Looking forward to the weekend. . .

My oldest daughter and my wife are in Charlotte this weekend for a gymnastics meet (my daughter is prep for level 7 and is competing in the regional meet for her age group).

So, my youngest and I (along with my 19 yr old son who pretty much keeps to himself) are flying solo this weekend.

No real plans other than visiting the driving range at some point.

Starting this weekend I'll create a new blog specifically limited to my ongoing education (formal and informal) in C, Lisp, and Python. I'll be posting some of the various books and resources I've been using. I'll also post some of the recent exercises from the books and what I came up with as solutions. So, if you're interested in programming - or just want to chuckle at my efforts, check back and I'll post the link on this blog.

Kelly

New Blog - Same as the old (sort of. . .)

I haven't been flying much lately and am moving my previous blog about being a student pilot into a more general site. The advantage is that I can write about more general subjects without feeling like I should limit my postings to aviation specific topics.

I'll still post about flight related topics and will tag them appropriately.

I will also be creating another site that will be specifically related to my adventures in becoming more proficient in programming. I'll be focusing primarily on C, Lisp (Scheme) and Python.

More to come. . .

Saturday Flight to 5W5

Well, I finally got up in the air again. It was a mixed bag sort of experience (I'll explain a bit better over the next paragraph or two).

We left LHZ and it was a really smooth take off and not much wind (it was 5kts from 260). I turned to the southwest and made my calls leaving the area. As I was making my final call, an airplane flew directly over us. I'm not sure how close but it was close (maybe 150-200'). No call, nothing until he was beyond us.

Nice start, right?

The rest of the flight to 5W5 was uneventful. We made our approach (keeping an exceptionally peeled eye out for any traffic and probably overdoing it a bit on the radio calls). However, I did make a mistake in assuming the wind would be the same as it was at LHZ (or at least close). I set up for a normal approach to runway 34 and it was not a smooth approach. I couldn't get the descent rate in and I was going to miss my spot so, I aborted at about 300' and did a go around. As I was setting up for a second attempt, I happened to notice some smoke from the ground and realized that the wind at 5W5 was actually coming from about 160*. A quick scan for the windsock (it's not the best maintained field and the windsock can be hard to spot) confirmed what the smoke indicated.

Ugh! This was just plain stupidity on my part. I should have flown over mid-field and confirmed wind prior to my setup for approach.

I aborted again and decided to head back with a short detour to find and fly over my friends house (who is also a pilot and who's second set of eyes I was glad to have along for the trip).

The return trip was uneventful and my approach and setdown at LHZ were unexceptional (it's amazing how much easier it is to land without a quartering tailwind). I was a bit tense and beating myself up a bit on the return flight but, all in all, I learned quite a bit from this less than stellar trip (not the least of which is that I need to fly more often).

I'm a bit embarrassed by the whole experience but also think that telling about it will remind me to be more thorough in the future.

Safe Flying,
Kelly

Quick Update: Flying this weekend (Saturday)

Just a quick note to let my reader :D know that I'll be up in the air this weekend. The plan is for me and a buddy to fly over our houses.

So, the plan is to leave LHZ, head over to Triple W, and then fly back to LHZ by way of Clayton.

Should be fun and I'll update the blog with the details once I'm safely back on the ground :D

Safe Flying,
Kelly

Flying. . . Finally!

It's been about 6 weeks since I last flew a helicopter. So, needless to say, I was a bit nervous when I took the right hand seat.

All kinds of thoughts were going through my mind and I was double checking the pre-flight checklist and the startup checks because I was sure that I was going to miss something or do something boneheaded.

My double checking must have paid off though because I got it started with no major oversights. :)

My first pick-up was pretty good and I was a bit wonky as I hovered out to the taxi-way, but I got that stabilized pretty quickly.

I made my radio call and was on the go. Now, I hate to admit it, but my first take-off wasn't that great. I completely didn't anticipate the little roll as I got through ETL and into transverse flow effect. So, I blew a bit left before I caught up to it and I'm sure any casual onlookers were snickering at the new student pilot. . .

After a turn through the pattern and a not-so-perfect normal approach, I settled down and was back to my old self. I was happy, surprised, and a bit shocked at how well I did overall. I need to keep my skills fresh so, I'm going to try to go for at least 30 minutes every other week until I can start up with my commercial lessons again. Hopefully, if I'm going a bit more frequently, for future flights  I'll be able to skip the nerves and initial "break-in" that I had today.

I had a buddy along today for moral support as well (a fellow pilot who is a bit further along that I am) and he didn't run screaming from the helicopter when I finally set it down in front of the hangar so, I suppose that's a good sign too :D

Anyway, it felt good to get back up in the air in something that you actually have to fly (sorry you fixed wingers, it's just not the same in a plane).

For my next post, I'll try to add some pictures of the Remos and a few helicopter pics I have too.

Fly safe,
Kelly

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Flying tomorrow!! (Fingers crossed. . .)

Just a brief update that, if all goes as planned, I'll get a bit of flying in tomorrow.

I hope to get in an hour or so of helicopter time and maybe another hour of time in the Remos GX.

It's been a busy week at the real job but my mind has definitely been on flying. Hopefully, I can feed my addiction a bit this weekend :D

It's a short blog post and I need to move some more of the older posts over from the old site so, I'll try to do that and post about the flight this weekend.

Safe Flying,
Kelly

FIrst Flight in a Fixed-Wing: Remos GX

Well, it's not a helicopter, I'll say that.

This afternoon I took my first flight as a student in an airplane. I had a little heads up on what to expect based on information gleaned from a fellow helicopter pilot who also had his first fixed-wing experience. However, it was still quite surprising how little there is to do once you're in the air.

But before I talk too much about the boring part :) let's talk pre-flight. . .

Pre-Flight

The pre-flight on a plane is nowhere near as involved and complex as the pre-flight for a helicopter.

On a helicopter you're looking at everything. Check the warning lights, check the engine surfaces, check for fretting, is that hose loose?  On a plane?? It's oil, flight surfaces and fuel (maybe a bit more than that, but not a whole lot more really).

Note: This is a theme you will see repeated: Helicopter complex, plane simple.

I'll skip the boring startup stuff (although, the Dynon(sp?) instruments are very snazzy) and go straight to the taxi.

Taxi

Taxing was a bit odd. I'm used to hovering out to the taxiway and there's really no significant transition to flight since you're flying right from the pickup. In the plane, you push in the throttle a bit  and you're rolling. You don't use the joystick/yoke to steer. It's all pedals. It feels a bit uncontrolled because, though you have brakes, they don't feel like they could stop you on a dime. The idea is to really look ahead and start reducing throttle before you need to.

So. . . we taxi out to the stop/hold short line and do the run up (brake set - increase RPMs). You do some more checks and then make the call and take the runway.

On the go!!

Once you take the runway, it's a very quick transition to flight. Essentially, you push in the throttle all the way (very quick acceleration) and a little right rudder to hold the center. Once you reach 55kts you pull back just a tad on the stick and you're climbing. Very simple (remember the theme?).

Flying

As a helicopter pilot, you've got a lot going on all the time. If you're not flying, you're crashing. In a plane, you climb to your altitude (very little input needed) and then reduce power (actually start reducing about 100' before your altitude) to level out at your desired speed. After that, you can set the trim and take your hands off the stick (Note to all helicopter pilots - Yes, I said hands off!!).

The biggest challenge initially is not to overfly. You can really relax a bit and let the plane fly.

Landing

So, you want to land. . . I won't say that this is the exact procedure but I think I have the major points. Line up with the runway, reduce power (how quickly depends on how fast you want to descend), keep about 75kts. The throttle controls altitude/descent and the stick controls speed. As you get close to the ground, bring the nose up a bit and level off, then flare just a little and the extra drag will be enough to drop the plane out of flight and onto the ground (it's less drastic than it sounds).

That's it. Taxi back, shut down, get out. No waiting for the clutch to disengage, no waiting for the blades to slow/stop. You turn the key off, it's off. Period.

Say it with me: Helicopter complex, plane simple.

Hopefully, I'll be flying something of the rotorwing variety tomorrow afternoon. However, I can't wait to get back up in a plane again too. It was a ton of fun.

Safe flying,
Kelly

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