"One's best success comes after his greatest disappointments." Henry Ward Beecher
I'm fast learning that I'm harder on my self than Shane could ever be. Flying for me is extremely frustrating but extremely rewarding. After Saturday's lesson I felt like all the elements were coming together, and I was making significant gains. Monday we worked on ascending, descending, and maintaining altitude as well as flying slow speed. Shane told me to climb and maintain 2,500 hundred feet. I increased my power, trimmed it out with his help, and when the instrument read 2,450 ft I reduced the power and pushed the control wheel forward. Instead of the airplane stabilizing like I expected the airplane descended and we continued losing altitude. Shane commented on the losing our altitude and I wanted to scream at him "I'm keenly aware of that and I did what I thought I was suppose to but it didn't work!" Instead I listened to what he had to say but I didn't process. I don't remember what we did to fix the problem. Sadly, my dwelling on the issue got in the way of me learning the solution. I guess that's one more area for me to work on. We resolved the issue and then worked on more climbs as well as slow flight. Eventually we descended to 1,700 ft and prepared to enter the pattern.
We got in the pattern for a landing on three four. Once I was in the pattern I knew what I needed to do and we prepared for our landing. The landing went fine and once again we were greeted by some wild creatures. The welcoming crew was comprised of a couple of turkeys. They flew off before we got close to them. After the runway was cleared we kept rolling and did a touch and go. Once we were in the air again we returned to the pattern, and prepared to do another landing. I'm getting quite used to the landing procedure and was even able to anticipate some of the items on the landing checklist (SCORE!!).
We were able to talk about why what I wasn't able to fix the problem later that evening, and I was able to express my frustration to Shane. Shane thinks part of the problem is that the I'm placing to much emphasis on flying the instruments and not enough emphasis on looking out and around me. He has some exercises that we're going to try to help me work through this. I probably overreacted slightly, but my pursuit for perfection can be my worst enemy. I like to think that chasing perfection will make me a better and safer pilot, but for now I guess I need to cut myself some slack.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Lesson 12- 2.25.12
"Please know I am quite aware of the hazards. I want to do it because I want to do it. Women must try to do things as men have tried. When they fail their failure must be but a challenge to others."
— Amelia Earhart, in her last letter to her husband, 1937
Saturday was my 12th lesson with Shane. We worked on practicing, repeating, and refining my skills. I'm really making some progress with my takeoffs. More specifically being able to take off with out veering off to the side of the runway. While it has taken me many lessons I finally feel comfortable steering on the ground with the rudder. This has translated to a great improvement in my take offs. I've also earned a nickname since I tend to taxi in a speedy manner. I think my Jimmie Johnson taxi results from being eager to get in the air or reflecting on the lesson once we land.
Once we were in the air we worked on on maintaining altitude, ascending and descending to an altitude, and pattern work. I felt like I really made some progress with holding an altitude especially while flying a heading. The whole trim concept still stumps me but I felt after that lesson I had made some small gains there too. Overall, it was a good flight. The lesson was a bit shorter than normal but sometimes it's important to stop while you're ahead!
Friday, February 24, 2012
Lesson 11- O deer! (2.22.12)
Wednesday marked our 11th lesson. My instructor was a little late for our lesson which irked me, but we still ended up having a good lesson. It irks me when he's late to dinner as well. I'm going to touch on the highlights on this lesson in a list format. I'm still recovering from writing the last blog post. It takes me forever to write the posts that explain different skills, because I'm not used to writing in that manner.
- Shane had the preflight completed before I got to the airport, score!
- Checklist and taxi (gets easier every time)
- Taxied to three four
- Checklist
- Takeoff (we did three and they were my best ones yet)
- Practiced climbs and level offs (this didn't take long to get the hang of)
- Steep turns without losing altitude (somewhat challenging with major potential to get dizzy)
- Enter and fly in the pattern landing on three four instead of one six (the last couple lessons our landings had been on one six)
- Landing (they all went pretty well)
We had a couple interesting elements in this lesson. After we did our second landing we were greeted by a deer on the runway. There were actually four others looming as well. In addition to that we were in communication with a corporate jet that was going to be landing. It was a busy lesson but I do my best work under pressure. I left this lesson feeling the most comfortable and confident I've been.
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Playing with aviation photography
A couple weeks ago Shane and I went for a lesson and I brought my camera along. You may of seen some of these pictures as they were shot in a previous post. I've been playing with some HDR toning and am finding I love how they look. Here are a few!
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Tackling take offs- lesson 10 (2.19.12)
After a not so stellar Saturday and some much needed sleep, I got back on the horse so to speak. Sunday was another beautiful day. We dropped Sullivan off with his aunties and decided to head out to the airport. The plan was to work on keeping my altitude, practicing ascending and descending, and work some more on take offs and landings.
We pulled the airplane out, preflighted, and went through the checklists together. I've about got the checklist memorized, and am really starting to get a good grasp on the instruments' functions. After completing the checklist we started our taxi out to the runway, and I'm happy to say I can now taxi in a fairly straight line. It only took 9 lessons to work out the bugs, but oh well. We turned right on to the runway and headed to the turn around on one six. To learn about how runway's are numbered go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runway. If a plane would turn right on to the runway at Pella they'd head to one six and if they'd turn left on to the runway they'd head to three four. We got to the turn around, completed our checklist, and taxied out on to the runway.
I got all lined up on the runway and mentally ran through all the things involved in the take off. Once we were ready to go I put one hand on the yoke and the other on the throttle. I added full power and we started to to roll down the runway quickly gaining speed. All the while trying to keep the airplane on the center line while keeping my feet off the brakes. The rudder pedals steer the plane on the ground but tapping on the very top part of the pedal activates the brake. I'm going out on a limb here, but guessing it could get ugly if one would hit the brakes while pushing the throttle in to full power. Once the airspeed reached 50 knots we started to raise the nosewheel so that we are airborne at 55 knots. In order to keep the airplane accelerating it is important to reduce the pitch so that the airplane can get to an optimal speed of 73 knots. We did this by pushing the nosewheel forward.
It is also crucial to push on the rudder to keep the airplane from veering off during the climb. I have been having a really hard time with this because it physically takes so much power/pressure to get it pushed in. Shane says it probably takes between 40 and 50 lbs of pressure to do this during the takeoff. Needless to say some of my take offs have been less than stellar, and have been not anything close to straight down the middle line. Three of the four takeoffs were this way and I was getting close to giving up for the day. Luckily, I was able to express my frustration to Shane and we were able to work through it. I'm really excited that we were able to figure this out together and communicate with each other. This was the type of situation I was afraid would stress our relationship, but we made it through with flying colors. Ha, no pun intended!
The rest of the lesson went really well. I feel like I'm really starting to know what I'm doing. And this has been a major boost to my confidence. I think Shane has been humored through this all especially since I have my very unique way of doing things. Most students struggle with their landings and breeze through take offs, but not me. I guess we both learned some things this lesson and the most important thing being we work very well as a team.
BTW I found an app for my phone that converts text to voice so I won't actually have to talk on the radio. This is a total score for me!
We pulled the airplane out, preflighted, and went through the checklists together. I've about got the checklist memorized, and am really starting to get a good grasp on the instruments' functions. After completing the checklist we started our taxi out to the runway, and I'm happy to say I can now taxi in a fairly straight line. It only took 9 lessons to work out the bugs, but oh well. We turned right on to the runway and headed to the turn around on one six. To learn about how runway's are numbered go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runway. If a plane would turn right on to the runway at Pella they'd head to one six and if they'd turn left on to the runway they'd head to three four. We got to the turn around, completed our checklist, and taxied out on to the runway.
I got all lined up on the runway and mentally ran through all the things involved in the take off. Once we were ready to go I put one hand on the yoke and the other on the throttle. I added full power and we started to to roll down the runway quickly gaining speed. All the while trying to keep the airplane on the center line while keeping my feet off the brakes. The rudder pedals steer the plane on the ground but tapping on the very top part of the pedal activates the brake. I'm going out on a limb here, but guessing it could get ugly if one would hit the brakes while pushing the throttle in to full power. Once the airspeed reached 50 knots we started to raise the nosewheel so that we are airborne at 55 knots. In order to keep the airplane accelerating it is important to reduce the pitch so that the airplane can get to an optimal speed of 73 knots. We did this by pushing the nosewheel forward.
It is also crucial to push on the rudder to keep the airplane from veering off during the climb. I have been having a really hard time with this because it physically takes so much power/pressure to get it pushed in. Shane says it probably takes between 40 and 50 lbs of pressure to do this during the takeoff. Needless to say some of my take offs have been less than stellar, and have been not anything close to straight down the middle line. Three of the four takeoffs were this way and I was getting close to giving up for the day. Luckily, I was able to express my frustration to Shane and we were able to work through it. I'm really excited that we were able to figure this out together and communicate with each other. This was the type of situation I was afraid would stress our relationship, but we made it through with flying colors. Ha, no pun intended!
The rest of the lesson went really well. I feel like I'm really starting to know what I'm doing. And this has been a major boost to my confidence. I think Shane has been humored through this all especially since I have my very unique way of doing things. Most students struggle with their landings and breeze through take offs, but not me. I guess we both learned some things this lesson and the most important thing being we work very well as a team.
BTW I found an app for my phone that converts text to voice so I won't actually have to talk on the radio. This is a total score for me!
Monday, February 20, 2012
Tired-2.18.12 (Lesson 9)
Saturday was a beautiful day!!! Honestly, I'd never would've guessed I'd be able to learn to fly in Jan. and Feb. Shane and I decided to take advantage of the weather and go up for another lesson. We practiced and refined the skills we'd been working on. We also did three take offs and landings which was good practice.
I ran into some frustrations during the lesson because I wasn't mentally in the airplane. I had gotten very little sleep the two previous nights, and anyone who knows me knows I require at least 8 hours each night. I had thought I had been functioning quite well all day, but when we got in the air it was obvious to me I wasn't. Flying is such a mental thing and on top of that physically demanding. Halfway through the lesson I was very frustrated with myself. I knew what I needed to do but couldn't make it happen. I honestly don't remember much of the lesson, and I'm blaming it on my brain fog. The good thing is I learned something about myself and flying. I learned not fly when I'm overtired or I'll end up very close to a meltdown similar to my two year old's. Poor Shane!
I ran into some frustrations during the lesson because I wasn't mentally in the airplane. I had gotten very little sleep the two previous nights, and anyone who knows me knows I require at least 8 hours each night. I had thought I had been functioning quite well all day, but when we got in the air it was obvious to me I wasn't. Flying is such a mental thing and on top of that physically demanding. Halfway through the lesson I was very frustrated with myself. I knew what I needed to do but couldn't make it happen. I honestly don't remember much of the lesson, and I'm blaming it on my brain fog. The good thing is I learned something about myself and flying. I learned not fly when I'm overtired or I'll end up very close to a meltdown similar to my two year old's. Poor Shane!
Friday, February 17, 2012
Lesson 8- 2.15.12 take offs and landings
This has been kind of a crazy week at the Vande Voort house, but we were still able to squeeze in a little time for a lesson. I keep pinching myself and wondering how much longer this ideal teaching situation will last. Shane and I have now completed eight lessons, and it's worked wonderfully. I knew it would work on many levels after all there is no one in the world that knows me better than Shane. On the other hand I do worry about stressing our relationship or hurting each other's feelings during a high stress moment. I guess I'll just cross my fingers and hope it continues to go well!
Wed. was forecasted to be rainy but the rain held off until evening. It wasn't a perfect day, but it wasn't bad either. Since the weather wasn't perfect we weren't able to do ground reference maneuvers and stalls, but we were able to practice take off and landings. The first landing was less than ideal and it freaked me out a bit. We ballooned and kind of bounced back off the runway. Shane added a little power and was able to get us back on the ground. He explained that this happens when you have too much speed upon landing. I thought we had reduced the power by enough, but apparently we still had enough umph for ballooning. Ok, this doesn't quite make sense to fix too much speed with adding speed, but I'll look into it.
After I calmed down a bit we turned around, took off, and entered the pattern together. This was quite busy, and I felt like I was multi-tasking in overdrive. By the end of the lesson I had worked up quite a sweat, and it made me appreciate what Shane does even more. We did two more uneventful landings before calling it a night. The Private Pilot Maneuvers book is calling my name so maybe I'll blog on what I've learned in a couple days.
Wed. was forecasted to be rainy but the rain held off until evening. It wasn't a perfect day, but it wasn't bad either. Since the weather wasn't perfect we weren't able to do ground reference maneuvers and stalls, but we were able to practice take off and landings. The first landing was less than ideal and it freaked me out a bit. We ballooned and kind of bounced back off the runway. Shane added a little power and was able to get us back on the ground. He explained that this happens when you have too much speed upon landing. I thought we had reduced the power by enough, but apparently we still had enough umph for ballooning. Ok, this doesn't quite make sense to fix too much speed with adding speed, but I'll look into it.
After I calmed down a bit we turned around, took off, and entered the pattern together. This was quite busy, and I felt like I was multi-tasking in overdrive. By the end of the lesson I had worked up quite a sweat, and it made me appreciate what Shane does even more. We did two more uneventful landings before calling it a night. The Private Pilot Maneuvers book is calling my name so maybe I'll blog on what I've learned in a couple days.
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Lesson 7 in photos- 2.12.12 (Mixing passions)
Thursday, February 9, 2012
lesson 6- the stall (2-8-2012)
Shane, Sullivan, and I went to Arizona last week so we put the lessons on pause. It was kind of nice to have a little break from all things airport/airplane and enjoy each other. Shane had a little time yesterday and the weather was good enough so we went ahead with lesson 6. I got out to the airport about 4 and we briefed on what the plan was for the lesson. The plan was to work with slow flight, continue with flying to a heading, take offs and landings, entering and flying in the pattern, and stalls (gasp). Shane has shown me a stall with a model, but we hadn't tried one in the air.
What is a stall? The stall is the point at which wings fail to generate enough lift to keep the plane stable (I took this definition from an online aviation dictionary). Another way to explain it would be to say it is when the speed of the airplane isn't fast enough to hold the weight of the airplane up. What happens next, the airplane begins to descend. So in order to recover from a stall the airspeed needs to be increased so that the airplane has enough lift to hold itself up. If the pilot doesn't properly recover from a stall it could result in a spin. That is my very basic explanation of stalls (hopefully i didn't leave any crucial information out). If you'd like more info on stalls google it or talk to a pilot. Maybe I'll be able to convince Shane to do a guest blog entry on stalls.
Shane had told me in the briefing that he was going to introduce me to them, and I was a bit nervous. I've been through some pretty terrible turbulence so I wasn't really afraid of them. I figured it couldn't be worse than the turbulence and I'd survived that. I also trusted Shane and knew that he wasn't going to put us in any danger. Shane explained stalls and said there were a number of types. He said he was going to show me a gentle stall. Oddly enough "gentle stall" kind of sounded like an oxymoron, but I was wrong. The gentle stall wasn't a big deal at all and the second one wasn't that bad either. The third one I knew what was coming and I did grab Shane's leg. It didn't scare me just startled me a bit. It's almost worse when you know what's coming. This led to a pretty funny conversation about awkward leg grabs, and according to Shane they're the worst in the summer. Sweaty hands and bare legs and knees can be a not so pleasant combo.
We finished up on stalls and started to work our way back to the pattern. Once back in the pattern we started our descent and prepared for landing. I was able to successfully land the plane again with Shane's coaching. I am starting to gain some confidence with the whole flying thing. I still hate using the rudder pedals and shudder at the thought of talking on the radio. One step at a time I guess!
What is a stall? The stall is the point at which wings fail to generate enough lift to keep the plane stable (I took this definition from an online aviation dictionary). Another way to explain it would be to say it is when the speed of the airplane isn't fast enough to hold the weight of the airplane up. What happens next, the airplane begins to descend. So in order to recover from a stall the airspeed needs to be increased so that the airplane has enough lift to hold itself up. If the pilot doesn't properly recover from a stall it could result in a spin. That is my very basic explanation of stalls (hopefully i didn't leave any crucial information out). If you'd like more info on stalls google it or talk to a pilot. Maybe I'll be able to convince Shane to do a guest blog entry on stalls.
Shane had told me in the briefing that he was going to introduce me to them, and I was a bit nervous. I've been through some pretty terrible turbulence so I wasn't really afraid of them. I figured it couldn't be worse than the turbulence and I'd survived that. I also trusted Shane and knew that he wasn't going to put us in any danger. Shane explained stalls and said there were a number of types. He said he was going to show me a gentle stall. Oddly enough "gentle stall" kind of sounded like an oxymoron, but I was wrong. The gentle stall wasn't a big deal at all and the second one wasn't that bad either. The third one I knew what was coming and I did grab Shane's leg. It didn't scare me just startled me a bit. It's almost worse when you know what's coming. This led to a pretty funny conversation about awkward leg grabs, and according to Shane they're the worst in the summer. Sweaty hands and bare legs and knees can be a not so pleasant combo.
We finished up on stalls and started to work our way back to the pattern. Once back in the pattern we started our descent and prepared for landing. I was able to successfully land the plane again with Shane's coaching. I am starting to gain some confidence with the whole flying thing. I still hate using the rudder pedals and shudder at the thought of talking on the radio. One step at a time I guess!
Monday, February 6, 2012
Reality check
When it comes to travel I know I'm spoiled. I've been able to avoid the airlines for over a year all because of private aircraft. The cool thing about flying on private aircraft is that you can fly from point a to point b without a stop at point c,d,e,f, or g. There are many other great benefits such as being able to fly out of your hometown, avoiding all of the airline crap (being there an hour early, getting charged for checking baggage, lost baggage, cancellations, delays, need I say more). These reasons are almost enough to motivate me into my pilot's license.
So a couple weeks ago Shane found out he was taking a trip to AZ but it was a five day trip. He is gone for long stretches at least three times a year for training so these long trips make me cringe. Sullivan and I are used to it, but it isn't the ideal situation. On occasion, we've been able to go along on the plane he's flying but it didn't work out that way this time. The solution was for Sullivan and I to airline out to AZ to meet him. The thought of sun, fun, and family outweighed the nightmare known as the airlines.
Sullivan and I left on Tuesday evening and traveling with a two year old by yourself is no cake walk. The thought of going through security alone made me cringe even though I know it's a necessary evil. On top of getting through security, I had to run through the Minneapolis airport to make our connecting flight to AZ. I'm sure I was quite a sight running, pushing a stroller, and lugging our suitcase and carry on. After clearing up our seat placement (who doesn't seat a parent and two year old next to each other?) we boarded the plane and made it to AZ. The flights home went a little better and I learned how to change a diaper in the airplane restroom. That being said I'm very thankful that we have another option for when we want to travel as a family. One that doesn't include a full body check.
So a couple weeks ago Shane found out he was taking a trip to AZ but it was a five day trip. He is gone for long stretches at least three times a year for training so these long trips make me cringe. Sullivan and I are used to it, but it isn't the ideal situation. On occasion, we've been able to go along on the plane he's flying but it didn't work out that way this time. The solution was for Sullivan and I to airline out to AZ to meet him. The thought of sun, fun, and family outweighed the nightmare known as the airlines.
Sullivan and I left on Tuesday evening and traveling with a two year old by yourself is no cake walk. The thought of going through security alone made me cringe even though I know it's a necessary evil. On top of getting through security, I had to run through the Minneapolis airport to make our connecting flight to AZ. I'm sure I was quite a sight running, pushing a stroller, and lugging our suitcase and carry on. After clearing up our seat placement (who doesn't seat a parent and two year old next to each other?) we boarded the plane and made it to AZ. The flights home went a little better and I learned how to change a diaper in the airplane restroom. That being said I'm very thankful that we have another option for when we want to travel as a family. One that doesn't include a full body check.
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