Exam (as in FAA Knowledge Exam)

I scheduled to take the FAA written knowledge exam on Thursday.  Luckily there is an FAA testing center in town; otherwise I would have had to take a day of vacation and drive to Tallahassee to take the test.  I showed up at the testing center (a local vocational school) ready for my test only to find out the lady who usually administers the tests had a dental issue and wouldn't be in.  She was supposed to have left the test materials out for the tests, but the booklet I needed for my test was not left out.  The book was locked in a cabinet with some FCAT (state standardized testing) testing materials and state law dictates that those materials have very limited access.

The ladies who were filling in made an amazing effort to gain access to the cabinet but were unable to.  I left with the plan that I would come back at 4 pm to take the test.  They called around noon saying they would not be able to get the test materials that day but to call them to schedule a different time to take the test.  I decided I would take the test during my lunch break on Friday.

When I showed up Friday, they had everything I needed and after registering and paying for the test, I began.  I had been averaging around an hour whenever I would take an online practice test and scoring in the low to mid ninety's.  After an hour of answering questions, performing weight and balance calculations, and figuring out how long it would take to fly from one place to another, I completed the test and passed with an 83.  Now with the written exam completed I can focus 100% on the practical and oral exam that are part of what is commonly called a "check-ride".

R48

Update (as in This just in...)

Things have been quite busy the last several months.  Between a change of flight instructors and a helicopter crash (I was not involved) progress has been really slow. 

My original flight instructor had flown enough hours to get a job flying off shore to and from oil rigs.  Since the flight school only has one instructor, it took a bit to get a replacement.  That flight instructor left and it was a little bit longer to get a replacement. 

I started flying with the newest instructor and I am making good progress.  My maneuvers are getting better and are very close to check ride standards.  I am taking the FAA written exam this week and have been studying hard for it. 

The training helicopter crashed and it took almost 8 weeks to procure a replacement.  They have a smaller helicopter, but the instructor and I would not meet the weight and balance limits. 

I have decided that ultimately I want to be a Helicopter EMS (HEMS) pilot.  Flying people from accident sites to hospitals or patients from one hospital to another.  I will need a lot of hours to get a job like that, but I know that it will be worth it. 

I want to update this blog more regularly than I have in the past.  I also hope to get a GoPro camera to begin capturing video and images of my flights.  This weekend I have a solo flight to get the last of the PIC hours I need for my private license. 

I have been thinking of crowd sourcing the funds to pay for flight school.  Doing so will ensure that I (hopefully) have enough money to complete my flight training and can begin my path to flying HEMS.  Currently funds for flight training are tied to the degree I am working on in Aviation Management.  If I can't get enough money from the loans offered while attending school, I won't be able to finish flight school. 

R48

Life (as in Everything Else that Goes On)

I have not flown in a very long time.  The last time I went up I had a poor flight experience.  I hadn't flown in several months and my instructor wasn't very helpful while we were in the air.  I understand why an instructor doesn't help while in the air, so both he and the student can asses the skills of student and areas on improvement can be identified and worked on, but after more than 30 minutes of this I believe it is time to stop and not allow the student to have a negative experience.  The whole thing made me question if I was doing the right thing and if I should continue my flight lessons.

With all the complications and happenings that surround the birth of my third child and having to work a lot of weekends, I decided to put off flying until after the school semester started.  School would put the whole house into a routine and the family would be in a very structured rhythm.  This would create some normalcy and lead back to flying regularly.  School has started, the routine is in place and normalcy is coming back and as it appears the stars will align and everything be OK, the car breaks!

And not the 'Oh, it is broken and I can get what I need from the parts store and have it fixed by Monday".  It is the 'It may cost more than the car is worth to make it drive-able again' broke.  So after spending hours researching the problem and fixes on the internet, I am working on fixing it.  If all goes well, it should be fixed by this weekend.

I still need to take the FAA written exam, which I should be able to test locally, versus having to drive to Tallahassee to take the test.  I need to study for that but between the birth, school (for the children), college (for me), work, and the car breaking, I can say I haven't spent the time I had hoped to on it.

R48

Slow (as in Progress has been slow)

I haven't flown a lot in the past three months. This is partly because of the holidays, my work schedule, illness and school. I am nearing the completion of my private license and should get it before the end of March. I have to take 5 days of mandatory vacation from work, so during that time off I will be finishing my required hours and preparing for and taking the check ride.

I also need to take the FAA written exam but I have not been studying nearly as much as I should be for it. You need at least 80% to pass the written exam, but most things I have read and heard say you should have 90% or better.

I made a cross country flight and that went well. The next flight I have planned is a solo cross country flight to get the remaining solo time I need for my license. I think I would feel better about the check ride if I was flying on a regular basis, but my instructor says I have the skills needed to pass the check ride.

My most recent flight was at the beginning of January and it had been nearly three months since I had been flying before that. I flew with my instructor and stayed at the Tallahassee airport doing maneuvers. I flew really well for not flying in so long and after a few minutes the rust was gone and I was successfully performing most maneuvers. We practiced landing on slopes, which I have only done once before near the beginning of my flight training. It was kind of awkward at first but after some verbal review of what to do and a demonstration from my instructor, I was setting down and picking up from the slope.

One of the things I noticed during this flight was that while practicing auto-rotations, I didn't really freak-out when you lower the collective which causes the helicopter to descend towards the earth at over 1,500 feet per minute. I only really felt (slightly) panicked or unsure when it came time to stop the descent and begin the hover recovery. And since we were at the airport we were only about 500 feet AGL, so the auto-rotation from start to finish was about 25 seconds.

I tried to get a GPS track of my flight using my phone, but it kept loosing GPS signal and only recorded about 1/3 of the flight in bits and pieces. I am going to try a different GPS tracking app and place my phone in a different spot to see if I can get it to record better. If I can get a decent capture, I will share it.

R48

Cross Country (as in Fly over here and then over there)

I haven't been blogging much because I have been busy with school, work, life and everything else.  No matter how much time I try to spend relaxing it is not enough, I always seem behind on my school work and regular work wants me to work all the time.  

The cross country flight is near the end of your flight training and brings all the skills and knowledge learned into one long flight.  Radio communications, flight planning, dead reckoning, cockpit resource management are just a few of the things needed to complete the flight.  

My most recent flight was my first cross country flight.  Cross country flying is technically when you fly more than 25 Nautical Miles (straight line) distance to another airport.  We had 6 airports on the plan to visit before returning to KTLH.  We made it to 4 of them before my instructor directed us back home.  The flight was very taxing.  I wasn't allowed to use the GPS and had to fly based on a heading and time I calculated before the flight and get to the next check point and have a good idea when looking at the aeronautical chart where I was.  I had a hard time maintaining my airspeed and heading, which changed the times I calculated, which got me "lost" a couple of times.  

We departed KTLH for Quincy (2J9) and then headed to Bainbridge, GA (KBGE).  I ended up about 10 miles west of the airport because of my piloting failures listed above.  After climbing, looking for and finding the airport, I flew a traffic pattern and headed on the next airport.  Doesn't sounds so bad, remember that while all this is going on my flight instructor is doing his best to frustrate and stress me out.  He did a good job, I was pretty stressed but I know that when I am flying cross country by myself, he won't be there to give advice or tell me what I am doing wrong.  As we traveled by my poor dead reckoning skills (using landmarks to identify where you are and where you are supposed to be), I missed the airports by several miles each time.  Since I wasn't doing very well, my instructor had me plot a course back to KTLH.  We flew the 35 miles back discussing what I needed to improve on and what I should be checking when I fly by myself.  

I was pretty upset with how poorly I flew, until I was filling out my log book and realized that the last time I flew was on the 30th of September.  I felt a little better about the flight but not really.  I discussed the next steps with my instructor about when I should be ready for my check ride.  I wanted to use the time between the two school semesters over Christmas to have my check ride, but that would require flying twice a week and I don't quite have that ability.  We discussed where I am at, what I need to work on and set a goal of 30 January 2013 for me to have my check ride completed.  So shortly after the New Year I will have my private pilot license (rotorcraft) and will start working on my commercial license and instrument rating.  

My next flight will be another dual cross country with my instructor with a shorter route so that I will have the required hours and then I will be making solo cross country flights until I have the 10 solo hours required for my license.  

One part of the flight that was interesting was flying between three broadcast antennas about 30 miles north east of Tallahassee.  I was flying at 1000 feet and they still appeared very tall to me.  The towers are about 2000 feet tall, I tried to find a good picture of them, but I couldn't.  I am still saving to get a camera similar to the GoPro Hero camera.  Something I can position and have it take pictures or video while I fly so I can share some of the images.  

R48

Update (as in, In Other News, a Helicopter Crashes into a Lake. Details at 11.)

As some of you know I have been waiting for the flight school to get a replacement helicopter to replace the one that was crashed during the early morning hours of July 4th.  The replacement arrived about a week ago and I have been able to fly again.  I started school this week and have not had much free time.

A lot has been going on the past three weeks between semesters.  I thought I was going to get a nice break to relax, but it didn't happen.  I will post about my most recent flight in a few days (hopefully before I fly again this Sunday).  After I get school lined out so I do not miss any assignments I will write up last week's flight.

I have a full course load this semester; the classes don't appear to be too hard or challenging.  The real challenge is remembering and recalling all the new information I need for the tests and such.  I am also studying for the written portion of the private pilot exam.  It is important to score well on this test because the (check-ride) examiner judges you on your score, I am told the higher the score, the nicer the examiner is.  It may also help me get a job in the future.

R48

Solo #2 (as in More flying around alone and WTF is that parachute doing crossing the runway?!)

01 July 2012 - (Sorry this is so late in being posted, the last two weeks have been non-stop busy!)

This trip was basically a repeat of the previous one.  Departed KTLH with my instructor and we reviewed the basic maneuvers and procedures.  We identified some areas I needed to improve on while I was flying solo.  After a stop for fuel and water, I took control of the helicopter and brought it in the air.  We added almost 300 pounds of fuel when we filled up and with out the weight of my instructor to help balance the craft, the initial pick up was a bit awkward.  Any aft (rear) movement of the controls made it feel like I was headed for a tail strike.  This led me to have a slight forward movement 90% of the time while hovering.  I spent some amount of time trying to figure out what the correct movements were to stop this motion and managed to do so some of the time.

After flying the pattern for 25 or so minutes, I maneuvered to the Southwest side of the runway and practiced hovering, left pedal turns, moving forward at a slow pace and stopping and hovering some more.  I flew some more patterns, this time with an airplane in the pattern with me.  This pilot was either keeping current his ability to carry passengers or was a student pilot practicing take offs and landings.  I didn't avoid other air traffic this time like I did last time; we flew the pattern, making our landings and take offs, me in front of him.

As you might recall, Quincy has a jump school located at the airport.  Some days I fly they have people parachuting the whole time I am out there and others no one is falling out of the sky.  Today was a busy day. Before my instructor exited the helicopter, there was about 8 jumpers (we flew together for about 45 minutes) and after I started flying solo, they had back to back to back jumpers.  Jump 1 would land, load up and be taxiing to the runway before I even completed my one pattern.  Some were jumping at 5500 feet, others 8500.  The rules are that the parachutes are not supposed to cross the concrete runway, they jump over the northern side of the airport and they are supposed to stay on that side.

So I am flying the pattern 500 feet above the ground, hear call the jumpers are out.  It takes about 2 minutes from that call until you see the parachutes opening.  I am in the downwind leg of the pattern and I see the chutes open.  I begin my descent and turn base keeping an eye on the chutes, I make the call for my turn to final and over the runway above me is a parachute!  My first reaction was call off my approach and fly away for a few minutes and give them time to land, then re-enter the pattern and do my thing.  So I am descending about 60 seconds from being on the ground and the parachutes turns towards his side of the runway, so I slow a bit (not too slow or I enter the dead man curve) and wait for him to clear the runway.  I am flying as slow as I could stand, getting closer than I want to be to a parachute that is in the wrong spot, while descending over trees.  The plane behind me calls a right 360 to give me some extra time.  This jumper is slowly descending over the runway, so I call a right turn out because of the parachute and begin to climb and turn right making a wide circle to line up for a straight in final.  The jumpers just touched down and I land and moved to the North side of the runway to practice pick ups and set downs (they were easier now that I burned off about 80 pounds of fuel).  After I made a handful of good set downs and pick ups I saw my instructor walking over from the FBO.  So I flew towards him and set down, he climbed in and we flew back to KTLH and did an auto rotation down from 1000 feet as we made our way to the North Ramp.

The next flight will be me taking off from KTLH alone, flying to Quincy, doing more traffic patterns to perfect my take offs, landings and ground maneuvers.

Well the "next flight" would have been two weeks ago but a renter crashed the helicopter into a private lake while working on night flying requirements.  The helicopter is totaled and I am waiting for the school to get a replacement.  Some news stories can be found here.

R48