Post #11 - Instrument Stage II Check!

I passed! Stage II is behind me. I am excited to be done with stage II. It is supposed to be one of the harder ones. Now I get to move on to cross country IFR flights.

The Stage check was composed of a written test, oral questions, and a flight. The oral portion usually take 2 hours, but we whipped through it in a little under an hour and a half. The questions went great, I knew almost all the answers and was able to work my way through most the ones that I didn't know. The flight went great too. It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day here in Utah; close to 80 degrees and hardly any clouds in the sky. Only slight turbulence at some altitudes. On the departure from LGU-Logan airport, I was climbing out at 73 Knots, aprx 80 mph, and was under the hood, then the instructor said "I have the airplane" and he started to maneuver the airplane in short, sharp movements. I saw out of the corner of my eye, to the left and under the plane, a flock of medium sized birds. I'm glad he saw them because the hood restricts all the view outside in front of the plane.

We then continued on with the flight. The instructor had me perform 2 holding patterns west of the Brigham City VOR, and then I performed some compass turns and timed turns. We then went southward to Ogden. I flew the VOR 7 and ILS 3 approach with partial panel and then came back to Ogden for the GPS 35 approach. The whole flight portion took 1.6 hours.

Post # 10 - Welcome back Justin

Justin recently got back from a Multi Engine hour building course. We went flying on Wednesday to iron out any kinks. The flight went great and I feel comfortable doing instrument approaches in Ogden while communicating with Approach and Tower. I now have my stage II instrument check scheduled for Monday! It is going to be a busy week. I have the stage check, a report due, and a talk I have to prepare. I can't wait for summer to get here. However, it will probably feel just like any other time because I am going to be taking a few classes, but will get to fly about 3 times a week! Im excited to get some more cross country time in. Hope everyone has a good weekend.

On a side note, we had a 4.9 earthquake yesterday afternoon around 6pm. I was working when it happened and Lindsay was at home. Neither one of us felt it. No damage reported. Hopefully, that was the "BIG" one we have been expecting. It was the largest earthquake Utah has had in 18 years.

New High Score

A big SORRY to Lindsay. I beat her high score on the game "helicopter"
High Scores
We need more participants. Come on! Show us what you're made of! Play the game HERE and post your score in my high score section or send it to me. Good luck!

Post # 8 & 9 - Finally! Another flight!

This post is going to compress my two flights from this week. My normal flight instructor Justin was out of town, so I flew these two flights with Jamie. He has been an instructor at USU for about 2 years now. He challenged me in new ways and made me do some critical thinking. I really enjoyed the two flights. I was just glad to finally get back into the air for another flight. It had been around a month since the last time I believe. Both flights were the same, practice instrument approaches in Ogden with myself handling the radios. I had been planning these flights for a while, but the weather didn't seem to agree with me often.

The second flight was at night and was used to perfect the skills that weren't perfect from the first flight. The interesting thing about a night practice IFR flight is that there is NO outside reference. I couldn't see anything and had to rely completely on my instruments. There was one time where it felt like I was in a left turn, but the plane was level. That is disorientation for you, if you don't rely on your instruments and rely only on how your body feels, it can be a VERY DANGEROUS situation. This is why instrument training is an important step in a flying career. I look forward to finishing this stage and moving on to the IFR flight planning! Will let you all know how it goes.