April 2019 Archives

I haven't been spending enough time doing study on the ground between lessons, but this week I spent a good 3 hours or so completing my flight school's pre-solo test.

It's an open-book/open-internet kind of test. The point is to get you to be aware of of the things you'll need to know when you start taking the airplane up by yourself. And though it's open book, all answers needed to be backed up with a source: "on the internet" is not sufficient.

A few sample questions:

What distance from your "home" airport can you fly without a cross-country endorsement?

This refers to how far I can fly on my student's pilot license when I go up by myself. The answer: 25 nautical miles. From PDK, that's as far north as the southern half of Lake Lanier. You don't really want to go towards the South and West too much--that's Hartsfield. The "cross-country" part refers to the fact that I will need to do a cross-country flight of at least 150nm total where I do three full-stop landings, which means a flight with multiple segments. One of those segments will need be at least 50nm between takeoff and landing. I'm allowed to do that training, but I will need a specific "endorsement," meaning my instructor will have to sign off in my logbook approving the specific cross country I'm doing. Then and only then am I allowed to fly more than 25nm away from my home airport.

Source: Federal Aviation Regulations (FAR) § 61.93.

When are you permitted to deviate from an ATC instruction or an operating rule of the Federal Aviation Regulations (14 CFR Part 91)?

It's legal for the pilot-in-command to do /anything/ in the name of safety, including break any other rules in the Federal Aviation Regulations. "(b) In an in-flight emergency requiring immediate action, the pilot in command may deviate from any rule of this part to the extent required to meet that emergency." Of course, you may be called upon to explain to the FAA just exactly why you needed to violate the rules, and you can still get in trouble if it was your actions that got you into that emergency. Source: FAR § 91.3

What is the altitude of the Atlanta Class B airspace in relation to KPDK?

The notion of airspace is an entire topic itself. But put simply, Class B airspace is what surrounds the busiest airports in this country. Class B airspace extends out 30 miles from Hartsfield, and PDK is within that 30 miles. Inside class B airspace, you must be in contact with air traffic control at all times to be kept away from all the traffic going to and from the airport. But since we're talking about the sky, that concept of airspace encompasses a vertical dimension as well. If you're high up--over 12,500'--you're not going to interfere with traffic around the airport, so if you're about that height, you're not inside ATL's Class B. If you're low and close to the airport, there could be lots of traffic, and obviously you're inside the class B. But if you're where PDK is--about 16nm miles from ATL--you have to get up to 7000' before you're in the class B airspace, so it's not much of a worry. If you're within 4nm of PDK, you're in PDK's Class D airspace, which goes from the ground to 3,600'. So if you're right over the top of PDK, if you're below 3,600 you're in the PDK Class D, and if you're above 7,000 but below 12,500 you're in ATL's Class B. (I'm not entirely sure what you're in if you're between 3,600 and 7,000 feet. I think that's Class E airspace.) Source: Atlanta Area VFR sectional chart.

Enough questions: let's get back to flying. Today was similar to lesson #11: more work around PDK practicing approaches and flying over the runway.

We were using the south-facing runway 21R, which meant we had a "right pattern"--you keep turning right to stay in the pattern. There was a modest crosswind blowing from the east, so L to R across the runway. That crosswind pushes the aircraft off the centerline of the runway, so to counteract that when you're coming down to the runway you need to do a slip: turn the yoke slightly to put the wing into the wind, and push the opposite rudder pedal to keep the airplane from actually turning. When done properly, the aircraft should fly straight down the runway. At the end of the runway, put the power back to full. Once you're back up to 700', you make a right turn.

But because there was a crosswind from the left, as I'm turning right the wind is pushing the airplane, and by the time I made another right turn to fly my downwind leg (parallel to the runway), I'm further away from the airport than I wanted. You're supposed to stay within a certain distance of the airport as you fly in the pattern. It's not an exact distance, but you can tell when you're too far out. In the 4-5 times we went around the airport, I kept trying to make tighter turns to stay close to the airport, but every time I ended up a little too far out. That's not terrible; it just meant I had to work harder to get back to the runway.

With every lesson, Steve is providing less and less guidance. At one point I asked "Am I too high?" and he replied "You're the pilot. You tell me." It's my job to figure out if we're too high or low and take appropriate measures.

But back to the test: Steve only had one thing he thought I got wrong--how many quarts of oil does the 172 hold--Steve said 6, and that's really right--but I found a place in the 172 POH (Pilot Operating Handbook) that said it had a 7 quart maximum capacity, but with 6 quarts usable. So I said 7, and I was able to point in the book where it said that, so ok. Steve had no other comments, so I guess I passed.

So I have my FAA-issued student pilot's license, and I've passed my pre-solo test. That leaves three things I need before I can solo:

• My medical certificate, which the FAA is /still/ reviewing. I went to an aviation medical examiner in early November, and I've been stuck in the bureaucracy since. The hell of it is that once I signed off, the approval will probably only be good until November. I asked Steve if I was going to have to start working on my renewal in August (or earlier!) and he said "Yes." Everyone who gets a pilot's license has to deal with this kind of hassle.

• Renter's insurance for the aircraft. I need to carry $5,000 coverage; the school's insurance covers the rest. There's no point paying for this until I'm ready to solo, though.

• Most importantly, my instructor has to believe I'm not at any risk of hurting the airplane or myself. I'm not there yet; landing consistently is a necessary precursor.

Cessna 172 N73924 Daisy.

I've managed to keep up flying every weekend since I moved, and it's helping. I'm doing better, and I can tell that every time I fly.

Still, it's slow progress. The main thing that's improving is my confidence-at least in some areas. I'm no longer nervous when it comes to starting the engine and getting rolling. (Part of that is my new-found confidence in taxiing, which not that long ago was a serious problem for me.) Take-offs are also somewhat easier, despite the fact that I've practiced them much less than landings.

The most recent lessons have basically been the same: staying in the pattern at PDK, going around and around practicing approaches. I was going to say practicing landings, but we haven't got down the ground yet. Before we get to the ground, I have to be able to hold the aircraft straight down the runway in the presence of a crosswind.

After doing some deliberate ground practice in lesson 9, my taxiing is going much better. Steve was planning to have me do some more ground work at the end of this lesson, but my taxiing was good enough that we were able to skip the extra practice. I'm still moving slowly on the ground, but Steve made a point of saying I should taxi only as fast as I feel comfortable. If you need to go slow, go slow, because going slow gives you time to recover from any issues. Don't worry about anyone behind you.

My main problem this lesson was that I couldn't hear Steve in my headset when there was radio traffic. And there's always radio traffic when you're near the second busiest airport in Georgia. The result was that as we were getting down close to the runway, I could hear the tower fine, but not my instructor. That's worrisome.

One thing you learn about rental aircraft is that people fiddle with the settings. Someone had messed with the squelch settings on the passenger side, meaning Steve was hearing a persistent static. Once we landed we figured out that the volume from the passenger headset to me was turned way down. I'll know better in the future.

I'm still working on coordinating my turns, that is, pressing my feet down on the rudder pedals an appropriate amount as I turn the control yoke left and right. "An appropriate amount" is a vague phrase, and yet what needs to be done is precise in that you can feel when you've got it wrong. Remember learning to drive and how you had to feel your way through everything? Yeah, like that, but 1,000 feet in the air.

The basic idea is that you're going to be at 1,000 feet AGL (above ground level) when you're in your downwind leg going the opposite direction of the runway. Just as you pass the end of the runway out your window, you want to reduce speed and start losing altitude so that you eventually reach the runway. And you want to do this smoothly.

Actually getting yourself lined up with the runway is pretty doable - that's the left/right dimension as you approach. That's reasonably easy to see what you need to do.

You have two things you typically adjust to make sure you're on track for the runway. The first is your speed.

Steve likes to keep the speed at 70kts on final approach. He doesn't like to go down to 60-65kts until you're over the numbers that mark the end of the runway. The lower limit is the stall speed, which for the Cessna 172N is around 49kts. If you go slower than that, the airplane won't have enough lift to keep you in the air. But by the same token, you don't want to land fast. If you're fast, the plane will take longer to stop. That's not a huge deal on a long runway like PDK, but there will be times when you have to do a "short field landing". The second is more subtle: if the plane stops flying at stall speed, down at 49kts, then if you're faster that, the plane is still flying. That is, you'll put it down on the runway, but the plane is essentially weightless: it can bounce back up again. You can end up bouncing down the runway, and at some point, your propeller can end up hitting the runway and costing a lot of money.

So you use your pitch to control your speed. Going too fast? Pull back on the yoke to raise the nose a little. Too slow? Push forward a little.

Next, you use the throttle to control whether you go up or down. Generally on approach you're going to have the power "pulled back" -- the engine running at a slower speed - perhaps 1500-1700 RPM. If you look like you're not going to make it to the runway, push in the throttle a little and add some power. Cut the power a little more if you're too high or going to overshoot the runway.

And of course at any point you have the option to "go around" - push in the throttle to full power, bring the flaps back up.

And that was it for the flying. After we landed, we did an hour of ground instruction, going over everything again. Steve also handed me the "pre-solo written test," which fortunately is entirely open book. "Work on that this week, and we'll go over anything you got wrong next week."

Cessna 172 N73924 Daisy.

Back in lesson 6 my instructor told me that though I was doing ok in the air, but I was doing terrible on the ground, and I could not disagree. I just could not seem to get the hang of getting the airplane to turn the way I wanted while taxiing.

So today instead of calling ground to get a clearance to a runway, we told them we were headed for the northwest ramp. I added "for taxiing practice," but Steve said they didn't need that information: the ramp areas are outside of the controlled space on the airport, so by going up there and getting off the taxiways, we could do whatever we wanted. The NW ramp was big enough for us to taxi up and down and turn around.

And so over to the NW ramp we went. Among other things, I learned that the 172 turns much better with the judicious use of the brakes. If you want to make a tight left turn, you have to press down hard on the left rudder, but if you also lightly press your toe against the top of the left rudder, that brakes just the left wheel, and the airplane turns much more quickly.

Taxiing in the 172 is tiring work. I'm on the shorter side, and even with my seat scooted all the way forward it's a bit of stretch to push those rudder pedals all the way down. After 10-15 minutes of turning, stopping, and staying on track, we called for a clearance to runway 3R. More taxiing to get there. At the end Steve pronounced himself much happier with my ground work.

After takeoff we headed up north to do some coordinated turns: going left and then right and the left again so I could practice using my aileron and rudder together. After that, we headed back to PDK to do a couple of approaches in the pattern.

As we were coming back to PDK from the North, I noticed that it looked kind of .. hazy? Smoky? But shortly we realized just exactly what we were seeing: clouds of pollen; pollen in every direction. It was an astonishing sight. Steve took the first approach to show me what he wanted me to work on, and since he had the controls, I took the opportunity to snap a couple of pictures of the pollen, but what I managed to grab was not as impressive as what I saw as I was flying towards the field.

Before we went up, the winds were calm. But the winds built up after we took off, and when we got back to PDK the air was turbulent. Despite my practice with coordinating turns, I had trouble again keeping my turns coordinated as we went around the pattern. After we landed, Steve's advice was to try to ignore the turbulence: it pushes you around, but on balance the net effect is not much change. If you concentrate on making your turns as you would when the winds are calm, you'll do better.

The field was busy, and that interfered with my practice. I'm trying to get used to going around and doing the landing the same way every time, but there were lots of other planes trying to get in and out of PDK, so a couple of times we were asked to "extend our upwind" or "extend our downwind". That basically means that there's other traffic that the tower is trying to fit in, and they need us to stay out of the way. That's the tower's job, and they're keeping us safe, but it makes it hard for me to get that standard approach nailed down in my head.

On our last approach I was planning to try to take it all the way down to a landing, but when we got close to the runway, suddenly the Cessna heeled over into a 20' bank. Steve yelped "My airplane!" and got us down onto the ground. It happened so fast I wasn't even clear on what happened, but afterwards Steve said one of those 20kt gusts had pushed the wing over. Without quick action, we could have been in trouble. Steve said if I'd been in the airplane alone, the right action would have been to go to full power and go around. (I'm in no way ready for that yet.)

It was a challenging lesson; I was happy to get back on the ground. But I had one last success: I parked the plane at the ramp next to the other Skybound planes. It's the equivalent of parking a car in a parking space, and it was the first time I managed to do that. Huzzah!

A postscript: I like flying on Saturday mornings because afterwards I can go up to the Downwind restaurant at PDK and mentally come down from the flight over lunch. While I was there,my friend Jonathan texted me that his spouse and their 3 year old son were at PDK. I turned and found them waiting for a table, and I went over to chat for a few minutes. (Unfortunately, the 3 year old is just too young to be at all impressed that this guy standing here flies airplanes.)

On my way back to my table, I got another text: "Hey. Are you at PDK's Downwind Cafe? If you're not it's your twin." It was Joey, a guy I'd worked with ages ago at CNN. He was there with his entire family. After lunch they went down to the observation area to watch the planes, and I brought out my binoculars and my radio so we could listen to the ground and tower frequencies. Joey and his family had lots of questions, and I was delighted to be able to share my new-found knowledge. Aviation is full of intricate systems, and learning how everything works is one of my primary motivations for learning to fly. I've always been fascinated by everything to do with airplanes, and even though I'm still learning, I'm now part of that community. I love it!