6/16/09 Matti and Lexie

Had a nice flight with Matti and Lexie.

Practiced some maneuvers (Matti had never experienced a stall), made a full stop at McMinnville (MMV), past Mulino (4S9) which I hadn't been to since early in my training, flew over our neighborhood, and back to Twin Oaks.

Nothing big, since the clouds again prevented me from leaving the Willamette Valley, but Matti was excited to finally be up front, Lexie just to be along. She had not flown in anything short of a large commercial jet.

Between MMV and 4S9 my Matti was able to get his hands and feet on the controls for a few shallow turns, and a shallow climb and descent. Seeing his initial tight grip on the yoke, with the resulting white knuckles, made me smile thinking of how I'd done the same for a good part of my first several lessons. Unlike my own, his grip quickly eased to a light touch. Fun to see the look on his face as he made a first few tentative control movements.

Fun.

6/08/09 Flight With Dad

Dad and I had planned to fly over to Tillamook (TMK), visit the museum, fly up the coast a little, and come back. Unfortunately the clouds did not cooperate with our plans...

Instead, we flew down to Independence (7S5) for lunch at the Starduster Cafe. A nice place, with outdoor seating offering a good view of the ramp and runway, where you can watch planes come and go.

It turned out to be a very nice flight down the valley, at an altitude that rarely exceeded 2000ft due to the clouds, and allowed for great views of the farmland below.

We also few over a few of the areas that I had practiced during training.

Flying and food... Good stuff!

5/31/09 First Trip With Passengers

My first trip as a certificated pilot!

I took Heatherle, Matti, and Audrey down the Willamette valley this morning to Independence OR (7S5), which sounded kind of fitting for the trip, then over to the east side of the Willamette valley and north.

We flew up the east side of the Willamette Valley, over Oregon City, Gladstone, and our neighborhood.

After flying over our neighborhood, we followed I-205 west, and then continued on to Twin Oaks.

It was a simple trip, but a great first trip with the family. What could be better?

A few pictures from the trip including; Matti, Audrey, Heatherle, Independance OR, our neighborhood, and final for runway 02 at Twin Oaks.

Audrey also had a chance to enjoy another of the offerings at Twin Oaks; the swing.

5/30/09 Checkride Passed!!

I passed, and boy do I feel good!!


I got out to the airport about 45 minutes early. I had nothing to do at home but drive my family crazy with my pacing back and forth, I might as well pace around out at the airport. I went in to the office to sit an talk with the Starks, and was introduced to my examiner, who was doing the same.


That half hour or so talking really help to settle my nerves, and by the time we headed down to the classroom, I was still a little nervous (it is a checkride after all), but I felt ready.


The examiner went over the outline of what we'd do, and what was expected. He was was pretty informal, to the point where this was looking like it could be fun.


I had been told that he was known to be tough, and that was true, but a very likable person.


After successfully drawing and explaining the fuel system, the one one thing that I should have known, but didn't, came up. How do I know a vented fuel cap from a non-vented? No way to B.S. so "I don't know". "I'll tell you how, and I want you to look as you pre-flight the plane later". The trap door didn't open under me, and we moved on.


We covered airspace, aircraft systems, calculating takeoff, climb, and landing distance, regulations, my planned cross country, and everything else you'd expect.


We took a little break, and I was off to pre-flight (I now know the answer to the vented cap question), and feeling good that I had made it this far.

We departed Twin Oaks, and I headed towards the Newburg VOR, my first checkpoint, and began following the 174 radial towards Corvallis. I wandered back and fourth across the radial a bit, but not too bad. Soon my second checkpoint was below us, and was told to turn east to a practice area.

After some clearing turns, clean power off stalls, turning power on stalls, and power off stalls with flaps were next. All good there.

Steep turns were good. Very good I thought.


Slow flight was good as well.

Now it was time to go under the hood. Turns to a heading, straight and level, recovery from unusual attitudes. All good.

We re-entered my cross country right about where we had departed it, and was then asked to divert to Chehalem, and give a distance/time/fuel burn estimate. I knew where Chehalem was, but took a quick look at my sectional just to make sure. Once I had positively identified Chehalem, I was then asked to divert to Sportsman.


At 3500ft agl over the field he pulled the throttle. I quickly pitched for best glide, went through the emergency procedures while circling over the field, and rolled out about mid-way on downwind, but about 2500ft agl (high). By abeam the numbers I was just under 2000(still about 500ft high), so I extended downwind a bit, and slipped extensively on final, setting me up for a good short final.

We went around the pattern for a soft field landing, a short field takeoff, and back to Twin Oaks.


I entered the pattern for runway 02, where I was to demonstrate a short field landing. I was a bit high as I turned final and pulled power back to idle. I hit a spot where I began to sink rather quickly, and was a little aggressive with the power. This caused me to balloon a bit when I rounded out, and then dropped in a bit, but touched down in the area requested.


With that I was asked to taxi to the parking area. As I taxied into the grass, I could see Heatherle watching from the same point she had a little more than five months ago when I soloed. She had come out to the airport while we where in the air to greet me pass or fail. Pretty cool.

After I shut down, "I'll meet you up in the classroom" was the response from the examiner. Oh man, did that sloppy short field do me in?

Heatherle gestured as to whether-or-not I'd passed. I'll I could do is shrug my shoulders.

I got in the classroom, and Bob Stark brought two bowls of freshly baked pie with ice cream in. "He gets a slice of pie if he passed". "He can have some pie" was the answer from the examiner. Wow, what a relief!


Pie, and they also would not except payment for the rental because I'd passed. Great people the Starks.

The examiner asked if I had any questions, "Yeah, how did I do besides passing?". He asked if I wanted the assesment with my wife in the room. I though "Oh great, here it comes". He said all my maneuvers were good, and the short field I had worried about worked, and would be better in time. "On a scale of 1 to 10...", as he paused and looked at me, I was waiting for the 6 score, "I'd give you a solid 9.5". 9.5?? I'll take that!

Still a lot to learn, but I am now a certificated private pilot! I had a well developed fear of flying not that long ago, and now I am a pilot.


The pictures are of my last roll out, and taxi off as a student pilot. It was just over 90 degrees, and was quite warm in the airplane, as you could probably guess by the open door.

5/29/09 One Last Practice

I decided to get one last practice in, in prep for tomorrow's checkride.

I sure wish the checkride was scheduled for this morning. The air was smooth and calm, intercepted and tracked a radial from the Newburg VOR, Practiced engine out at Sportsman from 3000 and then 4000, nailing it both times, steep turns and stalls were good, landings were smooth...

I could have stayed up all morning if someone wouldn't eventually expect me to show up at work.

I feel much more relaxed (for now anyway), so it was completely worth every minute this morning.

I now have logged 45.9 hrs of training, 18.4 hrs solo, for a total of 64.3 hours and 206 landings. On top of that, a good number of hours ground training with my instructor, and an untold number of hours studying. I'll know tomorrow if it's enough...