A Summer Wasted

Since the departure of I5, things have been extremely frustrating for me.

An attempt to transition to a new instructor has not worked out. Between my schedule (only available weekends), his schedule (just became the chief instructor at the club), and the weather - we had 10 bookings that didn't work out.

I finally got back into the air with a different instructor for some instrument time. It had been nearly 3 full months (05/13 - 08/07) since my last flight. I followed that up with a few flights with the "Chief" that went great.

On one particular evening (08/19) I was excited to show up at the club and see a brand spanking new DA20C1 sitting on the ramp. It had just arrived a few days earlier and still had the original paint job. When I peered inside and was immediately excited to see a glass panel. Turns out the club had replaced FIFA with a G500 model of the Diamond. After my flight that evening I downloaded the manual from Garmin (and a simulator you can run on your computer) and went through the entire manual and learned every feature. All of the "experience" flying fancy cockpits on my flight simulator were definitely advantageous in helping me understand the logic and flows.

The next week (08/26) "Chief" offered to do our flight in the G500 diamond (GYFC). I had come out a few days earlier and spent 90 minutes sitting in her on the ground and going through the various flows - of course I was up to it. There had been a rash of forest fires in BC on the other side of the mountains - and the wind had blown the smoke to our side. Air quality was an issue everywhere in town as you could smell the smoke and it literally blotted out the sun. "Chief" mentioned that he had flown a few times earlier in the day and the night before. There were some places were it was completely clear.

There are two things that I realized shortly after takeoff:

1) Transitioning from steam to glass isn't as simple as I had expected. There was definitely some extra time that my brain needed to process the information. The scan also had changed since gauges such as the Tachometer had been moved. This would take some practice and experience before I truly felt comfortable.

2) If I was in the airplane alone, I would have called for a landing after making my crosswind turn. The visibility was poor and the horizon was extremely obscured.

The first thing "Chief" said was "This is a great example of marginal VFR". It was challenging to keep the aircraft straight and level without the help of the horizon. Adding to that the fact that my brain had to process information differently due to the G500 - the result was a large increase in pilot workload. What normally would have been a simple flight out to the practice area turned out to be extremely challenging indeed.

I made a decision right then and there. I need to schedule some time (before or immediately after I get my PPL) in an IFR certified aircraft with an instructor so that I can practice flying IMC. The experience was both eye opening and a great experience. My friend Keith summed it by saying "it's really a good lesson to see how you could get yourself killed as a VFR-only pilot, all while being in legal weather".

Things were crystal clear out at the practice area. We did precautionary and forced landings then headed back into the smoke enroute to YBW. The ground reference was non existent so it was a nice opportunity to use the G500 to help navigate us back to the airport.

I flew solo on 09/02 and 09/06. Both times I hit the practice area and worked on reviewing what I'd need for my flight test: Steep turns, stalls, slow flight, forced, and precautionary landings.

My totals are now at 65.3 hours (18.5 solo). My family is out of town for the week so I have a full week of flying scheduled - including my second solo cross country for the 11th.