Day 19 - 2nd IFR Flight

We spent four hours in the sim. It flew by, not really sure why. Was I actually enjoying it...no that can't be.

We then departed on my second IFR cross country flight and shot the following instrument approaches:

1. VOR-A into Oceanside Airport [KOKB] (Went Missed)
2. GPS RWY 5 into Hemet-Ryan Airport [KHMT] (we landed here to justify a cross country flight, seeing as it is over 50NM from Montgomery)
3. ILS DME RWY 28R Montgomery [KMYF] - We circled north to rwy 23.

This was a new airplane to both my instructor and I. N572AT, It was flown in earlier last week by some cross country students and exchanged for N263AT. Well, the DG was having some major precession issues. It would be 15 degrees off in less than 5 minutes, this was in slave mode. Anyhow, this forced me to fly off the old magnetic compass as I took orders from ATC.

It was busy up there today. We requested towerenroute and ATC was non-stop chatter. A little overwhelming for my second IFR flight, but nonetheless fun.

Day 18 - Yep, the Sim

2 more hours in the simulator. I only have about 30 hours in the simulator left.

Day 17 - The Sim...Again

Spent 2 hours in the simulator shooting approaches followed by three hours of ground instruction.

Day 16 - More Sim

Spent 4 hours in the simulator today shooting approaches into various local airports. I have had such a hard time flying the sim up to this point. It is so overly sensitive. Well, I think I have figured it out. I simply pull the throttle way back and fly the aircraft at much slower than recommended cruising speed. It may take longer to get were we are going, but what difference does it make. It's not like we are burning valuable fuel. I have also figured out how to use the autopilot (I did this on my own time.) One other thing, I applied my computer knowledge and upped the simulator's graphical representation to maximum settings and resolution. It still does not compare to Flight Simulator X.

Day 15 - First IFR X-Country

We requested a tower enroute IFR flight to Hemet Ryan Airport (KHMT). Hemet is over 50 NM from Montgomery Field and therefore counts as a cross country flight. As seen on the flight overview picture, we cancelled our IFR flight plan just inland and requested VFR flight following for the remainder of the flight. Seeing as this was an IFR training flight, I got to wear my instrument glasses (http://www.blockalls.com/.) For those of you that don’t know, these limit my vision to the cockpit instruments and simulate flying in the clouds or IMC, I log this time. The GPS approach into Hemet-Ryan Airport was my first official approach in a Twin-Engine Aircraft. After departing Hemet, William, my instructor acted as ATC and “barked” out orders. We also had flight following, so the “real” ATC was handing out vectors as we approached class Bravo around San Diego. We shot the ILS 28R approach into Montgomery.

Day 12 & 13 - Instrument Ground Underway

The last two days have consisted of IFR (Instrument Flight Rule) training. Much of the material we have covered is review from an instrument class I took at St. Cloud State. We spent two hours in the sim today which was also review. In the mean time, I have been preparing for the Instrument written test which I need to pass with a satisfactory grade prior to taking my checkride.

Day 11 - VFR Cross Country

What a fun cross-country flight. I said it before, and I will say it again, it was so nice to get up there and fly the plane as it was designed. No maneuvers, no expected engine outs, and stress free landings. If you look closely at the first picture you will see 3 F-18's doing pattern work at Mirimar. This was a great site as I preflighted the aircraft. We had wheels up at Montgomery around 6:00PM and we clocked a total of 2.1 hours for the entire leg up to San Luis Obispo. The fourth picture down was the site as we descended from our cruising altitude of 10,500 to the pattern altitude at San Luis, 1,700. When we arrived at San Luis we had about an hour to kill before we could get back in the plane and fly back to Montgomery. Reason being, in order to log night flying hours for currency you can only do so an hour after the sun sets. In our case, the sun set at 7:54 PM. So, we headed up to the Spirit of St Louis, the restaurant located only 100 yards from the ramp that we park the airplane on. After dinner we headed back to preflight the aircraft and be on our way back to Montgomery.

Seeing as I have only logged 3 hours of night flying, the flight back was a lot of fun. Just as we flew the VFR corridor over LAX on the way up, we did the same on the way back. If you look at the night photos you will notice large areas of dark amongst a sea of lights, those would be the runways at LAX. It was also really neat to see the string of large jets on final for LAX, all stacked up off into the distance. As we departed south out of the L.A. area we notice the cloud banks had moved inland and it was apparent IMC conditions. About 30 minutes from our destination we tuned in weather at Montgomery and the clouds were reported as broken. So, we filed a pop-up IFR so we could fly an approach into Montgomery. However, as we approach the San Diego area the marine layer was beginning to dissipate and Montgomery was coming into visual range. At that point we cancelled IFR and flew the visual in.

,br>

Day 10 - VFR X-Country Planning

My instructor and I spent nearly four hours going covering weather and VFR cross-country planning. Much of it was review. I did all the planning for my VFR cross country flight that will be taking place tomorrow. We will be flying from Montgomery (KMYF) to San Luis Obispo (KSBP.) I have not done a VFR flight plan in over 2 years, so this was excellent review. When I got back to the apartment I refined the initial flight plan through AOPA's online Flight Planner, a great tool offered to AOPA members. The flight planner works with your DUATS account as well as giving you weather breifings, and the choice to file your flight plan via the website. The overview of my cross country can be found here: Flight Track Overview. I am excited to actually fly the airplane to a destination tomorrow instead of practicing manuevers. We will also be flying back to Montgomery tomorrow night so I can log VFR Night Cross-Country time towards my commercial rating. One other thing, we will be flying a VFR corridor directly over LAX at 6,500. I am excited for that!

Day 9 - Multi-Engine Add-On Checkride

I can officially fly multi-engine aircraft, the Piper Seminole anyhow! The checkride went great!

I arrived at the airport about around 7:45 am, my checkride and oral exam were scheduled for 8:00. On my way out to the plane, to grab the maintenance logs, I came across Joe Leone, my examiner, getting out of his car. I let him know that I would be inside shortly and he agreed we would get things rolling then. unlike the stereotypical FAA Examiner Joe came across as an easy going guy. He was cracking jokes right off the bat. As Joe and I both settled in, we slowly got started on all of the paper work. Upon completing that, we moved right into the oral exam. His first question, immediately after he announced that the test was beginning (something FAA Examiners are required to do) he asked me what the decibel level of the Piper Seminole engine from 15' behind the airplane with the engine at 2200 RPM is. I did not panic, I simply told him that I did not know this value. I simultaneously begin to search the vast amount of information I had stuffed into my brain over the past 9 days. Something clicked. Just as I was about to tell him were this information could be found, he began to laugh. He of course did not expect me to know something as detailed as that, he also expressed that we are not engineers, we are pilots. When Joe began to ask actual questions he used the PTS (Practical Test Standards) book as a direct guide. This was a good thing considering I have been using it as a guide to my studies. All and all, the oral exam went very well.

The practical exam, or flight portion, went by rather quickly. We only logged 0.9 of flight time. As you see in the flight track picture we did something very similar to yesterday. The flight overall, was almost identical to every maneuver practice flight I had done the week prior except is was twice as fast. Joe was very helpful on the radios, seeing as I am from the quiet midwest, which does not compare to sunny southern California in terms of flight activity. After our maneuvers, we headed to Gillespie for a short field landing. We taxied back and for a normal takeoff into the pattern. He simulated an engine out shortly after takeoff and I was required to land on a single engine. Everything went just as planned. After landing Joe said "his plane" as he took the controls from me. He then took off, flew to Montgomery, and did the full landing. I was a little nervous and unsure as to why he decided to fly the aircraft back to base. I do know however, that if you fail, the examiner must tell you right then and there terminating the test portion of the flight. After we got back to the building Joe told me he had not flow in a while and simply wanted to have a practice landing. I can now say I have officially logged 1.4 hours of Multi-Engine Pilot-in-Command time!

Day 8 - Preparing for the First Checkride

My instructor and I decided that we better get the flight out of the way first thing in the morning prior to the expected temperature increase. We decided that we had better practice some take offs and landings into Gillespie (KSEE) seeing that the examiner favors the airport. As you see in the picture of my flight track, we initially had a downwind departure out of Montgomery (we took off from 28R.) This was interesting seeing as you do not have time to fly the usual pattern with a departure, a 90 degree turn to the crosswind, and then a 90 degree turn to the downwind. Due to class bravo airspace you are required to cut the cross wind out of the pattern, which means you continue turning directly into your downwind leg, or in my case, downwind departure. (See images to the left. The red line represents a normal pattern.) After our downwind departure, we flew over Gillespie and then turned north to the North East practice area. My instructor failed the engine on me a couple of times just to be certain I had the memory checklists down. No problem. When we arrived at the practice area we went through each maneuver, as we have been doing everyday. However, today was a little different, my instructor was no longer there to help, he was simply acting as my practice examiner. I am quite confident that I have the maneuvers down pat and I am ready to display them for the examiner tomorrow.

After practicing maneuvers we headed south to Gillespie Field for practice landings and one-eng inop pattern work. I must say, to this point, Gillespie Field has offered the most interesting pattern work I have ever done. You actually have to fly around a small (1,500'+) hill that actually separates you visually from the runway. This happens moments before you turn the base leg of the pattern. When you turn from base to final you actually have to fly around the hill and through a shallow valley with a small hill on the other side. I was unable to get a picture from the cockpit but took some in FSX that give a visual representation of the pattern.

The four hours of scheduled ground turn out to be a little less. We reviewed nearly everything that I would need to know for the Oral Exam. I was really weak on my systems, namely propellers and landing gear. No worries though, I will study those tonight and have them down by tomorrow.

Day 6 - Rush Hour

Well, my first time flying on a Saturday morning in the San Diego area. I am pretty sure everyone that owns an airplane was out flying as well. Two minutes after our initial takeoff, as we're climbing to 3200 for the coast, moments after turning north up the coast (see todays flight path picture) a Cirrus blew by us heading the opposite direction no more than 200' low and a couple thousand feet to our left. Rather close considering. The radios were buzzing with chatter once again. We continued north to the northeast practice area. My instructor pulled the engine on me a couple of times, I still need to smooth out my engine-out flow some more. We went through all of the manuevers, some of them twice. Continued to Ramona for 2 short field landings and 1 eng-out landing. That was rather exciting. Just after taking off from Ramona, after our first landing, my instructor pulled the throttle on the leftt engine, simulating an engine out. I then flew the pattern and landed with the single engine. At this point the one thing I really need to work on is establishing the correct airspeed in an engine out situation all while running my memory checklist as quickly as possible. When we finished the flight we jumped in the FTD for 2 more hours, the last time I will be in the FTD prior to my Multi-Engine Add-on Checkride this Tuesday. I took a low quality picture of the FTD with my phone

Day 5 - Into the Wild Blue Yonder

I did not have internet in the apartment until Wednesday and have been quite busy settling in. The last couple of posts were written earlier and all posted only minutes prior to this one.

Day 2 and 3 both consisted of 2 hours of ground training and then 2 hours in the FTD (flight training device.) The FTD is an extremely touchy, overly sensitive, expensive, collection of hardware that I am going to spend 50 total hours in….ahhhh. The hardware has a tendency to produce a lot of heat and the AC in the flight school is set somewhere in the high 70’s. Needless to say, I was sweating by the end of the first day. However, my instructor was kind enough to position a fan on the cockpit the second day, making the experience much more comfortable. The FTD’s main purpose at this point is to offer practice in regards to twin-engine maneuvers and handling characteristics. Near the end of our session on the first day in the FTD, my instructor killed an engine on me. This caught me by surprise and my reaction was expectedly slow. This lead to me ultimately flying the plane upside down and backwards (not very realistic.) After the aircraft eventually settled (crashed) to the poor graphical representation of the San Diego landscape, my instructor advised me that the FTD will begin to do goofy things when it has been on so long. A potential calibration problem.

I also had a chance to meet my FAA examiner. His name is Joe Leoni and he seems like a really nice guy. The instructors at the school say he is a pretty laid back examiner and I can see how that is possible, he was wearing a Hawaiian shirt.

Day 4 was great! We spent an hour and a half on the ground reviewing many items I had learned prior to acquiring my private pilot’s license. A lot of information I will need to review and have down pat by my checkride next Tuesday.

We spent the next two hours in the aircraft. It was nice to finally get into a real airplane. ATP’s Piper Seminole extensive checklist brings a time enduring startup. From the time we arrived at the aircraft to the point of initial taxi took anywhere from 25-40 minutes. This was of course the first time I had every done this on a twin-engine aircraft. Furthermore, I have no problem spending the time making sure I have checked each item on the checklist, after all, that is what it is there for. The flight itself was a lot of fun. We flew out direct to the coast and straight north to the North West practice area. The radios were buzzing with chatter and the amount of air traffic was much greater than anything I have ever experienced. Not to mention the complexity of the San Diego airspace. This little circle is Montgomery Field and the red lines represent our flight track. Needless to say, my flight instructor handled the majority of the radios excluding everything on the ground, which I had no problem doing. He also gave me headings and altitudes to fly. Once we were out to the practice area we immediately went into practicing maneuvers that I would need to be proficient in for my checkride. This includes steep turns, slow flight, power-off stalls, power-on stalls, Vmc Demo (minimal controllable airspeed without your critical engine), and emergency descent. My instructor also cut the mixture to my left engine. It was little weird seeing that propeller sitting out there not spinning. All and all, the most exciting part was the stalls, as always. One reason, when stalling any aircraft you increase the chance of entering a spin. In a multi-engine aircraft, it is extremely challenging to recover from a spin, therefore the pressure is on to recover from a stall while maintaining directional control. We returned to the Montgomery and I made my first official landing on my own.

Day 5, today, was much like yesterday, 2 hours in the FTD and 2 in the airplane. The flight was much like yesterday; we practiced each maneuver once this time in the Northeast practice area. I am proud to say each maneuver was within PTS (Practical Test Standards.) I am however, a little slow on my memory checklists leading to some slow recoveries. It is after all my second time flying a twin-engine aircraft. We then proceeded to Ramona Airport where I made my second landing in a multi-engine aircraft. We did two more landings at Ramona, two short field landings. The first was a little long, I came in over the threshold at 85kts and no the preferred 75kts. My second landing was within PTS, I touched down just beyond the numbers. We took off from Ramona and flew a straight in final to Montgomery. All and all, it was a very fun day.

Day 1 – The Training Begins

My wife’s flight back to Minneapolis left San Diego this morning at 9:50. My aunt was going to initially drive her to the airport. However, my instructor called me Sunday evening to reschedule our ground lesson from 8:00am to 1:00pm. This was a nice surprise seeing as it now allowed me to bring my wife to the airport and see her off.

I have been waiting months for this day to come! I am excited to finally be back into the realm of aviation! I was more than impressed with the ATP Airline Career Pilot Program binder I received today. The organization of the program’s syllabus gets me really excited. I wished they had sent the binder out earlier so I could have planned more appropriately. I assume they avoid that to protect their program from those students whom quit before Day 1. It is nice to be involved in a program that is so organized. I am sure these 90 days are going to ‘FLY’ by.

I arrived at the airport at 12:45pm for my 1:00pm ground lesson. It wasn’t until about 1:30pm that I noticed my instructor had left a message on my phone letting me know that he bumped my lesson to 2:00pm. That was ok though, it allowed more time to study. The first couple hours consisted of the filling out of paper work, log book audit, training contracts, etc. I was also given a 50 question multiple choice test on private flight knowledge. I scored a 78%. I will admit, I am a bit rusty. However, every question was familiar; it was only a matter of knocking that rust off. If I took the test again, I would definitely score 100%.

From there we began to cover the systems of the Piper Seminole. When I had come down in June for my interview, the San Diego school had only 1 1979 Piper Seminole and 1 Cessna 172. In the past month they have traded the 79’ Seminole in for 2 2000 Seminoles and a DA40 Glass Cockpit. It will be nice to operate newer equipment. Although the 79’ and 2000 Seminoles have a lot in common, we have been covering the systems for the 2000. We also covered the practical test standards for multi-engine. This was something none of my instructors in the past had ever gone over with me. Not sure why, now that I see the advantage is gives.

We also took a trip out to the tarmac to familiarize me with the airplane. We pulled some numbers out of the POH and used them to calculate numbers from all of the performance graphs as well as weight and balance.

I will be studying for a couple hours tonight and tomorrow morning before my 10 o’clock lesson.

Day 0 – Moving In

Early this morning my aunt and uncle, my wife, and I moved all of my things into the apartment. The apartment supplied to me through the flight program is located in a wonderful area only 5 miles from the airport/flight school. As of now one other guy and I share a large 2 bedroom apartment. My roommate is only here for 2 more weeks. Not sure when I will get another.

Day -1 – A Key

On our way to take the boat out into the San Diego harbor for the evening we stopped by the flight school to pick up my key to the apartment. I am excited to shovel all of my things out of the car and into my living quarters. We will be doing that tomorrow.

Day -2 – Late Arrival

My wife and I arrived in San Diego late Friday night after a week long drive from Minnesota (visit hasetosan.blogspot.com.) My aunt and uncle were kind enough to open their home to us for the weekend as I settled in.

10 - Still Alive

A lot has happened since my last post. I will bring you up to date.

I graduated with a 4-year degree in Aviation Management!

My wife and I made our trip down to San Diego on June 2nd for my interview at the ATP school located on Montgomery Field. The interview went great! It was the first time I was put behind the controls of a multi-engine aircraft. I got to both takeoff and land the aircraft.

My wife and I left on our road trip to California on July 13th. It was a week long trip that turned out to be a lot of fun. Visit hasetosan.blogspot.com for details on our trip.