Today I wrote the examination for my (RIC-21) Restricted Operator Certificate with Aeronautical Qualification. In plain English it is a License that allows me to broadcast on a radio frequency.
This certificate is issued by Industry Canada and is a requirement for the Canadian Private Pilot License. I downloaded the study guide and read it three or four times and then supplemented what I had learned with a powerpoint and video obtained from my online ground school.
I have to admit - I was scratching my head a lot while reading this guide. If people actually communicated on a busy frequency in the manner suggested - it would surely result in safety being compromised due to the lengthy transmissions required to say.. well to say anything. Here's an example of a standard check in, let's say this was on the ground looking for taxi to the active:
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What Industry Canada says we should say:
"Springbank Ground, this is Diamond 20, Charlie Foxtrot India Foxtrot Alpha on One Two One Decimal Eight"
"Charlie Foxtrot India Foxtrot Alpha, this is Springbank Ground. Go Ahead"
"Springbank Ground, Charlie Foxtrot India Foxtrot Alpha is at the Calgary Flying Club with Information Quebec, requesting taxi to the active for departure to the Practice Area".
"Charlie Foxtrot India Foxtrot Alpha, Taxi to runway Two Five via Alpha Charlie, Winds two two zero degrees at five knots, altimeter Two niner decimal niner two, contact Springbank Tower on frequency One One Eight Decimal Two when Ready. Over."
"Springbank Ground, Charlie Foxtrot India Foxtrot Alpha. Taxi to runway Two Five via Alpha Charlie, Winds two two zero degrees at five knots, altimeter Two niner decimal niner two, contact Springbank Tower on frequency One One Eight Decimal Two when Ready. Over."
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Sure that was an important transmission, here's how it actually goes in the practical (real) world:
"Springbank Ground, Diamond Fox India Fox Alpha at the club with Charlie, for the practice Area"
"Diamond India Fox Alpha, Ground. Taxi to runway Two Five via Alpha Charlie, Winds Two Twenty at 5, altimeter Twenty nine Ninety Two, Tower on Eighteen Two when ready."
"Two five via Alpha Charlie, India Fox Alpha"
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Granted it was nice to understand exactly how to handle the frequency during an emergency call (much different than the calls in the US) and also good to learn about some of the special frequencies and the regulations, laws, and fines related to using the frequencies.
Aside from that - I have to say that from my perspective it was mostly useless. In fact the exam itself was quite lame. Some of the questions on it had me scratching my head wondering "Why in the world would anyone actually need to know what the exact fine is for misusing the frequency?". The exam was multiple choice and 25 questions. I only needed 60% to pass. It took me less than 10 minutes for the first pass of the questions, and I spent an additional 15 minutes reviewing all of the questions. Some of them were extremely ambiguous - where I could easily have "argued" why the answer could have been A or C.
I realized during the exam, that I had not actually written a test or examination in many many many years. This is probably much easier for people who are still in High School or University - but at the same time it reminded me of the process one must go through in order to properly prepare for an examination.
I scored over 80%. I didn't bother arguing about the two questions which I still think are ambiguous and were correctly answered (I even looked it up afterwards). Not really worth it. The certificate should be in the mail.
Medical and Radio Certificate out of the way. Aside from the actual learning and practical air exercises - the only thing standing between me and a spin in the circuit without anyone in the right seat is the PSTAR examination. Now the studying can truly begin. I'm super busy for the next month and not even sure when I might fly again. Until then....
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Saturday, August 23, 2008
It's not as scary as you think!
When I first received my training syllabus - I read it end to end. Actually I'm pretty sure I downloaded the version online months before I actually started flight training and read it end to end. Hmm - I probably read it end to end both time as a matter of fact! The first thing that you notice on there is where it says "First Solo". The SECOND thing you notice is where it tells you that you will practice spins. Following that it says "It's not as scary as you think". Anytime I see an obvious disclaimer such as this - I get weary.
It's interesting actually that when speaking with other pilots and student pilots at the club, everyone always wants to know where you are at with your training. After they realize you are still a student they ask you "Have you had your solo yet?". If the answer is no the next question is "Have you done your spins yet?". Whether the answer is yes or no - everyone starts to go on about spins. Most people say they are lots of fun, the odd person says they are freaky. I had no idea what they were talking about - but I assure you that I was extremely nervous about the spins.
Today my flight was with I3. We were easily under the weight restriction for spins so there was no backing out. It was a warm sunny day without a cloud in site. Winds were light and no reports of turbulence. When we got into the aircraft she asked "So are you ready to do some spins today?" I answered her honestly. "I am ready to do them because I want to learn how to identify and recover from them, but I'm quite nervous right now".
I knew right from the start that the flight was going to be a good one. I felt a certain amount of confidence (not a lot, but more than usual) as I strapped in, went through the checklists, set up the radios, and began the taxi. The takeoff, speeds, and transition to straight and level on course was as smooth as any I had. The radio work on this day felt as natural as it is when I sit in front of my computer flying the simulator under virtual ATC.
On the way to the practice area we discussed the spin entry and recovery process we would be working on. I brought up the practice area because I wanted to be able to make the calls while we were in there without adding any jibber jabber. When I3 explained what area we would be hoping to work in it dawned on me that I was finally starting to understand the layout of the practice area itself and the different areas within it.
Once established in the practice area we climbed higher and completed our HASEL safety checks. I3 pulled the throttle back and pitched the aircraft into nose up attitude. The speed started to fall off quickly. I realized that I was very tense at this point and many thoughts were running through my brain. "What if I get dizzy or puke?", "What if I get all disoriented and confused?", "Why if I can't do this?", "Why am I so tense?". As the stall horn started to wail away she pulled all the way back and we entered the stall. At this point she slammed the rudder full left causing time and space to ground to a near halt.
Maybe everyone is like this or perhaps just me, but there are many times in my life when everything goes into ultra slow motion. My entire being becomes completely self aware. My thoughts are focused and all senses are heightened.
"Concentrate". The aircraft banked steeply to the left while the nose was still high.
"Keep your eyes open". The bank continued and it felt as if we were now inverted.
"Feel the moment, live the moment". The nose came around suddenly and was pointed directly at the ground.
"We are in the spin". The nose continued to point at the ground and the aircraft continued to spin. I noted how the sections of land, highways, and rivers below appeared to spin clockwise.
"Observe the instruments". Our airspeed was messed up, the Gyro was spinning, and our altitude was decreasing.
"Hey! I don't feel sick or disoriented at all!". I changed my view from outside to inside and then back outside again. Although we were spinning it almost appeared that we were floating towards the earth below.
The sound of my inner James Earl Jones baritone inner voice was interrupted by I3's voice. "Now we apply opposite rudder to break the spin and down elevator to break the stall". We stopped spinning and now the aircraft started to fly again.
This was apparent by the nearly immediate sound of the prop. As I3 gently pulled back on the elevator the airspeed increased dramatically well into the yellow arc. The noise of spinning was incredible and before I knew it we were in a nose up attitude again. The airspeed dropped off quickly and as she leveled off some power was added.
The feeling I experienced was incredible. It was not scary at all. The aircraft was not completely out of control. I did not feel all sick and disoriented, in fact it was simply to focus both inside the aircraft on the instruments or outside at the spinning earth without losing any focus.
I3 turned to me immediately and asked "OK, how was that?". "Incredible!". "I'm only required to demonstrate the spin entry, identification and recovery to you. So you don't actually have to take control for one. I can do a few more or if you would like I can put the aircraft into a spin and let you recover from it - does that work for you?"
The words escaped my mouth immediately - "HELL YA!".
We performed probably 6 - 8 or more spins from that point in both directions. After the first two I caught on and was able to recover quickly and with some authority. The terror and fear had been exorcised from my mind.
The flight back was uneventful. Traffic was light as we entered the circuit and lined up on final. The touchdown was not bad as was the taxi back to the club. The drive back was probably with as much adrenaline as my first drive out to the club a mere 5 weeks earlier.
9.8 Hours and counting...
Friday, August 22, 2008
The Flare
Imagine the horror on my face when I showed up only to find that the instructor was still sick - and that his flights that day had all been handed to I99. For a fleeting moment I considered canceling and walking out - however at this point I wanted to fly, especially after being rained out the previous day. I thought long and hard about how to identify and react to a stall during the exercise and even in the worst case scenario I'd be in the air gaining experience, even if I99 was a brutal instructor.
Everything was taken care of and ready to go 15 minute prior to the flight. I spent some time reviewing the air exercises while waiting for I99 to return from his previous flight. After this was completed I moved to reading some sections of From The Ground Up. When I grew bored of this I visited the bathroom, browsed the restaurant, looked at photos from the clubs "Solo" wall, and played around with various items for sale in dispatch. Once we hit 15 minutes AFTER the flight was scheduled, I started losing my patience.
I2 showed up on the scene and we chatted - then she asked who I was flying with. I told her I99 and that I wasn't impressed he was 20 minutes late already. Turns out she wasn't either. There was another student who had an instructor, but no aircraft - and I had the opposite. The other student left after we hit the 25 minute mark and wasn't too happy. I asked who his instructor was since I had an aircraft ready to go, but I2 apologized and said she couldn't cut into her next flight which was a flight check for a PPL Exam. 35 minutes after the scheduled start time I99 shows up in the dispatch area. Turns out he was with the whiny student from the day before who kept interrupting us. She just made my "list" as well. I99 apologized profusely and blamed "the winds". He said he didn't have anyone else scheduled after me and that the aircraft was available so we could fly as long as required. I told him I had nothing scheduled either and that we were all gassed and ready to go. He said he'd meet me out there in 5 minutes.
10 minutes later he showed up. Yes - I was pissed off. While sitting there I decided not to wait for him and started on the checklists that I could. I also considered walking out since I was concerned about my performance while this pissed off. When he showed up I told him where we were at and we headed out for the runway. During the taxi I decided it was time to tell him how I felt about everything. I told him how I felt about his briefing the other day, his cuing method in the air, and his tardiness. I reminded him that he wasn't doing me a favor by teaching me, I was paying the club for his time and the aircraft rental. Finally told him that I took the training very serious and did my best to act professionally and that I expected him to be the same. I didn't sense any attitude in his short apology and the cockpit grew quiet after that.
During the entire flight there was not a lot said aside from what had to be. I told him that I wanted to handle everything except in any cases where he had to demonstrate something or take over for safety reasons and that I was hoping for constructive feedback in all phases. I was all business after that and I nailed the flight. My recoveries from all the types of stalls we did were swift and by the book. He allowed me to retain control when we encountered an aircraft who was in the practice area but not communicating, and again while we sorted out someone else on the radio who said he was somewhere that he wasn't.
As we hit the circuit on the way back we had a brief discussion about the landing flare during which he actually gave me an excellent description of the landing from threshold to roll out. After he answered a few follow up questions from me I simply executed it exactly as he described it. The big change was to keep my nose down over the threshold while cutting power. When I finally leveled us off I was to slowly pull back on the stick to bleed off the airspeed slowly while we settled onto the runway. It wasn't a soft landing but the process of "holding it off" allowed me to understand something about landing that my simulator could never supply. Whatever the financial or emotional cost of these two flights with I99 were in the end, I can at least attribute him to teaching me one useful thing about the flare. Well a second useful thing might be that I fly really well when I'm pissed off.
On the way back into the club, I99 told me that I flew like a completely different person than the last flight. I had no idea if he was blowing smoke up my behind or not, but I did consider the possibility that my performance was poor during the last flight. After he filled out my PTR we discussed a few areas to work on and I asked him what to be prepared for next time. He told me he'd be happy to fly with me again in the near future. We shook hands and said goodbye.
While settling up my account, I2 came out of the office and asked how the flight went. I explained to her that the flight went really well because I appeared to be "on the ball" this afternoon. I then asked her to make a note on my file that I wouldn't be flying with I99 again... ever.
Tomorrow I fly with I3 and the lesson of the day is spins. I'll admit it now. I'm already freaking out about it. I have no idea why or over what - I'm just extremely nervous.
8.5 Hours and counting...
Everything was taken care of and ready to go 15 minute prior to the flight. I spent some time reviewing the air exercises while waiting for I99 to return from his previous flight. After this was completed I moved to reading some sections of From The Ground Up. When I grew bored of this I visited the bathroom, browsed the restaurant, looked at photos from the clubs "Solo" wall, and played around with various items for sale in dispatch. Once we hit 15 minutes AFTER the flight was scheduled, I started losing my patience.
I2 showed up on the scene and we chatted - then she asked who I was flying with. I told her I99 and that I wasn't impressed he was 20 minutes late already. Turns out she wasn't either. There was another student who had an instructor, but no aircraft - and I had the opposite. The other student left after we hit the 25 minute mark and wasn't too happy. I asked who his instructor was since I had an aircraft ready to go, but I2 apologized and said she couldn't cut into her next flight which was a flight check for a PPL Exam. 35 minutes after the scheduled start time I99 shows up in the dispatch area. Turns out he was with the whiny student from the day before who kept interrupting us. She just made my "list" as well. I99 apologized profusely and blamed "the winds". He said he didn't have anyone else scheduled after me and that the aircraft was available so we could fly as long as required. I told him I had nothing scheduled either and that we were all gassed and ready to go. He said he'd meet me out there in 5 minutes.
10 minutes later he showed up. Yes - I was pissed off. While sitting there I decided not to wait for him and started on the checklists that I could. I also considered walking out since I was concerned about my performance while this pissed off. When he showed up I told him where we were at and we headed out for the runway. During the taxi I decided it was time to tell him how I felt about everything. I told him how I felt about his briefing the other day, his cuing method in the air, and his tardiness. I reminded him that he wasn't doing me a favor by teaching me, I was paying the club for his time and the aircraft rental. Finally told him that I took the training very serious and did my best to act professionally and that I expected him to be the same. I didn't sense any attitude in his short apology and the cockpit grew quiet after that.
During the entire flight there was not a lot said aside from what had to be. I told him that I wanted to handle everything except in any cases where he had to demonstrate something or take over for safety reasons and that I was hoping for constructive feedback in all phases. I was all business after that and I nailed the flight. My recoveries from all the types of stalls we did were swift and by the book. He allowed me to retain control when we encountered an aircraft who was in the practice area but not communicating, and again while we sorted out someone else on the radio who said he was somewhere that he wasn't.
As we hit the circuit on the way back we had a brief discussion about the landing flare during which he actually gave me an excellent description of the landing from threshold to roll out. After he answered a few follow up questions from me I simply executed it exactly as he described it. The big change was to keep my nose down over the threshold while cutting power. When I finally leveled us off I was to slowly pull back on the stick to bleed off the airspeed slowly while we settled onto the runway. It wasn't a soft landing but the process of "holding it off" allowed me to understand something about landing that my simulator could never supply. Whatever the financial or emotional cost of these two flights with I99 were in the end, I can at least attribute him to teaching me one useful thing about the flare. Well a second useful thing might be that I fly really well when I'm pissed off.
On the way back into the club, I99 told me that I flew like a completely different person than the last flight. I had no idea if he was blowing smoke up my behind or not, but I did consider the possibility that my performance was poor during the last flight. After he filled out my PTR we discussed a few areas to work on and I asked him what to be prepared for next time. He told me he'd be happy to fly with me again in the near future. We shook hands and said goodbye.
While settling up my account, I2 came out of the office and asked how the flight went. I explained to her that the flight went really well because I appeared to be "on the ball" this afternoon. I then asked her to make a note on my file that I wouldn't be flying with I99 again... ever.
Tomorrow I fly with I3 and the lesson of the day is spins. I'll admit it now. I'm already freaking out about it. I have no idea why or over what - I'm just extremely nervous.
8.5 Hours and counting...
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Rained Out
I'll be the first one to admit that I really didn't feel like flying much today. I had 3 late nights in a row and the most recent one involved alcohol. My family was out of town and I had no work that day so the booking was made for 230 pm which gave me ample time to sleep in and do whatever I needed prior to making my way to the club.
It was raining and windy most of the morning and I was quite certain the flight would be canceled. Up until now the weather had been perfect since I started my training and I realized that I had no clue what the process was for canceling a flight due to weather. Would they call me? I guess I treat it like baseball then. I've captained a team since my early 20's and have consistently delivered the same message when people start calling about "will we play today?" which is: "Unless you hear from ME telling you that the game is canceled, you are expected to show up". Baseball and Football are two games which are played regardless of the weather. You don't cancel a game because it is raining, the field is muddy, or it's too cold. You cancel a game if and only if the weather and field conditions are dangerous. You also cancel in lightning. I decided to apply this same philosophy to flying.
By the time I showed up things had cleared up somewhat. The clouds had broken and the sun was coming out. Granted it was still pretty windy. I ran out to the apron to complete my walk around. About that time - some dude (in a fancy instructor uniform) approached me and told me that we probably weren't flying today due to the weather. Turns out I got bumped (AGAIN) and he would be taking me up. Based on my experience from the previous day with I99, I decided that I was fed up but at least owed this guy the opportunity to explain. Turns out he took over the entire day's slate for the other "new" instructor that canceled on me the previous day. Hmmm - turns out that guy was sick the previous day as well when I landed with I99. Fair enough.
After chatting for 15 minutes with this instructor (who will officially be assigned I4) I decided that I liked him. He seemed passionate about flying. I decided to go through my "Instructor Interview" that I memorized thanks to some suggestions from Rob Machado. One of the biggest questions I ask is always "Why are you an instructor?" to which you usually get the standard "building hours" answer. I4 had the most interesting answer for this one yet. Turns out he is an instructor simply because he wants to be an instructor. Spent 20 years in IT as a Business Analyst and a year ago realized he was in his mid 40's and hated his job. He quit his job and his wife and him remortgaged their house while he completed his Commercial and Instructor ratings. He has held his PPL for 20+ years and picked up his IFR and Multi Engine along the way in the past 10 years. Wow - great answer.
I4 was certain that we weren't going to be flying and then asked if I was interested in perhaps doing a long briefing on a few of my upcoming air exercises. I figured I'd give him a shot. I asked him to start by reviewing Slow Flight and Stalls with me just to get a great indicator of how he stacks up against I1 and I99. Then we moved into Spins and finally Spirals. I don't think I can even begin to explain how well the briefings went. Granted we had a lot of time to complete them - but his method of communication was superior to most others that I had received - even better than I2 and the CFI.
He had great parallels, excellent examples, experience stories, drew fantastic diagrams, acronyms, and even a number of comparison charts. The level of understanding that was gained during a 60 minute briefing was amazing. One large difference that I really noticed was that he often said "Transport Canada will test you on this". This is the first time I had ever heard anyone say that to me - whether in the air or on the ground - no one ever mentions TC. I made sure to tell him how much I appreciated that. At the conclusion of the session I spent some time downstairs trying to find a spot for some airtime with I4 but I wasn't successful. As it turns out I was booked with this sick instructor again the next day and I4 wasn't scheduled to work. I went home hoping that I'd have a chance to fly with him the next day.
It was raining and windy most of the morning and I was quite certain the flight would be canceled. Up until now the weather had been perfect since I started my training and I realized that I had no clue what the process was for canceling a flight due to weather. Would they call me? I guess I treat it like baseball then. I've captained a team since my early 20's and have consistently delivered the same message when people start calling about "will we play today?" which is: "Unless you hear from ME telling you that the game is canceled, you are expected to show up". Baseball and Football are two games which are played regardless of the weather. You don't cancel a game because it is raining, the field is muddy, or it's too cold. You cancel a game if and only if the weather and field conditions are dangerous. You also cancel in lightning. I decided to apply this same philosophy to flying.
By the time I showed up things had cleared up somewhat. The clouds had broken and the sun was coming out. Granted it was still pretty windy. I ran out to the apron to complete my walk around. About that time - some dude (in a fancy instructor uniform) approached me and told me that we probably weren't flying today due to the weather. Turns out I got bumped (AGAIN) and he would be taking me up. Based on my experience from the previous day with I99, I decided that I was fed up but at least owed this guy the opportunity to explain. Turns out he took over the entire day's slate for the other "new" instructor that canceled on me the previous day. Hmmm - turns out that guy was sick the previous day as well when I landed with I99. Fair enough.
After chatting for 15 minutes with this instructor (who will officially be assigned I4) I decided that I liked him. He seemed passionate about flying. I decided to go through my "Instructor Interview" that I memorized thanks to some suggestions from Rob Machado. One of the biggest questions I ask is always "Why are you an instructor?" to which you usually get the standard "building hours" answer. I4 had the most interesting answer for this one yet. Turns out he is an instructor simply because he wants to be an instructor. Spent 20 years in IT as a Business Analyst and a year ago realized he was in his mid 40's and hated his job. He quit his job and his wife and him remortgaged their house while he completed his Commercial and Instructor ratings. He has held his PPL for 20+ years and picked up his IFR and Multi Engine along the way in the past 10 years. Wow - great answer.
I4 was certain that we weren't going to be flying and then asked if I was interested in perhaps doing a long briefing on a few of my upcoming air exercises. I figured I'd give him a shot. I asked him to start by reviewing Slow Flight and Stalls with me just to get a great indicator of how he stacks up against I1 and I99. Then we moved into Spins and finally Spirals. I don't think I can even begin to explain how well the briefings went. Granted we had a lot of time to complete them - but his method of communication was superior to most others that I had received - even better than I2 and the CFI.
He had great parallels, excellent examples, experience stories, drew fantastic diagrams, acronyms, and even a number of comparison charts. The level of understanding that was gained during a 60 minute briefing was amazing. One large difference that I really noticed was that he often said "Transport Canada will test you on this". This is the first time I had ever heard anyone say that to me - whether in the air or on the ground - no one ever mentions TC. I made sure to tell him how much I appreciated that. At the conclusion of the session I spent some time downstairs trying to find a spot for some airtime with I4 but I wasn't successful. As it turns out I was booked with this sick instructor again the next day and I4 wasn't scheduled to work. I went home hoping that I'd have a chance to fly with him the next day.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Stalls
I was scheduled to fly today with a new highly ranked instructor that had arrived at the school. I was concerned when I showed up for the pre flight and noticed I had been bumped to a different instructor whom I had never heard of.
As usual, everything was prepped and ready to go long before the lesson was scheduled to begin. Imagine my annoyance when 15 minutes after the start time "I99" comes out and introduces himself. After he says we're headed up to a briefing room I ask him "what materials do I need?". He quickly responds with "the same material you always need for a briefing". Umm OK then. Between the Flight Training Manual, From the Ground Up, Standard Operating Procedures, Pilot Operating Handbook, Maps, Fuel checkers, E6B, Kneeboard, Extra Package of Gum, and my Headset - there is barely any room for air in my flightbag. So there are some things which I regularly don't carry into the club because they don't ever seem to be required during the briefings. I didn't feel like explaining this to him, so I just grabbed my bag with what I had brought into the club from the car.
In the briefing room - he tells me to open my FTM to a certain page. Then takes it away from me and starts literally reading it word for word out loud to me. I am saved by this in three scenarios - all of which are equally annoying:
First, he asks me about a "number" and I answer it with confidence. "No!" he blurts at me, then follows up with "Where did you learn that?". Of course this was a number that had been relayed to me by my two favorite instructors at the school: I2 and I3.
Second, he stops every 5 minutes and reads his blackberry. Now I'll tell you what - I am a crackberry addict of the Nth degree myself. I check it like mad - however I make a point of NEVER checking it while engaged in a conversation with someone, and never in a meeting except in very special circumstances. Certainly NEVER in a meeting with a client, ESPECIALLY if they are actually paying me for my time.
Third, some other student knocks on the door frame (the doors themselves have all been taken off for painting, my assumption is they are travelling by life raft to the furthest point on the earth from Calgary - how long does it take to paint a door?) and asks if she can interrupt. My first thought is "I hope this is important, I'm paying $60 an hour for this". Turns out it wasn't. It's some other student of his who had a question about something for a lesson they were doing later that day. OMG. This couldn't wait? 5 minutes later - she knocks again and starts whining about the aircraft she was supposed to take had a maintenance issue and looks like it is grounded. So there are no other airplanes available. So what do I do? Then - she asks if she can use the aircraft that HE is scheduled to fly for my lesson. At this point I turn around, look at her and say "are you serious?". So I99 excuses himself and goes outside to speak with her. As there is no door I hear the entire thing. After he somehow manages to convince her she's better off finding the maintenance item on the ground than in the air she leaves. I can't help but wonder if I've just witnessed one of those little things that may have been the difference between life and death for someone.
Finally - I99 takes me out to the aircraft. I'm pretty annoyed at him already. In the aircraft during each phase of flight that he has absolutely no skill what so ever at instruction. He might be a great pilot (I have no clue) but as an instructor he's about as useless as looking up a dead horse's ass. I was very tentative displaying my ability to get the aircraft into slow flight mode. The stall lesson was actually quite brutal. It's obvious that I have some sort of a "fear" of certain attitudes, and he doesn't seem able to recognize that or help correct it. The demonstration of the stall is horrible and when I'm asked to do it I get next to no direction except for loud cuing which are generally useless.
Each time he took control from me he's yank and bank the aircraft all over the place. Then at one point he was trying to show me something about holding off the stall by "dancing on the pedals" which at the time made no sense to me (I told him I had no clue what he was talking about) and we eventually did some very weird roll over where the aircraft was inverted for a short time period. After that I didn't feel well at all. I wasn't sure if it was due to the Sake from the night before, the fact that I went inverted unexpectedly (first time for that), or the fact that his attitude was making me sick - I told him I wasn't feeling well. When he responded with "if you are just a bit sick we can continue" I came back with "I might puke, we should head back" (never a chance I would do that).
The flight back, approach, and landing were actually my best to date - it was almost as if my "non joy" in the aircraft - converted into me being pissed off, had actually raised my level of awareness and concentration above where it usually sits. All I wanted to do was get back on the ground and away from this guy. At the same time - all I wanted to do was show him how well I could fly this aircraft and shove it in his face.
Not the type of flight I was hoping for. I'll have to do stalls from the start again. Also note that there wasn't any sort of reduction on the briefing time. He literally rounded up from the time we spent in the room. I was so pissed off - I didn't feel like arguing over $15.
7.5 Hours and counting...
As usual, everything was prepped and ready to go long before the lesson was scheduled to begin. Imagine my annoyance when 15 minutes after the start time "I99" comes out and introduces himself. After he says we're headed up to a briefing room I ask him "what materials do I need?". He quickly responds with "the same material you always need for a briefing". Umm OK then. Between the Flight Training Manual, From the Ground Up, Standard Operating Procedures, Pilot Operating Handbook, Maps, Fuel checkers, E6B, Kneeboard, Extra Package of Gum, and my Headset - there is barely any room for air in my flightbag. So there are some things which I regularly don't carry into the club because they don't ever seem to be required during the briefings. I didn't feel like explaining this to him, so I just grabbed my bag with what I had brought into the club from the car.
In the briefing room - he tells me to open my FTM to a certain page. Then takes it away from me and starts literally reading it word for word out loud to me. I am saved by this in three scenarios - all of which are equally annoying:
First, he asks me about a "number" and I answer it with confidence. "No!" he blurts at me, then follows up with "Where did you learn that?". Of course this was a number that had been relayed to me by my two favorite instructors at the school: I2 and I3.
Second, he stops every 5 minutes and reads his blackberry. Now I'll tell you what - I am a crackberry addict of the Nth degree myself. I check it like mad - however I make a point of NEVER checking it while engaged in a conversation with someone, and never in a meeting except in very special circumstances. Certainly NEVER in a meeting with a client, ESPECIALLY if they are actually paying me for my time.
Third, some other student knocks on the door frame (the doors themselves have all been taken off for painting, my assumption is they are travelling by life raft to the furthest point on the earth from Calgary - how long does it take to paint a door?) and asks if she can interrupt. My first thought is "I hope this is important, I'm paying $60 an hour for this". Turns out it wasn't. It's some other student of his who had a question about something for a lesson they were doing later that day. OMG. This couldn't wait? 5 minutes later - she knocks again and starts whining about the aircraft she was supposed to take had a maintenance issue and looks like it is grounded. So there are no other airplanes available. So what do I do? Then - she asks if she can use the aircraft that HE is scheduled to fly for my lesson. At this point I turn around, look at her and say "are you serious?". So I99 excuses himself and goes outside to speak with her. As there is no door I hear the entire thing. After he somehow manages to convince her she's better off finding the maintenance item on the ground than in the air she leaves. I can't help but wonder if I've just witnessed one of those little things that may have been the difference between life and death for someone.
Finally - I99 takes me out to the aircraft. I'm pretty annoyed at him already. In the aircraft during each phase of flight that he has absolutely no skill what so ever at instruction. He might be a great pilot (I have no clue) but as an instructor he's about as useless as looking up a dead horse's ass. I was very tentative displaying my ability to get the aircraft into slow flight mode. The stall lesson was actually quite brutal. It's obvious that I have some sort of a "fear" of certain attitudes, and he doesn't seem able to recognize that or help correct it. The demonstration of the stall is horrible and when I'm asked to do it I get next to no direction except for loud cuing which are generally useless.
Each time he took control from me he's yank and bank the aircraft all over the place. Then at one point he was trying to show me something about holding off the stall by "dancing on the pedals" which at the time made no sense to me (I told him I had no clue what he was talking about) and we eventually did some very weird roll over where the aircraft was inverted for a short time period. After that I didn't feel well at all. I wasn't sure if it was due to the Sake from the night before, the fact that I went inverted unexpectedly (first time for that), or the fact that his attitude was making me sick - I told him I wasn't feeling well. When he responded with "if you are just a bit sick we can continue" I came back with "I might puke, we should head back" (never a chance I would do that).
The flight back, approach, and landing were actually my best to date - it was almost as if my "non joy" in the aircraft - converted into me being pissed off, had actually raised my level of awareness and concentration above where it usually sits. All I wanted to do was get back on the ground and away from this guy. At the same time - all I wanted to do was show him how well I could fly this aircraft and shove it in his face.
Not the type of flight I was hoping for. I'll have to do stalls from the start again. Also note that there wasn't any sort of reduction on the briefing time. He literally rounded up from the time we spent in the room. I was so pissed off - I didn't feel like arguing over $15.
7.5 Hours and counting...
Monday, August 18, 2008
Ground School
The flying club offers ground school. 17 classes over a span of 10 weeks. Classes are typically on Mondays and Thursdays and run from 7 - 10pm. If we factor 30 minutes before and after each class - that's a total of 8 hours a week. This of course does not include all of the studying and reading one would do between classes to be prepared.
The purpose of the ground school is to cover all of the materials required to pass the Transport Canada written PPL examination. TC also requires a minimum of 40 hours of ground training for the private license.
I am simply unable to make the time commitment, specifically because I can't run away from a busy household with two little kids, leaving my wife to fend for herself (I already work long hours). So I made the decision to do the ground training of my license in a self study mode. I know that when I'm interested in a topic I have no problem focusing and putting time aside to learn what is required.
Looking around on the Internet I found that an outfit based in Manitoba offers an online ground school. The course is acceptable by TC standards for the 40 hours required. I tried to do a lot of Internet research for some reviews but to be honest came up with no other online offerings, and no reviews of the online course or its content. I decided to just take a stab at it - if it was really bad I could always try and get my money back.
I will admit right now that I am very pleased with the content so far. The course is completely geared towards someone like me who is training for their PPL. Each section has a powerpoint presentation of between 15-80 slides, a 60 minute training video which is essentially an instructor doing the powerpoint presentation to a group in a classroom, a forum for discussion on the topic (sparsely used), links to other documentation, and a quiz to ensure you have completed the learning and understand the topics.
Aside from this they also gave me the following "free" courses:
PSTAR: Pre Solo Air Regulations
Private Air Exercises
Pilot Decision Making
Garmin GNS 430
These have all been somewhat useful already. The PSTAR is an exam which I hope to soon challenge which is required by TC to obtain a "student permit" which allows you to fly Solo under the supervision of an instructor. At the end of this course I found some great review material for my Radio Operator's certificate examination as well.
Private Air Exercises goes hand in hand with the Tranport Canada training syllabus. Each Air Exercise contains a powerpoint presentation, a ground briefing video, a forum, and an air video. The air videos are amazing. They managed to synchronize the air exercise so that you may watch it from a number of different viewpoints: Cockpit, Rear mounted camera, side mounted camera, and from a secondary aircraft filming the entire thing. This has been very useful for me - you can even watch them all at the same time!
So far - money well spent. I guess with the ground school that I'm now in full momentum towards the PPL.
For those of you interested - the material was offered by Harv's Air Pilot Training based in Steinbach/Winnipeg Manitoba - and their ground school website is available at PilotTraining.ca.
The purpose of the ground school is to cover all of the materials required to pass the Transport Canada written PPL examination. TC also requires a minimum of 40 hours of ground training for the private license.
I am simply unable to make the time commitment, specifically because I can't run away from a busy household with two little kids, leaving my wife to fend for herself (I already work long hours). So I made the decision to do the ground training of my license in a self study mode. I know that when I'm interested in a topic I have no problem focusing and putting time aside to learn what is required.
Looking around on the Internet I found that an outfit based in Manitoba offers an online ground school. The course is acceptable by TC standards for the 40 hours required. I tried to do a lot of Internet research for some reviews but to be honest came up with no other online offerings, and no reviews of the online course or its content. I decided to just take a stab at it - if it was really bad I could always try and get my money back.
I will admit right now that I am very pleased with the content so far. The course is completely geared towards someone like me who is training for their PPL. Each section has a powerpoint presentation of between 15-80 slides, a 60 minute training video which is essentially an instructor doing the powerpoint presentation to a group in a classroom, a forum for discussion on the topic (sparsely used), links to other documentation, and a quiz to ensure you have completed the learning and understand the topics.
Aside from this they also gave me the following "free" courses:
PSTAR: Pre Solo Air Regulations
Private Air Exercises
Pilot Decision Making
Garmin GNS 430
These have all been somewhat useful already. The PSTAR is an exam which I hope to soon challenge which is required by TC to obtain a "student permit" which allows you to fly Solo under the supervision of an instructor. At the end of this course I found some great review material for my Radio Operator's certificate examination as well.
Private Air Exercises goes hand in hand with the Tranport Canada training syllabus. Each Air Exercise contains a powerpoint presentation, a ground briefing video, a forum, and an air video. The air videos are amazing. They managed to synchronize the air exercise so that you may watch it from a number of different viewpoints: Cockpit, Rear mounted camera, side mounted camera, and from a secondary aircraft filming the entire thing. This has been very useful for me - you can even watch them all at the same time!
So far - money well spent. I guess with the ground school that I'm now in full momentum towards the PPL.
For those of you interested - the material was offered by Harv's Air Pilot Training based in Steinbach/Winnipeg Manitoba - and their ground school website is available at PilotTraining.ca.
Friday, August 15, 2008
Medical Part Deux
Like most other people - the majority of the mail (real mail) I receive can usually be categorized into the following groups:
1) Bills
2) Bank Statements
3) Companies trying to offer me something better than I have with their competitors, even though they wouldn't give me this before I left them for their competitors.
4) Absolute Junk
5) Offer of more credit which has already been pre approved (see #4)
6) More bills.
Every now and then I get something that actually interests me. Today was one of those days. A letter addressed to me from Transport Canada. Upon opening it I learned that I am now officially the proud owner of a Class 3 medical certificate. Due to expire in 60 months.
I was actually quite excited. I guess it is time to start figuring out where I'm supposed to keep important documentation such as this.
1) Bills
2) Bank Statements
3) Companies trying to offer me something better than I have with their competitors, even though they wouldn't give me this before I left them for their competitors.
4) Absolute Junk
5) Offer of more credit which has already been pre approved (see #4)
6) More bills.
Every now and then I get something that actually interests me. Today was one of those days. A letter addressed to me from Transport Canada. Upon opening it I learned that I am now officially the proud owner of a Class 3 medical certificate. Due to expire in 60 months.
I was actually quite excited. I guess it is time to start figuring out where I'm supposed to keep important documentation such as this.
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