Cleared for the approach

Instrument rated!!!

On Saturday I passed my instrument checkride and am now a instrument rated private pilot.
What a relief it is to have that done and over with. I am one more step closer to my goal and can now fly in the clouds!

The checkride was both easy and hard. The DPE didnt take it easy on this professional pilot to be. And for whatever reason.... I had never seen a lead radial on an IPC before?!?!? I talked my way through it and eventually found it in the index of the NOS charts. But damn did I feel stupid.

I also stumbled on the SDF (simplified directional facility) I forgot why it was different that an LDA and other non precision approaches. The added 6 degrees of horizontal guidance almost got me. This was something else I got to look up in the NOS chart index.

After stumbling on two items during the oral exam, and chatting about playing music. (DPE and myself are both musicians) we hopped in the plane. This is where I shine and was happy to be airborne to show the examiner I do know a little bit about Instrument flying.

We did a "0 visibility" take off under the hood to start off. No problem. We then followed the flight plan we talked about with no surprises. IT started out flying direct to the SOGCO intersection to shoot the RNAV14 into Quincy. On the missed we flew to the Seminole VORTAC and did two turns in holding. This also happens to be the IAF for VOR A approach into Quincy. On completion of the first turn in holding the examiner slapped some suction cups over my attitude indicator and my DG simulating a vacuum failure. Again, no problem. With turns to the east and west, which is what I was doing in the hold, there is limited error on the mag compass to worry about.

After the two holding patterns I called procedure turn inbound and was cleared for the VOR A approach at Quincy. On the missed I was given instructions for fly 180 into controlled airspace and to climb to 2000ft. After leaving the pattern at Quinicy I was flying south climbing to 2000 and asked for radar vectors for the ILS 36 at Tallahassee. This was to be the last phase of the checkride. I advanced the throttle a bit and we cruised as fast as we could down to the FAF for the ILS 36. I was eventually given a 45 degree intercept for the ILS and turned in to join the localizer. I never got to use the intercept angle as the controller had brought me in too close. At this point the DPE moved his chair back up from its reclined position and removed the suction cups on my "failed gauges". I realigned the DG, ran through the decent checklist and waited for the glide slope to come in. At around 260 feet the DPE said, "visual on the runway. You can remove your foggles." I had the needles pegged and was right where I wanted to be. I chopped the power to idle, waited a second to drop below 85kts where I then dumped the flaps. 200 feet later, and 1000 feet down the runway the mains touched one at a time (perfect crosswind landing) followed by the nose wheel.

I was now an instrument rated pilot. But after the ride was done, I didn't feel any different. It was nothing like how I felt after my private pilot checkride. Nothing will replace the feeling of earning my wings. Oh well.... it doesn't really matter. I am one more step closer to my goal of being a professional pilot.

And hey, now I can fly with my head in the clouds!

Island Flying

Here's a few shots from two trips taken with my buddy Matt. Jekyll Island and Hilton Head Island were the destinations. Enjoy!

On the take off roll out of Jekyll

Departing to the south east out of 09J

Over 09J at 2000 ft.

Playing with the clouds at 8500 ft.

09J -Brunswick - Taylor - Greenville - KTLH

Now for some from the Hilton Head trip. Matt flew there and I took it on the way back. Great place to visit. Excellent service at the FBO and the hush puppies weren't too bad either! Can't wait to go back again.

Endless sea of clouds all the way from Tallahassee to Jacksonville on an early morning departure.

I think I see the ground down there...

Signature Flight Support at KHXD. Excellent service and can't beat a putting green at the FBO. you can see it here right behind the flags!

Matt doing a quick preflight of our trusty steed. 94X

Its Jekyll Island again. On the way home at 10,500 ft.

Dodging the build ups on the way home. These things grow fast in the summertime here in FL

Is that an Alligator out in the distance???

checkride time

Well its checkride time again, and boy am I ready to get this over with! I have been flying and studying alot in preparation for the ride. I have been doing simulator flying, hood flying, finger flying... and even flying in my sleep. I know I have the flying portion of the checkride under control, its the oral exam that has me a little nervous. There is so much information to be asked about that studying the oral exam guide has my head spinning.

My fate will determined on Saturday morning as I fly the second instrument checkride of the day for the DPE. My buddy Matt whom I fly with regularly is going first. Hopefully he doesn't set the bar too high!

I've been flying a lot, and have some stories and pictures to share. I'll see if I can post a few shots from the past few weeks before I get back to the books.

Wish me luck

almost time

My checkride is scheduled for the friday after next. I know I have the flying portion of the checkride covered. I just need to master the oral exam guide!

My time is sitting around 130 hours with all the mins met. I think I've even got everything in the PTS down. Now its time to study study study! The folks are coming into town next weekend so that will put a damper on things, but as long as I stay relatively busy with the studying I should be IFR rated soon!

More to come... Heading to Cedar Key on Sunday and over to Destin again on Monday.

Keep the blue side up.

TSRA

0218/0222 VRB15G25KT 4SM TSRA BKN025CB = no flying today.
Grounded again due to weather.  Oh well.

Hey dad

gettin' there

Flew for 2.1 today. 1 hour was with Chris doing some work in the holding pattern over the Seminole VOR followed by a ILS 36 at KLTH. It was so nice out that after we landed I called Corie up and had her come out to the airport so we could go on a nice VFR flight down the coast to St. George Island. At least that was what I intended....

We got out over the coast, and I started messing around looking for a friend's boat who was out fishing. It seemed like every one had a green bimini top on their boat today and I could not get a positive ID on my buddy Jims' boat. We circled a few non-the-less. Hopefully I didn't scare too many boaters out there. After I got bored of that, we headed south east for St. George and decended through 1000 ft. But before I could level off at 500 feet over the beach Corie alerted me of her desire to relieve her bladder. Oh well.... full power, climbing right hand turn direct to Tallahassee. So much for that idea. It was still a nice flight just because it was so beautiful out. It did get a little hotter by the time we got back to base, but it still wasn't too bad. No clouds, calm wind, and 72 degrees at 2500 ft. Can't beat that with stick! Unfortunately the nice weather we've been having should end tonight as this cold front moves on past us.

Interesting tidbit: ATC had traffic landing on 36 and 27 with the winds out of 180 around 7 kts. No big deal... sometimes ya have to land with a little tailwind. I made the mistake of calling up ATC and requesting 18 if it would not interupt they're flow. "Roger 172RK we have your request..." Then nothing. The controller kept on talking to other aircraft in the vicinity. Ok I thought, no problem. I've already been cleared to land on 36 and the traffic behind me has been cleared #2 for landing. At this point I'm at 100kts following the ILS down to the ground. At about 500 ft no more than a mile from the threshold I hear, "172RK enter right downwind for 18. I'll call your base". So once again I added full power and made a climbing left turn to enter the pattern. I could have declined the landing clearance and kept following the ILS down landing with a slight tailwind, but I chose to be safe and take the runway with the more favorable winds. It ultimately was a non-event and I made a nice landing.

Thats all for today, off to study my oral exam guide some more before heading to work. Check ride is coming up soon!

bouncing

I "Flew" the sim today as well as my usual ride 94X. Today was the hottest day of the year so far in Tallahassee and I thought it would be a good idea to fly around at 3000ft shooting full procedure RNAV approaches. Boy was I wrong. I could have been flying around in a glider today the thermals were so strong over Tally.

Besides the not so nice weather I did get in some good practice and got to share the airspace with a pair of F22's. Never thought the first time I saw one I would be up in the air less than a mile away. They flew directly overhead shooting the ILS 36 while I was slowly making my procedure turn inbound from the FESUX IAF a thousand feet below.

Thats it for now, its late... Going up Friday evening with Hale. Gonna be droping him off in Destin and then head back for a nice night flight. Its been a while, so I'll be sure to do a few stop and go's to get legal again.

Keep the blue side up.

The Beau

The weather across the south east has been less than desirable the past two weeks. It was only last weekend that the sky cleared up allowing for some VFR time building to occur. Last Sunday my buddy Matt and I hopped in the redneck killer and blasted off to Gulfport (Biloxi) Mississippi. We are both in IFR training and are trying to build up both our simulated instrument and x-country PIC time. The trip to Mississippi was a solid 5.8 hours. With that we both can log the whole flight as PIC x-country and half of it as simulated instrument time. (one of us has to be under the hood) It was a great day and a great flight. The weather was perfect... well, the 20 knot headwind on the way home kind of sucked but hey, we're building time right!

So the trip west was great. I was flying the first leg down the coast. First we shot over to KPFN, then to KDTS to stay in the VFR corridor near Eglin AFB. From Destin we flew to KNPA which is the Pensacola Naval Air Station, home of the Blue Angels. We stayed above their airspace at 7500 ft. and continued on to KGPT our final destination.

Shot of Pensalcola Naval Air Station from 8,500 ft.

Here's a zoomed in shot of the ramp. If you look closely you can see 3 of the Blue Angels A/C including the famous Fat Albert C-130.

After shutting down we walked into the FBO and we're given the keys to the crew car. Sure beats paying for a cab! We drove down the coast to the Beau Rivage Hotel & Casino to have lunch and maybe get lucky at the tables. I opted not to indulge (after all, I am already in dept thanks to this flight training stuff) but Matt threw $300 on black at the roulette tables and won!

Here's the big winner! Always bet on black!

So after our little gambling excursion, Matt treated me to lunch at the Beau's rather lavish lunch Buffet with his winnings. It was excellent! Next time I'm gonna win big and lunch will be on me.

All in all we spent about an hour and a half maybe two hours over in Mississippi before we got airborne again. The Flight home was Matt's and unfortunately we were seeing ground speeds of around 88 kts. Miserable! But like I said before, we are both trying to build our time up so we shrugged it off and kept on trucking.

The flying was pretty uneventful minus a oil pressure gauge that was malfunctioning. The oil pressure sat at the bottom of the green arc on the gauge the whole trip. Not too big a deal as long as its in the green, but it kept us on our toes. We touched back down in good ole' Tallahassee around 4:30pm EST and had been gone almost 8 hours. It was a great trip I will not soon forget.

The Matt's

Some photos

Here are some pictures I have taken lately. They didn't quite fit into a specific post so I'll put them here.

Happy flying.

Nice Tallahassee Sunset

Playing with the clouds over Panama City

The Apalachicola River

A big cloud somewhere in the greater Orlando region

Miles and miles of little puffy fair weather cumulus clouds

Beating the weather

I flew home this weekend with a buddy of mine in one of my schools 172's. It was just supposed to be a short stay as I wanted to spend some time with the folks and see the Steve Miller Band play down at sunfest. We left the ground about 9:15am local time and flew from Tallahassee to Lantana via Cross City then victor 7 through Lakeland and La Belle. From there we flew east to Pahokee and finally into Lantana. It was a great flight! We cruised at 9500 ft. the whole way. This kept us above the broken cloud layer and it was smooth as glass with only a slight headwind.

Unfortunately we were only able to stay one night as there was a weather system that was moving east dumping rain and strong winds throughout the country. It was the same system that brought down the Dallas Cowboy's practice facility and I did not want to mess with that. So we left West Palm Beach (KLNA) around noon on Monday. This was alot earlier than I wanted to leave and didn't even get to spend 24 hours at home. Oh well, I'll go back down next month and spend some more time with the rents.

All the reports showed that we would beat the weather if we could get to TLH by 4-4:30 so off we went. I had been watching the weather like a hawk for days up to the flight and kind of knew this might happen. First, we made a quick stop in KOBE (Okeechobee) for cheap fuel and after fighting the plane to start (172RK does not like the hot start) we were off direct to LAL then up to CTY on V7 turning west abeam the navaid to get us home to good ole' Tallahassee.

This was the plan anyway...

After climbing up to 10,500 departing KOBE the clouds started to grow. We cruised around them for a little while but I knew that the weather conditions ahead would not permit us to get underneath. The major storm that's now pounding the east coast was having its way with us... and at this altitude our little Cessna doesn't like to climb much more, so down we went. I spotted a whole just past Lakeland and I hit the deck. We got underneath while staying VFR eventually leveling out at 4500 ft. Here comes the fun stuff. We were getting bounced around so much that I tried a little lower at 3500 ft to no avail. With no working auto pilot, I was getting a work out keeping the plane on my desired orientation. The whole time in the back of my mind I was thinking about the weather back at base. Would I be able to make it in VFR??? I wonder what the weather is doing up in the panhandle? Where could we land that has a few hotel options if we do get stuck? DIVERT!

At this time we were about 65 miles directly south of Gainsville heading to Cross City. There is nothing in Cross City, and I had been to Gainsville's airport a few times before and knew they had adequate resources available to determine the weather situation along with many Hotel options. (not to mention the free cookies at the FBO) Now I am a Seminole and hate to say anything good about gator town, but their FBO is nice and everyone is friendly. Even to those pilots who are sporting Seminole flight club t-shirts! So after checking the weather for 15 minutes I decided we could make it VFR if we hurried. We jumped back in the plane (more hot start issues) and blasted out of G-ville as fast as our little Cessna would take us.

The could deck was solid at 3000 in g-ville keeping us at 2000ft. It was much smoother for this last leg thank god, but the ceiling was dropping and the visibility was around 6 miles and dropping as well. This is no problem for the IFR student, but I was starting to worry about the legality of the flight continuing VFR. Luckily we got to stay at 1500 and I could see the field about 5 miles out. Approach got us in around other IFR traffic and we made a butter smooth landing on runway 18 with rain hitting the windshield during the approach. We made it by about 15 minutes. I drove home in the rain.

This was my longest trip by myself yet and I loved it. Even with the crappy weather on the way back. The legs were about 343 miles a piece and I logged 7.5 hours of x-country flight time. I can wait to do the trip again.

For now though, I gotta get ready for work... Happy Cinco de Mayo baby.

building time

So as of now I am about a quarter of the way done with the flying portion of the instrument rating. My instructor and I have been doing nothing but x-country flights (50nm straight line distance) under the hood. The simulated instrument time is building and I am slowly getting to where I need to be. The ground portion however is going even faster. For school I must finish by next week. I am doing this all on my own this time around and it has turned out to be OK, but I am still a little nervous about what I am going to get on the written.

The flying has been great! Well that is minus being under the hood all the time. I have been getting lots of practice with VOR/DME approaches, intercepting and tracking airways, navigating via the ADF, VOR, and GPS, getting all the new radio lingo down, flying in different types of weather, and well... flying only by reference to instruments. It has been pretty fun over all. I am flying a ton! Ultimately building time towards the magical 250 hours. I have been flying with much stronger winds than I did with my private. My confidence is growing and routinely seem to be flying in winds upwards of 20kts. Crosswind landings seem to be a regular occurrence, and I actually logged a minuscule amount of actual IMC yesterday flying around in the clouds and rain. It was a good day as the wind was right down the runway at 14kts gusting to 19kts. It was my first really nice landing in a week or two. Kissed the numbers with the stall horn itching to blow, and off the runway onto taxiway bravo which is around 1500 ft from the threshold. I thought it was nice anyway. Certainly better than Florida senator Richard Steinberg's landing which I watched from the hold short line. We counted 7 bounces (a few pretty hard) as he tried to land our schools glass cockpit 182. I felt bad for the plane.... it wasn't pretty.

That's it for now. I have tons of work to do for the written and I got to get crackin' on that asap. Keep the blue side up.

finally

Well, its happened. I have finally secured some financing to continue my training. I have started on my IFR ticket and am building time and blowing through money again! Poor nasty mike is not IFR approved since it only has one set of working comm and nav radios. So I am tackling this next rating in our 172S and a 172SP. They are much nicer but also carry a $20 per/hour extra charge. Not much I can do I suppose... I do not fit into our 152 that's IFR equipped (too tall) and my instructor and I with full fuel are over weight anyhow. (The FAA needs to realize that not too many people weigh the standard 170lbs anymore. Especially when they are 6'3''.)

Anyway, my new instructor and I have been pushing through the beginning fazes of the IFR rating. Practicing holds and basic vor to vor navigation. the simulator comes in handy here. I can log up to 10 hours of "simulated" instrument time in my flight schools FAA approved simulator. I will take full advantage of this since it is only a $40p/h charge.

The real challenge will be completing the ground portion of the IFR rating before April 23'rd. I must submit my 3 stage exams and a copy of my completed FAA written on this date in order to pass my class. The only way I could get a loan at an acceptable interest rate was to actually go back to school. Therefor, I am attending Utah Valley University attempting a BS degree in Aviation Science. I'm taking 6 credits a semester and those are all "pilot based" classes. Meaning, they coincide with whatever rating or license I am pursuing at my flight school here in good 'ole Tallahassee. Right now I am taking an IFR ground and IFR flight class for a total of 6 credit hours. All I have to do in order to pass the class is take the 3 Jeppesen stage tests found in the IFR/Commercial kit and fax over a copy of both my FAA written exam score and a copy of my temporary airman certificate when I take my checkride. Not too bad eh? Seemed worth it to me. I get a decent interest rate, (saving money) I can train at my local fbo, (saving money) and never have to leave town.

So for now I am back in the saddle working towards that elusive 250 hour mark, hopefully picking up my IFR, Commercial and CFI ratings/licenses along the way.

For now I'm off to the flight school to hang out with John and Martha King. Lots more to come if I don't kill myself listening to all of Martha's one liners.

good things are coming...

I only hope it will be sooner rather than later.

Still around

Well, by the look of my last post its been over two months since i've written anything new. I had been busy graduating from college and doing the family thing around the holidays but now im back and ready to go. Got to do a little aerostar flying while i was home for the hollidays. Did a nice SUA-FXE-TPA-SUA trip and actually got a little left seat time. It was the first time i flew the her as an actual pilot. Damn she's fast...

Back to reality.
I went up in Nasty Mike today for the first time in a while. The airport was slow, and the weather was great untill i started doing the preflight..... Information Yankee says winds are 340 @ 8, altimeter 30.07. Sounds good to me, but i'm feeling something a little stronger now that i'm taxing to the run-up area. After i finish playing with my check list and doing the run-up i call the tower and get clearance to take off on 36. We have lift off.

After my first quick trip around the pattern (closed traffic today.... short on cash, and i wanted to practice a few landings) the tower controller says, "734NM cleared touch and go runway 36. Winds 340 @ 11kts gusting to 17kts, altimeter 30.05" Wow! that was a big difference than what the ATIS said while i was on the ground no more than 5 minutes ago. Oh well, here we go! The second trip around got a little worse with the wind shifting to 310 @ 12Kt G 18Kt. Ok I thought.... a little cross wind practice. Thats why i came up today. Well who would've guessed that on final at 65Kts about 20ft above the runway here comes a strong gust of wind out of 310 that instantly picked me up, slowed me down, and tossed me right of the center line.

On the next trip around the pattern I was instructed to make right traffic and to extend my downwind to make way for an A-10 that was in the area practicing instrument approaches. That was a pretty cool sight as he passed me on the right at 1000ft no more than a mile away. ( I got a few good shots of him with my phone as he dominated the traffic pattern with some very steep banked turns and equally impressive steep climb outs.) after following him in once i got vectored out again to make way for the same A-10 in the pattern. As the controller called my base 6-7 miles out I politely told him I was going to call it a day. "734NM cleared to land 36" I was done. It was nice to get up in the old Nasty Mike again but man, I forgot how slow these 172's are. I miss the aerostar.... It even looks like it goes fast.

This is a great shot of a PA-60 taken by the famous CitationKid.