After what felt like another painfully long wait, Brett and I took to the air for  an introduction to night flight. We discussed the 5 extra things one needs for VFR flight at night. FLAPS. (F)ueses, (L)anding lights, (A)nti-collision lights, (P)osition lights and a (S)ource of electrical energy for radio and electrical equipment.

The first stop was Goldendale, and finding it was relatively easy. Not only had I landed there before and knew where to look, but I had the advantage of riding back seat on one of Brett’s night flight lessons and was able to pick up the method for finding an airfield. First use whatever landmarks are available to find the general area, know where the airfield is in relation to these landmarks. Next look for the rotating green and white beacon, indicating an airport. Lastly one can key the mic on the appropriate frequency to activate the lights on the runway. This all went fairly smoothly and I entered the pattern. Everything felt great right up until I was almost over the runway. I felt ahead of the plane and was really happy with my approach. The only problem was that even though the runway lights were on and I could see its borders, but the runway itself was still disconcertingly dark. Even though I wasn’t sure why it felt weird I decided to go around. Just as I pushed the throttle, I realized my issue. I had failed to turn on my landing lights! UTFCL (see the post Wasco Lunch).

The second attempt with the lights on went smoothly, and I was able to land with plenty of runway. Since practicing approaches and flying in ground effect, I have been really surprised how landings have clicked. While back taxiing the runway Brett told me to next plan on heading to Wasco. In the run-up area I broke out the map, figured my heading, potential obstacles, landmarks near the airport, radio frequencies, what runways are available, runway altitude, pattern altitude, and pattern direction. Off to Wasco!

The rest of the flight went like this. I would land in one airport and Brett would tell me to plan the next leg. Goldendale, Wasco, Condon, John Day. Some of the airfields I had landed previously others I hadn’t.  As we flew I gained confidence and not only that, I had time to appreciate the peace of flying at night. There is an added and beautiful solitude to flying in the dark among the stars.

On the return Brett had me call up Seattle Center and pick up flight following. This was super easy and a great precaution to have already established communications with them in case anything were to go wrong. A little over 4 hours after leaving The Dalles, we touched back down on 3-0. While I wish I could have kept flying, I was pretty tired by this point and ok with calling it a night.

It was a painful 5 day wait, but I finally got a chance to work some of the kinks out of my landings. The entire flight was spent in the pattern. Most of my focus was on slowing my airspeed on final to 70 mph then getting into the cushion of ground effect and staying there for the entire length of the runway. What I noticed with each pass is that I not only began to relax a bit, but by basically drawing out a landing for the full length of the runway, one could really feel out the subtlety in control adjustments. Normally the end of a landing feels like it is happening so quickly that my corrections end up being over-corrections that sometimes compound each other. Being patient really comes into play here. We ended up doing 7 or so passes, mostly staying in ground effect, but switching to runway 25 to deal with a crosswind as well. It ended up being a huge confidence booster and the most valuable exercise yet.

-IB

Lately, my ground studies have included interpreting charts, doing weight and balance calculations, and attempting route plans. Brett figured we should put these skill to use and have me plan out a cross country flight from The Dalles to Yakima, Tieton State, Packwood and returning to The Dalles. Route planning would not be the only challenge this flight. Flying into Yakima airspace would afford an opportunity for communication with a control tower and both Teiton State and Packwood would offer challenging approaches and landings.

I don’t find route planning all that difficult, just time consuming. Once one learns the tools to use it goes smoothly though I still feel faster doing the actual math than using the E6B. I had stumbled through most of learning how to do this while studying, but Brett showed me some tricks that sped the process up.

The initial leg felt pretty casual till we started into Yakima airspace. Talking with the tower was fine, as long as they kept the phrases short. Once I had to repeat back any volume of information, my brain would hit erase and I’d end up asking Brett what was the proper response. I am still surprised how task saturated I get. Just as I feel like I am starting to keep ahead of the airplane, Brett gives me something else to learn and I get behind again. Seems like it just takes time to be able to multi-task. At least the runway was a mile and a half long so there wasn’t any pressure to nail a short landing.

Next was Tieton state. This is where the trip started to become really fun. Within 10 minutes of departing Yakima we were flying over the forests, granite cliffs and waterfalls of the Cascades. Navigation was relatively simple since I just had to follow a prominent valley right to Rimrock Lake and the Tieton State airstrip. Flying over this relatively rugged terrain I was struck by the reality of how serious this could be. While beautiful, the terrain offered no open, or relatively flat places to land in the event of an emergency. If the engine were to cut out on us, the best we could hope to do would be to find a location to minimize injury to ourselves. The plane would not survive a landing here. I don’t think this fact will keep me from flying over mountainous landscape in the future, but I’ll make sure to have my ducks in a row. It’s not the place to get complacent.

The runway at Tieton State is 2500 feet long and 150 feet wide, as well as running uphill, so there is plenty of space to touch down and stop. A descision to go around though must be made early on because one needs to climb over the trees, steer away from a large cliff, and continue to climb as the terrain rises. As Brett and I talked through our strategy, he mentioned that if anything felt even a little off we would abort the landing. Luckily on this approach I was able to nail my altitude and speed such that we were set up perfectly to land. Final approach, low, and over the water, was beautifu,l and touchdown was as gentle as could be expected from a backcountry grass strip. I knew I had nailed it when Brett excitedly told me, “I want every approach and landing just like that one. Nice job!”

Maybe I let that go to my head. The last two landings of the day were much less graceful. At Packwood I initially approached to high, necessitating a go-around, followed by getting pushed sideways almost to the edge of the narrow runway. Back at the Dalles I really pooched it. Coming in to fast on final I rushed the timing of rounding out into ground effect and flare, resulting in a hard bounce off the nosewheel, and a few bounces after. That first bounce blew out the front tire.  I was extremely frustrated to finish such a great day on such low note, not to mention embarrassed as we made the walk of shame, pushing the 172 down the taxiway by hand.

Well I know now exactly what I need to focus on. That final landing was about as good a lesson as I could ask for. We weren’t hurt but the point of what my current weakness is was driven home. Hopefully the next round will prove to be redemptive.

-IB

So psyched! I soloed!

The day started off on a bad foot. After a late night of working in the shop I woke up late, realizing I had slept through a call from a friend from the airport, and subsequently an opportunity to fly with him in his Super Cub. Needless to say I was a bit frustrated with missing this chance to get in the air. Compounding my grumpiness, I knew Brett had a solidly packed day and the chances were slim that we would be able to squeeze in a flight. Somewhat unsuccessfully, I tried to shake my dissapointment as I headed for work.

When I showed up, I ran into Brett, another local pilot John, and his grandaughter Sarah. Sarah is another of Brett’s students and from what I understand, a very quick study. They were obviously all excited, and John, who was barely able to contain his happiness for Sarah, informed me first of her solo flight that morning. I was psyched to hear the news. Seeing others push and achieve goals has always been motivating for me, and this made me anxious to get into the air again.

Well, somehow Brett was able to squeeze me in on a flight right after Sarah. We did 2 landings which were ok. I asked Brett if we could do another because I wanted a good landing to finish on. He said, “Nope, but you should take it around a few more times.” I think my heart briefly missed a beat when I realized what he was saying. Ok. Game on.

I was super fired up, but tucked the mental celebrating away since I wanted to be focused. I felt relaxed and confident, yet there is a moment after take-off where I looked into the empty right seat and thought, “Well now you’ve gone and stepped in it.” The pattern was super busy at that point, and with staying in the pattern the 3 take-offs and landings passed all too quickly.

In all accounts that I’ve read pilots state how their first solo landings were perfect. Not so for me. The first was good, but a bit hard. On the second I could hear Brett’s voice in my head counting the bounces. Brett called through on the radio while I was turning base for the third and told me to just relax a bit more and the landing would be smooth. Well I relaxed, but still managed a bounce out of it.

When I landed Brett headed over and shook hand, and proceeded with the tradition of cutting my shirt tail. This is when it all started to sink in. Technically the flight wasn’t perfect, but it didn’t need to be. Taking the step of being Pilot in Command was perfect in and of itself. It is a special moment to realize that you have gained the skills necessary to safely take an airplane into the air and return it to the ground. In the days following I have enjoyed talking to other pilots and hearing about their first solo. All of them hold that moment as unique and special.

In between some maintenance work at The Dalles Airport, Brett and I decided to sneak over to Wasco for lunch, using the trip as a flight lesson. I am repeatedly finding if I do not strictly adhere to the checklist, I often get distracted and end up being reminded by Brett to address something I had missed. On this occasion while taxiing I attempted to make a radio call. Brett mentioned that if I wanted anyone to hear me, I sh0uld probably turn on the Avionics Master switch. It was at that point I learned a new acronym, UTFCL or use the freakin’ checklist.

Taking off I dealt with classic Dalles winds of 17 knots gusting to 25 making take off quick and easy, and our flight to Wasco rapid. The turn to base/final was super fun, the wind causing us to  skid around as I lined up with the runway. The gusts were challenging to deal with and I had to juice the throttle once to keep airspeed up and make the runway. On these windy days it is better to keep speed up so that if a gust of wind goes away the plane does not stall while on final and you have no room to recover.

On the return flight we had to battle into the wind. This allowed for a really cool exercise though. Brett had me get out over the gorge, trim for slow flight with fully extended flaps, and see if I could climb in altitude. This took a gentle touch and bringing the nose to an attitude which dropped our airspeed right to the point of stall ~40 mph. With the strong headwind our groundspeed dropped almost to zero. Looking down it looked like we were hovering in space. Wild!

Coming back into the pattern I naturally wanted to point right toward the end of 30 and land. This would have put us on right traffic and The Dalles is left traffic, which is the equivalent of driving the wrong way on a one way street. Brett pointed this out and I changed to flying a 45 over the runway and joining left traffic. The last bit of learning I pulled from this flight came while on final. While adjusting flaps I bumped the switch into the up position. This caused the flaps to automatically retract and would have caused me to lose lift and thankfully Brett saw this before it was an issue. We bounced once on this last landing but Brett seemed pleased given the windy/gusty conditions. When I looked at the wind report after parking I saw it was blowing 25 and gusting over 30.

I am still working really hard while on approaches and landing, but it feels like it is beginning to come together. Now I just need to ingrain that acronym- UTFCL…

-IB

After bouncing around in multiple aircraft and flying from the left and right seat, I finally put the 172 down gently and without control input from Brett.

After my first crosswind landing lesson I was anxious to get back up and reinforce the techniques as soon as possible. First we flew off to the south practiced side slips and Brett introduced forward slips. The forward slip feels very unusual with the low attitude what feels like sideways tracking. I was surprised with how much rudder input was necessary for proper slipping.

Back at The Dalles my first approach felt really good. Previously I had a habit of letting my altitude wander which ended up giving me a different sight picture each time. This time I stayed focused on pattern altitude which helped immensly. I wasn’t mentally ahead of the plane and got bullied around by the wind, bouncing in on the landing. On the second pass I overshot the base leg and went a little wide on turning final. We had time though and I tried to slowly correct and get the sight picture I was looking for. The wind continued to keep me busy all the way in and I could barely believe it when we touched down smoothly. I immediately looked over and asked Brett if he’d “helped” out at all. He shook his head, said, “nice landing”, and shook my hand.

Damn, that felt good.

-IB

After finishing some work on a friend’s RV-7, we decided to fly in to join him and the local EAA chapter 105 BBQ in Parkside, WA. Here are some photos from the evening.

So after a slight hiatus, I got back in the saddle today. Winds were blowing 11 knots gusting to 15, with peak gust at 26 knots. A perfect day to introduce crosswind landing procedures. We would also practice incipient spin recovery and emergency procedures.

First we flew out to the south and climbed to where Brett could demonstrate incipient spins and recovery.  Similar to stall recovery, I found the 172 to give a fair amount of warning before breaking free, and the recovery to be fairly tame. I do really enjoy this practice. It gives confidence with recovery, but also allows for early recognition of trouble during the busy maneuvers of take-off and landing. Plus it’s really fun.

On the way back to the airfield, Brett pulled the power on me simulating an engine out to practice emergency procedures. We’ve practiced this before and I felt more at ease running through the process of setting up a glide, choosing an appropriate landing location, and running through the trouble shooting checklist. During our approach at my chosen road, I reached over to put in some flaps. As I looked over, I saw an incoming cropduster (they often don’t have radios) which rapidly passed within 150 ft and 75 ft below us. The skies aren’t always as big as we want them to be and this was a reminder to keep our heads on a swivel and eyes open. I would have never seen him without reaching over for the flaps. After this slight distraction while on approach, Brett gave me a little reminder to drop the nose a hair. I looked down at the airspeed indicator and we had dropped to 60 mph which is too slow and getting close to stall if needing to maneuver.

We finished our lesson with crosswind landings. Even though these were some of the most challenging conditions in which I have attempted and made landings, I found that flying the pattern, making an appoach, and landing to feel better than ever. I am psyched that some of this is starting to stick! Not only that, I found the crosswind landings to be fun, though very engaging.

This flight was full. It was the first where I felt a bit of wear at the end of the lesson and it was good to stop when we did. At the same time I felt more in control of the aircraft and confident when executing maneuvers. Lots of learning to go, but I am excited with seeing progress.

-IB

Today I got a huge treat! The plan was to fly to Condon where Brett was to meet up with a student for a lesson, and we would do a lesson there and one back. Since the 172 was booked we got to take out Gorge Aviation’s other plane, the Diamond Star. Now I like the 172, but the Diamond is dead sexy! Its lines are reminiscent of a glider. Once in the cockpit the difference from the Cessna is initially overwhelming, but adjusting to where everything is pretty rapid.

We were a bit pressed for time on the flight over, so weren’t able to get into much instruction, but it was super fun to just get a feel for the Diamond. Not far out of The Dalles we climbed up nearby the layer of patchy cumulus or “Simpsons” clouds. This was the most fun I’ve had flying yet! We were sure to keep a sharp eye out for other planes, but weaving over, around, and brushing shoulders with these clouds was absolutely amazing! You could really enjoy the 3 dimensional aspect of flying.
All too soon we reached Condon (the Diamond really likes to move too) and entered the pattern. While flying over the airfield we spotted a local cropduster on the ground with engine running, and Brett made the comment to keep an eye peeled for these guys since they typically operate without radios. By the time we were on final, the cropduster was taxiing out and looking as if he were going to jump on the runway in front of us. He saw us just as he rolled onto the runway and made a rapid 180. I was about to put in the throttle and go around when Brett took the controls and eased us around and into the landing. The whole thing was a good wakeup call not to fall too much into routine.

Cropduster taxiing for takeoff

On the return trip we practiced stalls (a bit easier in the Diamond than the Cessna but maybe that’s just me), turns around a point, and crabbing and slipping. Also while focused on ground reference exercises, Brett pulled the engine power on me, simulating an engine failure. This consisted of attaining glide slope speed (90 in the Diamond), finding a suitable landing site (I chose a field instead of the nice,  paved runway which was already inline with my heading, …damn), then trouble shooting the engine failure.

Today’s landing at The Dalles went better. The lesson for me to take away was the use of flaps to bleed off altitude while maintaining airspeed. We approached straight in, which felt unusual, and were a bit too high initially. Once Brett clued me in to putting in flaps we descended perfectly to the runway, and this time I was able to be a bit more patient with flying the plane to the runway and letting it set down. Definitely psyched!!! What a day!

-IB

At 6.1 hours of flight time, this first post will involve a bit of “catching up” on what has transpired.  Please forgive me if it gets long winded. First some background…

I am sure like most of you reading this, I grew up fascinated with flying. I have a vivid memory from about the time I was in the first grade where my father and a friend were having a conversation about the unbelievable SR-71 Blackbird. As soon as I could get my hands on books containing information and pictures of this inspiring machine, I was hooked and dreamed of becoming a pilot. Well over time this dream shifted and discovered a different passion in climbing which took me away from my original dreams and evolved into a ten year career climbing and guiding peaks around the world. This too, has shifted into pursuit of a second career and I am 2 years into a bachelor degree in nursing.

This summer a unique opportunity presented itself when a long time friend and flight instructor offered a “flight immersion” experience. I would move from Bozeman Montana to The Dalles for the summer and work at Gorge Aviation in exchange for flight lessons. Immediately all the old childhood excitement was reignited. I have known Brett Zefting for almost a decade, much of that time spent climbing and guiding climbing together. Through this I have experienced both his ability to make solid and calculated decisions in high-risk scenarios as well as his competency as an educator. My renewed enthusiasm for flying, coupled with knowing the caliber of human Brett is, I jumped at the opportunity and set plans in motion for heading west as soon as my semester finished.

Reflecting on the last 2 weeks, my “immersion program” has proved to be a whirlwind. My first couple flights felt surprisingly overwhelming with trying to acclimate to the environment, controls and instruments. Initially, we focused on pre-flight (make friends with the checklist and it’s easy), run-up, take off, climbing, straight and level flight, coordinated turns, descents, entering a pattern, and approach to land…whew! To be honest, it took a couple flights before I could relax enough to fully enjoy the fact that I was flying. The flight sessions seemed to pass so quickly and we would be back on the ground leaving me to spend the rest of the day dreaming of getting back into the air.

Just as I began to feel that some of these tasks were becoming manageable, we started into slow flight and stall recovery. This I really enjoyed. The buildup of suspense to an eventual stall felt like it took forever, the whole time thinking, “this is just wrong!” I was surprised though with how quick and easy the recovery is. That Cessna 172 really just wants to stay in the sky. The most difficult part of the day was actually transitioning back into full-powered flight after having gotten used to the mushy controls of slow flying, then entering the pattern at The Dalles airfield where things again begin to happen rapidly.

Since then we have mostly been working on staying in the pattern and practicing landings. The pattern, and approach feel better each time, but landings are proving to be quite challenging. I finally figured out that I have been rushing the landing, and have been in too much of a hurry to put the plane on the runway, which tends to cause too big a flair and sometimes a good bounce. Next time I’ll work on flying down to that “air cushion” just over the runway, then let the airspeed bleed off till the plane decides to touch down.

I’ll keep you posted!