Instrument check today.
We ended up in northwestern Arkansas, since Kansas was a living, breathing tornado that day. Between formation flight to the airport, and a night instrument flight to Fort Smith, those were my favorite times so far in an airplane.
Monday, April 26, 2010
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Wichita
An adventure starts shortly. My roommate and I are flying to Wichita this evening, accomplishing three flights before returning to Enid on Friday, midday.
We'll fly formation out there - which should be outstanding.
Night instruments in the Wichita area, maybe even a bit of tooling around the area - Salina, Kansas, anybody?
Formation back to Vance AFB. Sounds fun.
We'll fly formation out there - which should be outstanding.
Night instruments in the Wichita area, maybe even a bit of tooling around the area - Salina, Kansas, anybody?
Formation back to Vance AFB. Sounds fun.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Recent Recap
Things of late...
Started formation flying (aka "flying dangerously close to other aircraft...and doing so on purpose"). The first flight scared me a good deal, and I didn't even fly that much of it...but the second felt a lot better. Looking forward to my next shot in the formation medium.
Finished cross country. Great fun! Changed the itinerary a bit.
We went to Omaha first, looking for a specific type of instrument approach that has proven beguilingly difficult to find nowadays. The one at Offutt AFB in town was broken, like so many, so we opted for a quick landing and some Jimmy John's.
Off to Duluth, Minnesota, through frozen rain and nighttime at 29,000 feet. Pretty high up!
In Duluth, spent a good deal of time enjoying Sammy's pizza, cruising along the lake shore (by airplane, by foot), drinking coffee, and admiring planes - saw a Canadian jet on the ramp at the airport, and got the pleasure of seeing a sweet airplane factory, Cirrus. Woot!
On the way back, flew low and slow over the southern edge of Lake Superior. Found some sweet islands to admire. Flew into the weather a bit, though, so we recovered by instruments to LaCrosse, WI. No problem, we thought, we'll be off to Lincoln, Nebraska before we can say "cheesehead." Well, a major aircraft accident at Vance, my home base, changed that (everyone was okay, no worries there).
So we spent a good deal of time in LaCrosse, home of the world's most bars-per-capita. Saw the Harlem Globetrotters, walked the Mississippi River, had Cajun food, enjoyed beer.
The flight back, we finally got those beguiling approaches in a little airport in northwestern Missouri. I'll be eternally grateful to St. Joseph, and their awesome PAR controllers. Much love.
Back to Woodring airport in Enid, where I got my first double-clicked landing (that's a good thing!).
Started formation flying (aka "flying dangerously close to other aircraft...and doing so on purpose"). The first flight scared me a good deal, and I didn't even fly that much of it...but the second felt a lot better. Looking forward to my next shot in the formation medium.
Finished cross country. Great fun! Changed the itinerary a bit.
We went to Omaha first, looking for a specific type of instrument approach that has proven beguilingly difficult to find nowadays. The one at Offutt AFB in town was broken, like so many, so we opted for a quick landing and some Jimmy John's.
Off to Duluth, Minnesota, through frozen rain and nighttime at 29,000 feet. Pretty high up!
In Duluth, spent a good deal of time enjoying Sammy's pizza, cruising along the lake shore (by airplane, by foot), drinking coffee, and admiring planes - saw a Canadian jet on the ramp at the airport, and got the pleasure of seeing a sweet airplane factory, Cirrus. Woot!
On the way back, flew low and slow over the southern edge of Lake Superior. Found some sweet islands to admire. Flew into the weather a bit, though, so we recovered by instruments to LaCrosse, WI. No problem, we thought, we'll be off to Lincoln, Nebraska before we can say "cheesehead." Well, a major aircraft accident at Vance, my home base, changed that (everyone was okay, no worries there).
So we spent a good deal of time in LaCrosse, home of the world's most bars-per-capita. Saw the Harlem Globetrotters, walked the Mississippi River, had Cajun food, enjoyed beer.
The flight back, we finally got those beguiling approaches in a little airport in northwestern Missouri. I'll be eternally grateful to St. Joseph, and their awesome PAR controllers. Much love.
Back to Woodring airport in Enid, where I got my first double-clicked landing (that's a good thing!).
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Monday, March 29, 2010
Back in the Saddle
Well, today I did it. I landed the airplane again.
Whatever demon tormented me on Friday afternoon, was exorcised by today. I greased two landings and didn't hit to hard on the third. What a relief!
Now, on to a cross-country flight this weekend.
Whatever demon tormented me on Friday afternoon, was exorcised by today. I greased two landings and didn't hit to hard on the third. What a relief!
Now, on to a cross-country flight this weekend.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Defeated
It's been a really rough couple of weeks. I accidentally over-g'ed the airplane by .03 on an area solo. Forgot to call my strap-in on a flight. To top it all, I failed a check ride yesterday because of an inability to land the plane; with nasty winds and a bit of rust, I couldn't get it on the ground.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Halfway Home
It's been a quick ride through pilot training here in Oklahoma. I have completed about half of my hours in the T-6, and the second half will roll even quicker than the first half has done.
So far, I have flown a number of contact flights. These flights taught aircraft control, stalls, aerobatics, emergency management, and landing from a variety of positions (straight-in, circling, and overhead patterns). I have done well in the first half, working hard to get down the basics of flying. It's come quickly, with at least one class/simulator/flight/test every day - and often several events a day. That workload has kept me pretty occupied.
The next phase will get more interesting. We'll focus on instrument flying - how to get around when the weather/lack of daylight prevents you from using the ground as your baseline. It's a very different set of skills, much more precision-based than the previous segment of training. Integral to this phase is a cross-country trip, in which I'll fly seven flights to different airports far away from the comfort zone of Enid. I hope to traverse Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas, but my instructor's guidance (and preference) may shape where we go.
I'll finish up with a bit of formation flying. The Air Force takes formation pretty seriously, so we'll get some great experience doing that.
Looking forward to the challenges ahead.
So far, I have flown a number of contact flights. These flights taught aircraft control, stalls, aerobatics, emergency management, and landing from a variety of positions (straight-in, circling, and overhead patterns). I have done well in the first half, working hard to get down the basics of flying. It's come quickly, with at least one class/simulator/flight/test every day - and often several events a day. That workload has kept me pretty occupied.
The next phase will get more interesting. We'll focus on instrument flying - how to get around when the weather/lack of daylight prevents you from using the ground as your baseline. It's a very different set of skills, much more precision-based than the previous segment of training. Integral to this phase is a cross-country trip, in which I'll fly seven flights to different airports far away from the comfort zone of Enid. I hope to traverse Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas, but my instructor's guidance (and preference) may shape where we go.
I'll finish up with a bit of formation flying. The Air Force takes formation pretty seriously, so we'll get some great experience doing that.
Looking forward to the challenges ahead.
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