Vectors To Final

Saw this link online yesterday: the "oops" list .

I worked with Charles Tucker for the first time today starting on my Instrument Training. Today's lesson focused on using the instruments to maintain straight and level flight as well as constant speed climbs and descents. We also combined a couple of turns with a climb or descent. At the very end of the lesson Charles simulated a vacuum failure by covering up the attitude and heading indicators. That caused me to struggle a bit with maintaining my heading, but only by 10 degrees for a minute or so. The air was nice and calm, which helped me a good bit. From time to time I was able to maintain straight and level on the right numbers for 20 seconds at a time! :) My landing left much be desired, mainly because I was doing a pattern that Charles got me to change, due to noise restrictions - I just did a bad job of adapting. Hopefully I can perform a bit better on that VFR aspect next time.

Maciek and I got to fly a bit this afternoon; for 0.8 hours in 99A. We took off on runway 31 and headed over to my neighborhood. From there we went north to the middle peninsula and down it to the Coleman bridge. From there we flew back towards Maciek's neighborhood and then landed back at JGG. We had a great time, there was a decent bit of wind, but it was down the runway and caused little trouble (just a tiny bounce on the landing). There was a little chop in the air starting at 3100 feet but at 3000 feet all was smooth. Maciek took some video which I plan to add to my collection later. :)

My parents were in town this weekend so on Sunday morning my Dad and I went for a quick 1.0 hour flight in 99A - taking me to 150 hours total time. The weather was terrific for flying; calm winds, 45 degree temps, and sunny. We flew over my neighborhood and then over to Newport News for a touch-and-go. Then we headed back to the Chickahominy river, where hwy 5 crosses it, and turned back for a landing on 13 at JGG. My dad took about 15 minutes of film footage on his new Sony camcorder and I used a firewire cable to transfer it over to my powerbook. I promise the landing was not a rough as the camera view makes it look. :) My parents also brought up a late Christmas present: SimPed F-16+ rudders for my flight simulator setup. I haven't been able to configure the tow brakes yet, and the positioning of the pedals under my desk needs some work, but the rudders are working well so far.

Unfortunately, this weekend my parents were unable to visit; due strangely enough to more than a foot of snow in S.C. So I did not get to take them flying today as was planned. But I DID get to take the wife, circlek, up again which is a great consolation prize any day (sorry, K). ;) We got in 1.0 hours; with the attitude indicator not working for the last bit of the flight (see image). We hopped over to West Point to get a landing in. It needed to be a full stop landing as the airplane wanted to float further than I wanted it to. But the full stop was nice because we were able to see the airport a little closer up than a touch-and-go allows, and K was able to get a feel for what it is like to taxi an airplane since there was plenty of empty taxiway to crawl on. She did very well. I hope to convince her to get her certificate as well, especially if we ever actually buy our own plane. After taking off from West Point we simply flew back to the Williamsburg area and got a few s...

The Chenoweths and I went up today in 99A for 0.8 hours. We had a good time; flew over the Gloucester area and then back to the western side of the Williamsburg area. A decent bit of wind started up right around the time we were taking off. The wind did not help my landing too much; had a bounce and a bad landing in general. But we got some good pictures and saw some nice scenery, with actual sun shine above us. :)

Posted by my wife: Jason took me up for a combo birthday/Valentine's Day flight today. It's the first time that I've been up with him since he started flying again a few weeks ago. The last flight description in his logbook where I participated says something, as I recall, like "circlek in the clouds". So we had a lazy morning and left around noon to grab a sandwich at the Coffee Beanery. We've been there for coffee before, but never for food. A coworker mentioned that their sammies were good. Jason had a "kickin roast beef" sandwich on foccacia, but the horseradish won about 3/4 of the way through it. I had smoked turkey and swiss on wheat and it was very tasty. We then went to the airport and a family was just returning with the 5199A plane that we'd be taking. We got the key and went out on the tarmac to check out a few unusual planes, and the plane wasn't parked in the usual place for the school's planes. JGG was extremely bu...