No, I’m not going to the East Coast. Yet. But I did just book a flight lesson for next Sunday, June 22nd (weather permitting) that will be my first dual instruction cross country flight. A cross country (XC) flight is defined as a flight that is more than 50 nautical miles from your home airport. I’ve chosen to fly to Bowerman Field (KHQM) in Hoquiam, WA. The flight should look something like what’s depicted here in Foreflight. It will require me to talk to controllers at McChord (KTCM) and Olympia (KOLM) as I transition across their Class Delta (D) airspace. Meg will be looking for my overall flight plan. Not only the route we’ll fly, but how high we’ll fly, how much fuel we’ll consume, how fast we’ll go, and how accurately I predict when we’ll hit certain checkpoints. I’ll need to be especially cognizant of the weather, paying attention … Read More
ANR Headsets – Bose or Lightspeed
Thinking ahead again to WHEN I have my 3rd class medical certificate, I’m going to reward myself with a new headset. General Aviation planes are loud. Well all planes are loud, but GA planes don’t come with any noise dampening at all to save precious pounds. You’re literally flying around in a soda can with an engine. A very loud engine. So a quality headset is a must. Currently I’m flying with a nice David Clark H10-13.4 headset that I bought off a professional pilot on eBay. David Clark makes some of the finest aviation headsets around and they’re virtually indestructible. They have a great reputation and their customer service is second to none. Even after buying new ear cups and a microphone windscreen, I saved about $100 on a new headset of the same model. This headset is destined to be my passenger’s headset once I have my license. … Read More
$1,000 Worth of Hamburgers…
There’s no question that flying is the most expensive hobby I’ve ever undertaken. The cost of getting my private license alone will be in the $10,000-$12,000 range. Then of course the question is: “Now that you HAVE your license, what do you want to do with it?” Of course I want to remain proficient, so my goal after getting my license is to fly a minimum of 5 hours per month. But I’m not going to spend all that time in the traffic pattern around my home airport. What’s the fun in that? I DO plan to get my instrument rating as well, so that’ll take a fair amount of time. I’d like to also get my multi-engine, high performance and complex airplane ratings as well. Seaplane would be a lot of fun too. But keeping current with all of those would require a whole lotta time and extra money. … Read More
Learning Plateaus Suck…
“More Right rudder John” “Don’t let the ball slip out John” “I feel like we’re a little fast John” “It seems like we’re a little high let’s fix that” “Let’s not do that again shall we?” “No more that 20 degrees of bank John” “More right rudder John” (Yes, I know I already said that, pilots know what I’m talking about). I’ve hit, according to Meg, a “learning plateau”. It feels like I’ve never been at the controls of a plane before. Yesteray was supposed to be a day that we just practiced takeoffs and landings. We got all of two takeoffs and landings completed. Yesterday I was frustrated, Meg was frustrated, even the plane seemed frustrated with me. I expected to get at least four takeoffs and landings in yesterday, instead I got two. The first takeoff was one of my better ones. But climbing out I was pitching … Read More
A Couple of Flight Lessons and Cpap Update
Last week I flew a couple of times. Once on Wednesday and again yesterday, Sunday. I scheduled both lessons later in the day so as not to have to deal with the low clouds. Wednesday at 3 PM was great! We took off from Thun field (KPLU) and headed to Tacoma Narrows (KTIW). Meg told me she didn’t want to do anything that day but be in “Toad Mode”, meaning she wanted to just check my proficiency and listen to me talk to the tower at KTIW. KPLU is a non-towered airport so the pilots just talk to each other to let one another know what they’re doing. At KTIW you have to talk to the tower and ground control to get instructions on what to do. We took off from KPLU without incident, I think my takeoff was better than most of them. A bit of a crosswind, but … Read More
Back on the Cpap Again…
Yesterday I spent the bulk of my morning at the Medical Supply place at St Clare hospital getting my new Cpap machine and getting fitted for a couple of masks. This was an entirely different experience from my last machine, my Bipap machine. The last time the medical equipment company basically just gave me the machine, a couple of instructions and sent me on my way. There wasn’t a ton of time fitting masks or really going over the machine or anything. It was horrible in comparison to what I did yesterday. The person took her time to really explain the machine, how it works, how to clean it, how to change settings and more importantly making sure I had a mask that fit well. I actually paid for a second mask just so I didn’t have to go back if I didn’t like the first mask. She also took … Read More
A Little Simulator Time Today…
One of the plusses of flying at Safety In Motion Flight Center is that they have a Redbird FMX full motion Flight Simulator. Occasionally I think of it as a drawback when in reality it’s a pretty amazing training tool. Today Meg and I were supposed to fly to KTIW (Tacoma Narrows) where, winds permitting, I was actually going to get to land today. Unfortunately it wasn’t the winds that stopped us. We occasionally have a marine layer that settles in the Puget Sound region and doesn’t burn off until noon or so. That was the case this morning. When I woke up it was pretty overcast and I called Lockheed Martin Flight Services for a Standard Weather briefing already knowing that the cloud layer was too low. The cloud layer was reported at 1,900 feet for McChord and 1,800 feet at KTIW. As the plan was to fly from … Read More
Tacoma Tower, There’s a Coyote On The Alpha
So yesterday I climbed into my trusty training airplane, N1151M, for the first time in nearly a month. The last letter from the FAA put me into a tailspin, pun intended, about my future of flying. It took me a week or so to calm down and revise my game plan, but I got it together. See my previous posts to know what I’ve been battling against. The finish line is in sight however, so I’m super excited again about obtaining my Private Pilot’s License. Yesterday was the day I finally got back in the air! The last time we flew, my flight instructor Meg said that the next time we flew we’d expand my “sandbox” a bit and head over to Tacoma Narrows Airport (KTIW) from our home field, Pierce County Airport, Thun Field (KPLU) . As I hadn’t flown in a month I was unsure if that would still … Read More
Flying Today! And Excited About CPap?
I have a flight lesson today at 1:30PDT and I’m super stoked to get back in the air!! It’s been a few weeks since I’ve flown, so I’m sure I’ll have to relearn some stuff, but I’m excited none the less. Last time we flew my flight instructor said we’d head over to KTIW (Tacoma Narrows Airport) and do some pattern work there. I hope that’s still the case because it would be REALLY cool to actually land at another airport! (Baby steps!) But of course I’m still waiting for my 3rd class medical to come in as well. After my Sleep Study last week, I’ve been bugging the ladies at the sleep clinic to push my results through to the Pulmonary Specialists that have to review them and dictate them. After that happens, it goes back to my doctor and she can write a prescription for a new CPap … Read More
Sleep Study – 3rd Class Medical Adventures Continued
As previously mentioned, I received a letter from the FAA requesting more information from me regarding a variety of things they found in my medical records. Specifically Sleep Apnea. I had severe Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) in 2008ish and went in for a sleep study and was placed on a BiPap machine. Now I never felt like I got a great nights sleep on that machine, but it was better than dying. After losing 70 ish pounds the BiPap pressure was too high and I never went in to get it adjusted. I just stopped using it. Fast forward 5 years and in trying to obtain my 3rd class medical the FAA notices Sleep Apnea in my medical records and they want reports from my machine stating it’s controlled. Since I can’t produce those reports, I had my doc refer me to get another sleep study. I just returned home … Read More