Final sign off

With the introductory flight done, and flight to get acquainted with the G1000 system complete, it was time to wrap things up with the DA40. My CFI and I banged out a string of landings, all under different circumstances. Engine out from 3000' AGL, soft field, short field, no flaps, the works. At one point we even got to fly through some snow squalls. While it did reduce the visability, it wasn't nearly as difficult as I would have guessed.

The DA40 won't be my regular airplane. It's too expensive to rent, and it's availability isn't the greatest. It is a very popular rental aircraft. But for longer trips where a little extra speed is needed, it'll be the tops of the list.

LOFT

In the airline industry, there is a phase of training called LOFT. Line-Oriented Flight Training. The idea is to train by flying the type of trips you will be doing once you have completed training. Flight #2 in the DA40 was just that type of flight. My instructor told me to pick some place about 45 minutes away that had food. The goal of the flight was to execute, from take-off to touchdown, everything that goes into a flight like this. Extra focus would be put on the Garmin avionix package, plus handling an airplane traveling 30 knots faster than what I'm used to. To make it all just a little more difficult, we decided to do this at night, with a high, thin overcast with occasional thin layers anywhere from 3000-5000 feet.

But first, we need to dance around all of the airspace around here. Our route of flight went something like this.

No real surprise, I spent the first ten minutes of the flight behind the airplane. After takeoff, I need to stay below certain altitudes, talk to air traffic control(who has many odd questions), and get used to checking the heading and GPS. Did I mention it's dark, and that I am unfamiliar with this neck of the woods? It wasn't my best flying, but I finally caught up with the program. Things were going swimmingly as we cruised by the BWI airspace and over the Chesapeake Bay at 150 knots of ground speed. Right up until we accidentally flew into a cloud.

This is not good for several reasons. First, I'm not instrument rated. Besides not being legal, it is a safety hazard. If the cloud were thick enough, I could lose control of the aircraft. Think JFK Jr. But more immediately, the strobe lights on the wingtips were reflecting off of the water droplets, making the prop look like it was in a disco hall. Very weird sensations. And what did my instructor do? Calmly taught through the entire thing. Excellent learning experience to have with him on board.

After a little trouble finding the airport amongst the ground lights, we made what could be politely called a firm landing. The diner was still open, so crab cakes all around. We discussed what went well, what didn't, and that I shouldn't be too hard on myself. 30 minutes later, it's back out in the cold to head home.

Coming back, air traffic control cleared us into the BWI airspace, which is somewhat of a treat. Getting cleared to climb to 4500, we hit the thin layer of clouds again, but on top it was clear and smooth. It's was stunning to seee downtown Baltimore and the Inner Harbor from the air. All around us where the big boys taking off and landing. Amusingly, the safest place to be is directly over the runways, and that is where they sent us. From there, it was a straight shot to Leesburg for a very respectable landing.

While only 2.6 hrs on the airplane clock, it was an exhausting evening. I'm still getting used to the speed of the airplane, to say nothing of the avionics. One more flight, and I'll be signed off to rent it on my own. Should be fun.

Boy, it's dusty around here

September 7th, 2007.

That's the last entry here. Damn. Let's start this over.

2009 is the year I reinvest myself to flying. I spent 2008 with a bad case of the yips, and a moderate case of boredom. While the Cessna 172 I was renting was a perfectly fine airplane, I never quite got the hang of the landings. So I tried out a Piper Warrior. It's like flying a Ford F-150. It's great for what it does, but it is an older plane. I don't trust it much, either.

So, you see that glorious modern machine up there? That's the Diamond DA40, with the Garmin G1000 avionics suite. It is, in a word, awesome. It goes fast, it does it effeciently, and it is just fun as hell. I have every intention of flying the hell out of it this year.

I also plan on gaining as much piloting knowledge as possible this year. On the docket is acrobatic flight training for safety, and probably the instrument rating.

I plan on flying the NYC Hudson corridor. I plan on flying back to Boston for a weekend. I absolutely have to fly down to Kitty Hawk. One thing I will not do, though, is wimp out and find excuses not to fly.

If you've just stumbled upon here, welcome. If you're one of the six people who ever pop in here, welcome back.

Brushing up the Basics

I hadn't performed many of the basic flying tasks from the checkride since my training ended. I also wanted to see what the ops were like our of Leesburg. Very nice airport, with a comfy office space for Aviation Adventures.

Flying out of Leesburg, we followed the local terrain out to the Culpepper region. I performed slow flight, power off stalls and a few steep turns. My dad was unphased by the whole thing. I also did a pair of landings at Cullpepper airport. One was awful, one was solid. We saw a nice open cockpit bi-plane while we there. With the sun getting low, we trucked our way back to Leesburg for one last landing. All in all, not too shabby.

Back in action

On May 22nd, 2007 I completed my private pilot training. I took my checkride with Dave Pearce out of Manassas. I don't want to say it was easy, but it was a straight forward, no thrills test of my basic piloting skills.

I stopped posting here because, truthfully, writing about flight training is more interesting to pilots and hope-to-be pilots. Now that initial training is done, I plan on keeping track of my flights online. So, we're reborn and hopefully more friends, families and strangers will check in. I'm sure there will be plenty of pilot lingo, but my target audience is a little wider than before.

Charlottesville Lunch Run

Marissa and I took a long weekend and ran away to the beach. Before we left, I decided that Mom and I needed to do another flight. And what better way to do that than a quick run down to Charlottesville? We had a million miles of visability and favorable winds, and in just about 30 minutes we were parking the plane by the general aviation building.

I went in to get the plane gassed up, and casually asked about getting in to town for lunch. The lady at the desk tossed me a set of keys to the comp car. Away we went to my favorite diner in town. When we returned, the plane was gassed up and ready to go. I can get used to this.

On the flight back, we had a nice tailwind, getting ground speeds over 130 knots. Not bad for the small bird. A nice landing despite a solid crosswind back at Manassas, and that was that.

Millville

One thing I always talked about during training was flying to New Jersey to visit my friend Tony. With a cold front clearing out the humidity and haze, it was a great day to go flying.

I arrived at Manassas around 10 AM and got ready. The flight to Millville is about 130 knots each way, and I wanted to make sure the cockpit was organized. This was also my first flight using Aeroplanner to spit out the navigation log. One last review of the maps and the GPS, and it was time to go.

The first leg of the flight was Manassas to the stubby island in the Potomac river, then aim just to the left of the big powerplant on the Pautuxant River. Visability was so good I could see the smokestacks 20 miles away. I could see downtown DC and Andrews AFB. Once I crossed the Pautuxant, I turned on course to head directo Millville. This took my over the Chesapeake, Easton Airport, Ridgley airport(where I landed duing my student long XC flight) and Dover AFB.



One interesting item on the flight out was clouds. I was cruising at 5,500, and had to keep an eye on the fair weather clouds that were at my altitude.

After an extended time over the Maryland and Delaware countryside(and believe me, it's very rural) I was happy to see the Delaware River. I could see clear across to the Millville airport, making it very easy to get set up for my arrival.



Everything about my landing at Millville was lacklust. Down low it was very bumpy, the criss-cross runway threw me off, and I really had to use the bathroom. I taxi'd over to the FBO, and got settled into a parking spot.

A nice lunch with my friend and his family, even if I was dog tired from the flight. Millville has a cool WWII aviation museum, and two diners on the field.

The plane full of fuel, I decided to take Tony up for a few minutes around the traffic pattern. He enjoyed himself, despite being on edge about the bumps.



Goodbyes said, I was off to the wild blue yonder. A long, steady climb up to 4,500 feet and even from this far out, I could see the Bay Bridge. I made sure to overfly Dover AFB. If they won't let us see our fallen soldiers, I wanted to get a photo of where they return to US soil.



Things were pretty routing until 15 miles out of Manassas. ATC has a C-130 fly in front of me. I don't like the idea of getting caught in the wake of such a big plane. I did a pair of slow, lazy 360s to wait for that to clear out. Then, when lining up to enter the pattern at Manassas, a commercial airliner flew above me. Probably wasn't really close, but it sure seemed that way. Executed another 360. At this point I was 5 miles from the runway, and tower just told me to make a long, straight in. A perfectly fine landing, and it was good to be home. I was beat. Total flight time - 3.4 hrs, ~260 nm flown, one new airport, almost got plowed by a C-130.