Another failure Plan...

After so many weeks of waiting for a good weather and good time to goto Friday Harbor, finally we decided to go today. I had the flight reserved for the whole of afternoon. We reached the field at around 3 pm. I had booked a C-172 , but this one is very Old and seats are torn. I even saw some breakages in the elevator. And the weather was awesome. The skies were clear and Sunny and Not windy. Jerry and Bala helped me out in Preflight check. Then we got the clearance and we are on the run way taking off towards south. Damn, even in full power, the flight doesn't cross 2200 RPM.As soon as i took off, i turned downwind and requested the tower for a full stop. Tower says, that i am barely readable. I think my radio isnt working well either. Crap!!! After i landed, i called up John Laporta , my instructor. He says the plane never goes to the full power or atleast doenst show more than 2200 RPM. What??? Well, so now i decided i am going to change the club. I am going to find a better club with better fleet though it costs me more.

First Flight with Jerry and Bala

We had plans of going to Friday Harbor on Saturday or Sunday, but damn the weather.It was so horrible and we had to cancel our plans. Sunday morning we woke up late like 11 am and I had a bad headache too(not a full fledged hangover but may be dehydration). Then me, Jerry and Bala went out to have lunch in Old country Buffet.On the way, the eastside was getting a bit sunny. So i thought let me give it a try if i can fly to Friday Harbor. But unfortunately the weather in the North was still bad and south was a bit cleared up. Then i thought atleast i will take them up in the air, after ig to my license i dint get any flying yet. So I arranged for headsets for them and we went to the field about 2.15 pm. Completed the preflight and we started from Boeing field. There was Moderate Turbulence and Winds.But it was not too bad in the south.
               Jerry and Bala were all excited and Me too... :) We went over Lake Washington, then we turned towards Renton because it was getting cloudy and more turbulence further North east, or i would have taken them over Redmond. We flew over Renton and went towards Auburn. I showed them the SeaTac airport, Auburn airport and then we came back and landed in Boeing Field. All though the Flight Jerry and Bala were excited and chatting about the landmarks we saw below. It was about a 45 min flight and was absolute fun to go with these guys.

My CheckRide - 3

Luckily the weather got perfect for a flight...Prior to the exam , i flew to the area where we will be doing the maneuvers and I practiced some maneuvers. Made sure I know the wind directions, and i know few roads/light towers to show the Ground reference maneuvers. I goto the examiner's office early than I planned. This time I made sure I got the Hood with me(the one which I am comfortable with). At 3.00 pm sharp, the Examiner calls me inside his office. We complete the paper work and we leave. He does a briefing of what I should be expecting that day. Here we take off, and started doing all the maneuvers one by one. Unusual attitudes, VOR navigation, Ground reference Maneuvers, Emergency landings, and Steep turns. Wow...Done with everything but just one landing, Emergency Landing from pattern altitude. And we completed that too.  Cool...I am back and after parking the airplane, the Examiner says "Congratulations". Wow...I am a pilot now. Very Excited..
         Then he did some debriefing on what i could do better and what I could use some more practice on.  I got the Temporary Pilot Certification and started back home. Jerry came to pick me up from the field. I thought I could do some celebrations but since Jerry had his bike licensing classes the next day, we hold off the celebrations to another day.

My Checkride - 2

After 2 more cancellations due to weather, finally i went for the Checkride on a Thursday. I made sure i had all the Aircraft maintenance logs, my cross-country navigation log, Digital Watch with seconds display, Plotter and Flight Computer. I was asked to bring a hood for Instrument work but I forgot to take that. Damn me... Luckily there was a flight school in the Airport where my exam was going to be held and they had a Hood.
My Examiner comes and after the greetings were over, we started out of the airport on the Cross-country. After i climb out to my cruise altitude, I make the ground speed check. Before even i complete the check , He asked me to divert to a different airport. Well I did screw up here, in the VOR navigation. I couldn't intercept with a particular radial that he set. I dint turn to the heading when i am on my intercepted radial instead i was still following the needle. This would have taken me to the VORTAC on a curly s-path rather than on a Straight line.
           I got nervous now. Then he said lets do unusual attitudes. I dint know how to use the Hood i got from that school. It was too loose or something, it covered my face till the neck so i couldn't see the instruments. I somehow managed to see the instruments in an awkward angle and did a horrible unusual attitude nose-high recovery. Now i am extremely nervous and told him , I will come back. I dint want to screw up anymore . He agreed to it. But i also requested if I can do some landings before we will be done, so that when i come back i will have less to do. He agreed to it and we worked on the Short/Soft Take offs and Landings. And we were done for the day.
           We went back to his office and he debriefed on what went wrong and what i could have done better.I took notes and he gave me credits for whatever was completed(Take offs, Landings and Navigation).

Tips:

• Pre-arrange the things like hood, computer and plotter in a way that it is easily accessible when needed.
• When you know you are screwing up, let the Examiner know that you dont think you are doing it right.
• When he asks to come back because of some mistakes, you can request to complete other maneuvers which you know you can do right.

My CheckRide

After spending so much time thinking on whether i am ready to take the test or not....i decided one day that i would try giving the test, no matter if i pass or fail the test. I was more scared of Oral test than the Practical test...
I had an appointment today. Unfortunately or fortunately the weather dint cooperate which made me take the Oral test that day and wait for a better weather to take the checkride itself. This is actually a good thing. This is a rule called "Divide and Conquer". My instructor advised me "Concentrate on the Oral test and get it out of your way" and thats so true. I dint worry about the Checkride and just concentrated on the Oral test.
       I had the nav log ready for the cross country from Tacoma to Hoquiam with alternate route as Olympia.  I had all the documents that was mentioned in the Checkride mail. The Examiner comes..We get introduced to each other and then he goes into the Oral test directly. we had about a 2 hour discussion and at the end of the Oral, he debriefed on what i have to improve on. He asked me questions on all the topics and made sure i am confident in answering. My examiner was also nice enough to make sure i am comfortable and not nervous. I was not very clear when the questions were around Airspaces. So he made me pull out my Sectional and started asking questions about each airspace and made me explain them on the sectional.
        I was under the impression that if i don't know about something, and i know that information is available in the Map legend I can't refer to the legend in the Exam. He asked me about P-51 in my sectional but I forgot what it was exactly. But I knew there will be this information in the legend. When I told him that I don't remember this information , but it is on the Sectional Legend, he asked me to go through and show him the information.
        At the end of the test, he gave me a Letter of Discontinuance because of weather and we talked about meeting later in that week.

Tips:

•  Make sure your IACRA is filled correctly.Don't wait till the last day to get it signed by the Instructor.
• Avoid last minute confusions.
• Make sure to be there well ahead of time , so you can relax before the exam.
• Examiner is not there to scrutnize your knowledge but to help you know what you need to know,to be a safe pilot.
• Try to give straight answers, so that they dont get leads to ask more questions from what you answer.
• During the Oral test, it is OK to refer to the Map legends to answer some questions.