New Addition to the Fleet

I went out for a little commercial maneuver practice yesterday, and when I walked out of the building toward the plane, this greeted me:





Cool! The "new" Decathalon has arrived! Husband is pretty excited about this-- he really wants to get his tailwheel endorsement (as do I)... and this plane just LOOKS fun! It's occupying the spot next to us for now, so I got to spend a lot of time looking at it as I did my preflight.


After pulling myself away from this pleasure, I headed out to the other side of the ridge to do a little practicing. I first did commercial steep turns (steep turns, but to more than 50* and connecting a left and right one together to form a figure eight). These went okay-- which isn't that surprising since 45* steep turns are part of your private checkride. My first one wasn't so great, but I pretty quickly got it together. I practiced them starting from both the left and the right. Surprisingly, the ones from the right were a little better.

Next I practiced Chandelles. I first had to reteach myself about these as my lesson last week felt very long ago. The basic idea is that you're doing a climbing 180* turn at full power. When you finish, you should be going the opposite direction and your airspeed should be 5-10 kts above a stall. These are all about finesse-- and knowing your airplane. I think I managed to pull off at least one decent one in both directions, though I had to take a moment and review the picture I had brought along to remind myself of the mechanics.


Finally, I practiced Lazy 8s. These are where you do two 180* climbing and descending turns back to back-- with the power at a constant setting. I had a really hard time with these. I kept trying to do it like the picture said-- nose up to ~15* pitch, slowly bank to 15* and then to 30*, then slowly remove the pitch and then bank and come back to neutral... then repeat in opposite direction. I couldn't get it at all. I was about to give up and call it a day when I decided to try it again-- but this time by feel. That time, I think I got pretty close. That makes me think I was probably over-thinking the maneuver. By keeping in my mind what the airplane should look like, I could fly it almost by feel, though I still did an occasional check of the instruments to verify my progress.


After a few of these, traffic in the area significantly picked up. I think there were three other Av-Ed planes all doing maneuvers. Without an instructor or safety pilot to help watch for traffic while I concentrated on putting the airplane through its paces, I decided to head back in. What a beautiful evening! As I returned to JYO, I realized the clouds had lifted even more-- and visibility was great. I could see Leesburg, Reston, Tysons Corner, and even DC in the distance. It was awesome-- literally. I did a soft-field landing, just for kicks. Considering I haven't done one in ages, it was pretty good. As I left the airport after tidying up Good Dog, I realized that I had a huge grin on my face. Life was good.

Around and Around, Where Will Hanna Land?

We are supposed to fly down to the Outer Banks this weekend for a family event. Of course, we may not be flying anywhere, depending on where Hanna goes! The weather may be ok for getting down there on Friday and getting back on Sunday. But we're realizing that it becomes more of a question than just being able to get down there safely and then get back safely. We also want our airplane (and us) to be safe through the storm, as well.

So, we've done our homework and called Manteo to see if there is hangar space available (there is), and looked at the weather graphics to see where the storm is predicted to hit-- and how hard. Now, I guess it's just the waiting game. I also have two flight lessons scheduled for tomorrow-- one with my commercial instructor, and one with Husband and our instrument instructor. Hopefully I'll get to fly at least a little tomorrow!

P-A-S-S-E-D

It wasn't pretty, but both I passed the written instrument (Husband passed his, too). The actual exam was harder than any of the practice exams than I took... and I was a little disappointed with my score (an 82), but then again, I passed and it is done. I do think that I know a lot more than that score suggests. Unfortunately, I definitely get test anxiety!

The B-17 was awesome. I'll post about that-- complete with photos! But I think my next stop now is a shower! It's been a long (and hot!) day!

Eve of the Instrument Written

It's probably a good thing that my commercial flight lesson cancelled this morning. It meant I spent more time studying for my instrument written exam that I have scheduled for tomorrow. Husband came home around 3pm, and we studied off and on all night. Now I'm heading to bed soon in hopes of a good night sleep. We'll see how the test goes-- I got in the 80-85% range on the practice tests I took. But I've been drilling using Sporty's Study Buddy this evening (highly recommended-- you can select different topics and go through the FAA questions on each), and seem to be converging on scores more in the 88-95% range.

Tomorrow should be fun!

The Rain Will Come

Long drought in posting, I know. I've been busy trying to get my written instrument course wrapped up, starting instrument flight lessons again, and generally trying to get started with the commercial course.

Husband and I did successfully complete the King Schools coursework to prepare for the instrument written exam. And we have the exam scheduled for Saturday. Now it's just practice, practice, practice! We both took practice exams last night. I scored and 83%. Not great, but definitely passing (>70%). That was without any review. So we both reviewed the sections we missed together, and we'll take another practice exam tonight. I'm hoping to stay solidly above passing... my ultimate goal is to get better than an 85% (though of course higher would be great!). The stuff we have the most trouble with is, not surprisingly, stuff we don't have in the airplane, and therefore have no experience with. Like-- for instance-- ADFs. But, it seems to be finally sorting itself out in my head... I hope.

Husband and I have now done three flights with our new instrument instructor. I think they're going well. We went for a practice flight 10 days ago to dust off our instrument tracking abilities-- we did climbs, descents, turns, stalls, slow flight, and steep turns under the hood. Last weekend, we met up with T and did our first lesson. It was a late afternoon flight on an incredibly hot and humid day. The air was bumpy and the density altitude high. It took some doing to get Good Dog off the ground and in the air. I really didn't think I performed well. Husband said it wasn't too bad, but I couldn't get the airplane to stay trimmed for more than a couple of minutes. I was pretty frustrated (and a little nauseaus!) by the time we landed and switched pilots. The next evening was a world of difference. The air was smooth, and I felt in control of the plane. I hit my altitudes and my courses pretty well. All in all I was pretty happy with my flying. The third flight was a night flight. Husband started flying before sunset, but by the time we switched seats and I took controls, it was well into night. I think I did ok, but I didn't have the same confidence. Everything seemed a little different-- little things, like glancing at the approach plate to verify the speed became much harder (because now I needed to also balance a red flashlight at the same time as the approach plate!).

I now have a new commercial instructor as well-- but we haven't actually met up yet (though I know who he is from seeing him in the office). If weather holds, then I'll start my commercial training tomorrow! I think I'm about to get all the flying and training I want!

More to come. (Oh- and Husband made us reservations to fly on the B-17 at JYO this weekend!)

Oshkosh Day Two: WomenVenture

The day starts early at Oshkosh. The airport opens for departures at 6am, and therefore we were awakened by engines starting up each morning at 6. Once I got eyes to properly open, I realized we could see airplanes taking off through our tent (screen) door. I savored lying there for a while before actually getting up. But then I was up and going. We had cereal (still no propane!), cleaned up a bit, and then headed over to the bus stop. Husband made the comment during the week that he hadn't spent that much time on a bus in a long time. For the most part, the bus rides were interesting- we enjoyed seeing all the different planes and camping set ups. One of our favorites was a Cessna with a tarp draped over the wing. Printed on the tarp was the saying "Reason #23"- referring to Cessna's ad campaign of the 100 reasons to own a Cessna. I can't remember the exact wording for it, but I think it's something like "Camping under the high wing of your Cessna 172."

We hopped off the tram at the fly market and wandered around the stalls for a while. Not too much of interest here, though we did try a cool folding hammock. Maybe next year. The tent with all kinds of spare parts was much more interesting. You could buy old life vests still in their pouches, cylinders, or all sorts of engine bits and pieces. Outside the tent there were several old plane bodies- crumpled in places from previous unintended impacts with the ground. It was interesting, though a little morbid, to try and imagine what had caused the various wrinkles and tears in the skin and structure of these planes.

After making our way through the spare parts, we headed for one of the exhibit halls. Inside these are the usual jumble of vendors-- selling everything from training courses to extra fuel bladders to aviation art. There's so much that it kind of runs together after a few minutes. After poking through the exhibits, it was time for me to head over to Aeroshell Square for WomenVenture.

WomenVenture was pretty cool-- the organizers were handing out pink shirts and then all the women pilots gathered behind the KC-10 for pictures. I liked the idea... though I think maybe the organizers weren't quite prepared for the actual execution. Though it shouldn't be remarkable that I am a woman and I fly, it somehow still seems like it is. Only 6% of all pilots in the US are women. That's a pretty low percentage. I'm always interested that I seem to get more attention as a pilot/owner at our flight school than Husband does-- because I'm a woman. Aviatrix wrote a post on this topic-- but I kind of disagree. Though she knows and I know that women can be a pilot just as easily as a man, it is still a little surprising to people to find that a woman is the pilot. The more people are exposed to the idea, the less surprising it becomes. And besides-- there are a lot of girls in my family or in my neighborhood that benefit from seeing that it's not just a dream for little boys. I'm happy to say that when my parents bought a book about airplanes and rockets for my niece (4) and nephew (almost 3), my niece was far more intrigued than my nephew. She talked about flying and rockets for the rest of the weekend. So I am proud to wear my pink shirt... especially the one that says "No, It's not my husband's airplane. Women Fly"!

After the picture, I met back up with Husband, who was securing our much-sought canisters of propane. We went to a few airplane booths (including the Eclipse, the Icon A, and the new roadable car). We also explored a few more exhibit halls. I found a headset that I eventually bought-- the Clarity Aloft lightweight headset. It has little foam pieces that go in your ears. So far, I like it a lot-- it doesn't make my ears sore like my Bose headset has. Of course, I looked at a few other headsets, including the Lightspeed (that's what I originally thought I would buy...).

After we'd had our fill of exhibits, we found some food and watched the beginning of the air show. About an hour into the show, we headed back to camp and sat out in our chairs to watch the airshow and listen to the airboss coordinate the show on our hand held radio. Very cool. Later, we made dinner (yum, fajitas!) and enjoyed another beautiful sunset.

That evening, we took a series of buses over to the fly-in movie. John Travolta introduced his movie "Broken Arrow" before departing in his 707 painted in Quantas livery. We were late getting there-- we ended up having to take 3 separate buses to get there. The movie was fun- and made infinitely more pleasurable by the fact that EAA had kindly provided bug spray (which we didn't think to bring to the movie). Getting home was a bit of an adventure. I'm not sure why EAA didn't anticipate the need for people to get back to the North 40 after the movie. Everything else has been so well thought out and planned. We ended getting a tour of Camp Scholler (where the fly in movies are held) before getting dropped and picked back up (by the same bus!) at the bus park. Then we were dropped and picked back up by that bus two more times before making it onto a North 40 bus for the final ride to our campsite. We were all grumbling a bit by the end. After a quick shower (how strange to dry my hair outside the shower trailer, standing just inside a fence with cars whizzing by at 12am).

And a second day at Oshkosh comes to an end.

Oshkosh: Getting the Lay of the Land

Warning: If you want a detailed version of our trip to Oshkosh-- this is for you! I'm writing this both to share our experiences with others, and to serve as a reminder to ourselves next year as to what to expect! I'll cover each of our three days at the show, and then do a wrap-up post that includes a complete inventory of what we took to osh-- and what we wished had taken.



After we pushed the plane back into the parking spot, we set up our campsite. Then we headed off to register and explore the show. To do both, we hopped on one of the many "North 40" buses that took us to one of the entrance gates. Here, we exchanged our pre-purchased paper tickets for wristbands, and registered our plane to get a permit for our windscreen. They also told us about the free shuttle that runs between the North 40 and a local strip mall that has a Target and a Pick n Save. Good info for later.

Once the administrative tasks were finished, we grabbed a tram and headed into the main part of the show. As tempting as all the planes and exhibits were, eating was the first priority. We hadn't had anything since early that morning, and it was now close to 2pm. We ate at one of the first places we came upon-- though we later realized there were a ton of food places just around the corner that had better food.

After eating-- and consuming about 3 bottles of water each (note to self: have a snack before attempting the landing procedure at OSH!)-- we wandered around a little and tried to orient ourselves. We had planned to just keep walking around and looking at exhibits... but weariness overcame us much sooner than anticipated. So we found a nice spot on the grass, not far from airshow center, and sat down (ok, laid down!) to watch the airshow.

I had not been very excited about the airshow-- I often find that I get bored of watching them well before Husband does. But this was incredible. The acts were all quite good-- and they were pretty varied as well. We saw the Red Bull Helicopter (amazing, who knew a rotorcraft could do such things!), the F-22 Raptor (loud, powerful, fast, and also incredibly delicate when in slow flight), Julie Clark, the Jelly Belly plane, Matt Younkin in a twin beech (we saw him in his first major airshow at Sun'n'Fun-- and were awed by his act then. I especially remember the music!), and several others. One thing that made this more fun is that I was actually able to start noticing the differences between acts. I don't know if this is how they are judged, but I could tell that the Iron Eagles (I think it was them-- it was a two plane act) had beautiful arching lines, and were graceful and elegant. And after them, a single plane (I don't remember who) was much less fluid-- more sharp and jerky. I appreciated the beauty of the warbirds-- flying in an amazing formation more than 50 years after their first flights. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this part of Oshkosh (Husband was ecstatic that I did!).

After the show, we made our way out of the show site, picked up some ice at the North 40 bus stop, and headed back to our campsite to drop off the ice. After depositing our three bags of ice, we walked over to the Hilton Gardens parking lot to catch the free shuttle. This was very convenient as we were only a few rows over. The shuttle took us right to the door of the grocery store and Target (and maybe other places, too-- we got off there). I was happily surprised to find that the Pick n Save was a pretty decent grocery store. The produce was fresh, the facility clean and bright, and they were well stocked for EAA campers. I had planned for three breakfasts (eggs and bacon for two, cereal and yogurt for one) and three dinners (chicken kabobs, brats, and fajitas), and was able to find everything I needed. I ignored my conscience and just bought paper products (who wants to wash dishes while at Oshkosh?!). Our only hitch was that Target was out of propane. According to Husband, they were pretty much out of all camping supplies. You'd think they would catch on to overstock camping supplies for these two weeks in July... but apparently they haven't gotten clued in to that. So... we quickly found some prepared food to have for dinner, and paid for our groceries. Along with all the food, we bought a case of water (and we used all of it) as we had discovered water was $3 a bottle at the concession stands in the convention.

We loaded up our backpacks with all our purchases, and hopped the shuttle back. As we settled into the campsite for the evening, we watched all the activity above and around us. At about 8pm, when the airport closed, things quieted down... except for the karaoke club across from us. That heated up. We watched the sun set, ate, found the showers (very clean!), and got ready for a well-deserved rest.

And so ended our first day at Oshkosh.