the Duchess fly slow and sink like a brick. I make a graceless flat landing, but at least it isn't a bouncer.
B and I log this flight as dual -- it's my first instrument dual given. Here begins a rather odd situation for me. Originally, we were going to split maybe 20 hours to build twin time. But lately, B has made noises about having me sign him off for either his MEI or II, so I'm basically not only giving free dual right now, but I'm also paying for half the airplane. This will have to get straightened out somehow -- I'm happy to split time, but not quite like this. It's a great deal for B, but not so much for me. What will probably happen is that B will end up flying with someone else who's willing to do what I'm not, and I'll be out both the dual given and multiengine time. But such is life.
Student has elected to do another ground session instead of a flight. Part of it has to do with the weather -- it's nice and clear, but it's cold. She needs more oral prep than flight prep, anyway. I'm going to leave the private pilot study guide for her to do on her own. Today, we're going to start digging into the PTS. I'm going to go through it section by section, because I can't specifically recall any checkride of mine where the examiner didn't use his copy of the PTS as a guide and exam checklist. We get through half of Area of Operation I. This is going to be slow going, but Student has been working through the blue oral exam guide outside of Official Ground Skool, and that is making a clear difference. We're going to fly this weekend, and we decide to block the flights with an hour of oral prep before and after.
I've had an extremely long day and it's crystalline cold outside, but B and I have an appointment to split some time in the Duchess. And it's clear, so we won't have to cancel for weather tonight. By the time I arrive at the MIC flight school, he's out in the hangar. It's a nice sight -- he must have completed the preflight and everything! I rush over to the hangar and unload my stuff. B and I each grab a prop and drag the Duchess out onto the taxiway. I get the left seat, because B wants to prepare for his MEI and II. I learn that B has not, in fact, done the preflight, so I do the walkaround. It's cold and miserable, but it kind of makes me work slower and more carefully than usual -- I want to compensate for the temptation to rush. I realize that I've forgotten my blankie, and I have to run back to my car and get it. Literally run. Because it's cold outside.
The inside of the airplane is all frosted up -- the panel is all moist and foggy, and a pretty frost pattern is forming on the windshield. The engines take some extra effort to start, especially the right one. You can't run this airplane's heater on the ground, and the defroster isn't working very well yet, so I taxi out to the runway very, very slowly and deliberately. And coldly. The throttles are numbing my hands. I do the takeoff, and en route to STC, B puts on his Jepp shades and sets up for ILS-31. He goes missed into the published NDB hold, which I talk him through. He's slightly behind the airplane most of the time, because it's unfamiliar, faster than we're used to, and partly because he's rusty. He asks for some help with power settings and intercepting NDB bearings, and I have to take over the radio a couple of times to help out with the workload. But it comes back quick and ends up being good productive practice. After a few turns in the hold, we come in for a landing. Tower has assigned us the longest runway, but it has a slight tailwind. This makes me unhappy, so we get the upwind runway for departure.
I get to fly back to MIC. One of my goals is to practice engine shutdowns and single-engine approaches and landings, but I'm not comfortable doing it in this cold weather. I would feel too guilty. It's supposed to warm up to more seasonable temperatures this weekend, so maybe we'll have a chance then. I start decreasing MP about 15 miles out, pulling back about one inch per minute. Going into MIC, tower also assigns us a downwind runway. WTF? I ask for a wind check before entering the pattern, and tower says it's increased to maybe 7 kts. I ask for 14L instead, and then I have to slow down and get down fast, because it will be straight in instead of the downwind pattern entry I originally planned for. But it isn't too hard to make the Duchess fly slow and sink like a brick. I make a graceless flat landing, but at least it isn't a bouncer.
B and I log this flight as dual -- it's my first instrument dual given. Here begins a rather odd situation for me. Originally, we were going to split maybe 20 hours to build twin time. But lately, B has made noises about having me sign him off for either his MEI or II, so I'm basically not only giving free dual right now, but I'm also paying for half the airplane. This will have to get straightened out somehow -- I'm happy to split time, but not quite like this. It's a great deal for B, but not so much for me. What will probably happen is that B will end up flying with someone else who's willing to do what I'm not, and I'll be out both the dual given and multiengine time. But such is life.
