Flight #27 & 28 Solo T&G's at Crp

Flew twice today at Crp. About 1 hour at about 10 AM on runway 13 with 7 kts at 90 degrees, full crosswind or slight tailwind. Landings were fast and I had some difficulty. Out of 7 landings only got about 2 that I liked .. one go around .. porpoised once and went around.

Went out again about 6 PM and flew .6 hrs and 4 T&G's. These were much better as wind was 130 at 12 kts ... much slower ground speed.

Lessons learned:
1) Still don't think I'm completing the flare .. nose high .. in fact .. I'm not sure I heard the stall horn once today! Don't think I'm holding the plane off .. flying it to the end of the runway ... maybe I'm worried about dropping it in.
2) Must have been coming in a little fast this morning .. or why else did I porpoise?
3) Seems like a flatter glide slope (vs steep approach) make much smoother landings .. but I know Tim would chastise me for not being able to make the A/P with engine out.
4)




Overall its been almost a month since I last flew solo ( that's not good ) but this was a confidence builder. I wish the landings had been better but practice practice practice makes perfect.

I really look forward to the day that I look forward to going to the airport. Right now it takes all my will power. What keeps me going are the plans I've been making to travel. I know that it'll get better and enjoyable once I get through with this painful phase.

I'm really feeling the pressure of getting ready for the check ride .. and my cross country this week .... and then I've got to get on the Columbia training to be prepared for flight school in late June ... wow ... this feels like work!

Flight #26 w/ Tim on Round Robin 8 Airports

The weather warned of high winds when Tim & I left Corpus for the round robin of local airports. Crp was 140 @ 11 when we left on 13. First we headed SE with broken ceilings at 1400' and 2400' to Kleberg IKG.

Got lost and off course immediately but finally found it and did successful T&G on 13 ( winds 140 @ 10 G21). Headed north to Alice ( 140 @ 15) for another T&G on 13. Headed NE to Sinton (T69) .. no weather so did mid field flyover .. sock was down 14. Had a little trouble getting setup in the pattern but finally did and came in with a lot of turbulence on short short .. did go around and got it the second time. Sinton's runway is only 55' wide .. !

Headed NE to Refurio (RFP) for another 14 runway .. no weather. Did T&G and headed east to Rockport (RKP). Winds were 130 @ 15 G21 with 1800' ceilings .. it was getting bumpy. The approach was over water ( Copano Bay ) so the glideslope had to be steeper to allow for a no power emergency landing. Completed T&G there and turned south to Mustang Beach.

Has a little trouble finding Mustang (RAS). Winds were 130 @ 15 G19. Got setup for a conventional patter by going down the beach and turning west onto a left downwind for 12. A little sloppy but got it down. We pulled off to take a 15 minute break (Tim had to drop the kids off).

Left RAS and turned back west on the downwind leg towards TP McCampbell (T43). Came in directly on left downwind leg and did T&G on 13. Turned west and headed out on downwind leg .. ceilings were around 1500'.

Headed back towards Crp .. contacted Crp Approach .. initially assigned 17 .. but as we got closer the tower gave us 13. I got very confused at this point thinking that the tower wanted me to enter into a downwind leg for 13 .. and I was headed down from the north... I just wanted a straight in. Also, I got 13 confused with 13.

Tim just sat there as he is suppose to do .. and let me sweat bullets as I wandered around the C space waiting for the tower to kick my ass .. while I attempt to process all this conflicted data. Finally I figured out which runway was 13 and realized I was already setup for the base leg .. which Tim finally confirmed was what the tower told me ( duh!).

Anyway the approach and landing on 13 was very soft. Since the winds were 160 @ 25 G32 our groundspeed was getting down there. The was no doubt about the wind as we taxi'd back to Mercury ... I had hell keeping the plane on the taxiways.

Things I learned:
1) Pilotage is much harder than I imagined ... I used the GPS extensively ... I need a lot more practice recognizing features from the air.
2) PrePlanning pattern entry ( mental picture of runways and pattern entry) would significantly reduce the confusion coming into an airport. You're too busy on radios, checking weather and flying the plane to sort this out then.
3) Airport inspections 500' above the runway ( to ck sock and traffic ) must be across midfield ..not the ends of the runway .. assume you'll do a 270 once over for entry into the appropriate downwind leg.
4) Holding headings is critical .. ditto alititude .. I was surprised at how much trouble I had with this... Guess I had too many distractions checking weather, GPS and pilotage.
5) I can fly and land in windy conditions (!!) .. this was a real confidence builder. Now I just need to get solo time doing the same thing.

CheckRide Scheduled for April 17th !!!

While Tim was at my house reviewing Cross-Country flying we called the FAA examiner (Charlie McDougle) .. on a dare. We got him and scheduled my checkride for Apr 17 .. about 2 1/2 weeks hence! Well .. this just adds some discipline to me getting done before we leave for Europe on June 1st.

Between now and then we've got to do my Xcountry and I've got to get some serious solo time and practice maneuvers. Also, its clear Charlie expects you to know the POH .. so I'll have to work that hard as well. For the next 2 weeks I'm going to eat drink and sleep flying.

In fact Charlie asked me to plan a Cross Country for Austin. It occurred to me that when I pass it ( positive thinking right?) .. on the 17th .. I could use the flight plan for Austin on the 19th to fly up for Genna's gratuation on the 20th.

Flight #25 w/Tim @ ALI & Sinton XWind T&G's

Flew 3 hours, mostly at Alice doing cross-wind landings on 17 and 35 ( downwind xwind) along with some on 13. My XWind correction was good, as was flare height. However, I'm still not completing the flare .. flat landings .. and I'm not leaving the ailerion in after touchdown causing downwind skids. But overall pretty good.

Left Alice and headed NE to Sinton. Did some steep turns, power-off & power-on stalls recoveries. Did 2 landings at Sinton ( no Xwind ) but narrow runway ( 50'?).

Left Alice and returned to Crp .. a little trouble getting oriented on my return. Need to learn the GPS system.

It has been too long since I last flew. One lesson for me is to keep flying as the halflife on my "Mojo" is pretty short right now .. and I have to keep solo'n to build my confidence level up .. morning T&G's at Crp .. forever.

I've ordered a number of King training CD's ... three I'm going to work on this week include the CrossCountry, CheckRide tutorial and Weather.

Hope to do dual XCountry with Tim on Friday and my solo XCountry this weekend. If I can get this all done it'll be a very good week indeed.

My Columbia 400 is FINISHED!!

Here's a pic of MY new Columbia. It'll be about 4 weeks for it gets certified by the FAA. I told Columbia that I'd be up in late June to pick it up.

I figure I won't get my PPL until late May .. then we go on vacation .. back mid-June .. then Tres and I can go get it.

Sexy little dude isn't it!

Scored 90% on Written Test

So out of 60 questions I missed 6 .. not bad I guess. Although I had the King tapes for this I really wasn't happy with them. I ended up just using printed test guides.

Anyway getting this out of the way took a little pressure off .. although I've still got to bone up on my POH and review this material again for the FAA checkride ( soon I hope).

Flight #24 T&G's @ Crp w/ Tim

Met Tim @ Crp to do 3 T&G's .. first simulated engine out ( beauuutiful) .. second was standard power on approach .. flared high dropped in but not too hard .. last was with the ASI covered up ... beautiful ..

In thinking about my last two solo's here when I had problems what I'm concluding is I must have landed flat both times and wheelbarreled on the nose wheel ... a good flare would have prevented it ..

Anyway today was a great confidence builder .. now some more solo's here and we'll begin the round robin of nearby airports .. probably next week.

Take my written test for PPL tomorrow at 8 AM.

Also signed on with Tim to help buy an ultralight which he's going to build .. sharing it with about 4 other guys.

Flight #23 2cd Solo @ Crp

Got to Mercury @ 7 AM ... wind was about dead ... planned to do some T&G's.

Ended up do about 5 or 6 low flyovers without landing or even touching .. wind picked up a little 5 to 10 kts out of 020 on Rwy 13 .. actually a tailwind. Guess I've never been in a tailwind situation .. that was in the back of my mind while do the low approaches.

On the low approaches I was slipping to hold the center .. that seemed to go ok .. the patterns were clean and radio work fine .. holding altitude at 1000' in the pattern no problem. Good rollouts on final .. alt good .. speed good ...

I kept pushing off a landing .. I just didn't want to try after last time .. thinking about a tailwind and increased groundspeed after touchdown.

After about 2 hours of doing low approaches I decided I was getting tired and decided to do fully stop.

Approach was fine .. lined up .. more a slip than a crab.

Speed might have been a tad high .. but not by much.

Began rollout and flare .. too high

To prevent a drop gave it some power .. not to go around .. but to soften the bounce ... didn't bounce .. left wing dipped ( I think ..seemed like a lot of bad shit happened in micro-seconds). At some point in the crazy chain I must have set down ... fast I'm sure.

Ended up on the extreme left side of runway .. again .. fighting to stay on the runway. I did but it was ugly ... I was ( and still am) very shook up.

Taxi'd back and left .. not feeling at all good about my prospects of ever becoming a confident / consistent pilot.

Its frustrating because I know what I'm suppose to do .. I know what each of the controls do .. but in the few seconds of roundount and flare my reactions must be wrong .. somewhere .. and I'll be damned if I can point to what I did wrong.

Even more frustrating is the fact that I solo'd with Tim .... did 3 good landing by myself .. did two more with Tim at Crp .. both good after that .. but now it seems like I've forgotten how to flare. Somehow I know how to land for my solo .. and now I don't ... I can't tell you what's different. In fact my solo at Alice was with a xwind ( headwind ) ... which I think would be even more challenging.

OK .. so its a question of confidence .. I think I'm freezing up in the roundout .. mind disengaged not thinking ... got to get my mojo back.

I hate the thought but I'm going to have to go back up with Tim and Tres and have them figure out what I'm doing wrong.

Flight #22 First Solo @ Crp

Although it shouldn't have been any big deal ... I went out to Crp to do T&G's ... by myself. Nothing fancy but it was a solo afterall ... and I was VERY nervous. Wind was 10 to 15 knots at 120 with Rwy 13 as the active .. so Xwind wasn't a factor. Scattered ceiling at 1000'.

Going through pre-flight ckout and contacting Clearance no big deal. I've done all this so many times by now it was all automatic. But I'll admit it did it twice knownig that I missed anything critical there was no one there to catch it.

Taxi out on F to 13 fine .. runup .. fine .. takeoff .. good .. staying right of rwy to watch my heading out on upwind. Went to the end of 13 and about had my 1000' .. turn Xwind leg .. looking over to the right to ck distance .. turn onto downwind .. holding my 1000' no problem .. Tower cleared me in .. turned base ... haze made it a little difficult to see Rwy 13 but GPS helped .. started final confirmed Option with Tower .. approach went smooth .. working to 30 deg flap setting .. speed and ROD on target ...

As I began my flare left some power in ... and I set down so soft .. I wasn't sure I was down .. and I was drifting to the extreme left ... ending up very long .. had to get off on Bravo 4.

I've been thinking about it but still not sure how I got so far left with wind at 120 unless I overcorrected on aileron ...

Shouldn't done a low pass first to test holding the center .. oh well tomorrow.

These are pics of a couple Mercury hands ... they were all excited for me going up Solo today. All very nice.

Flight #21 T&G Tower Radio @ Crp

Tim wanted to ck me out on the Crp tower before he let me loose. Met him on a BEAUTIFUL morning at Crp @ 8 AM .. no wind.. perfect.

Tim asked the tower to mess w/ me a little .. a few orbits ... aborted clearance and landings .. only got in about 2 landings the last without flaps .. second one was better ... We've decided that I'll work on no flap landings to get ready for higher landing speeds with the Colombia.

Anyway Tim signed me off and now I've got to do 4 flights in the Crp pattern before we begin XCountry work. Goal is to finish this this week so we can start next phase next week.

Scheduled my FAA PPL Written exam for next Weds ... after that its only the XCountry work and CkRide and I'll be over the goal line .. Yippee!

PPL Written Test Prep ...

Cramming in prep for taking written test .. hopefully later this week or early next week. Another big step to completion.

Need to decide who to use for Instrument Rating.

Flight #20 Tres T*G's at Crp

Tres & I stayed in pattern at Crp R13 doing pattern work and T&G's. Did about 5 or 6. 10 degree Xwind but gusting. Had a tougher time than prior day when I solo'd.

Tower talk went ok .. guess I'm getting comfortable with that.

Tim & I are to go up Tues and do Crp T&G's one more before he turns me loose to play alone.