A little bit of fun!

This next Saturday, the 31, I am taking my boss and his wife and also another friend from work up in the DA40. All 3 are helping to pay for it, so I am going to take them around Logan for a little sight seeing. I might also do some steep turns and stalls for a little extra fun!

Post #22 - CAP training mission

This Friday I was scheduled for scanner training for the the Civil Air Patrol. I went up on 3 flights with two other pilots and practiced scanning techniques while the pilots practiced homing in on an emergency beacon signal. There was a ground team of cadets with the practice beacon and our objective was to locate and take aerial photographs of them. I was able to spot them both times (it wasn't easy).

I was able to spot them in the shadow just before they were completely hidden behind the tree. (if you zoom in on the pic, you can see their orange vests in the middle.)

The second time was a little easier to find them.

Reservoir from 1000 ft above

The two pilots, Denny and LR.

On our way back to the Ogden airport we spotted a little fire. Not sure how it started, but decided to take a quick pic of it.

A corn maze for this Halloween. It says "Field of Fear"

Another corn maze, not sure what it is though. Hmm??? Any guesses?

Overall, I was gone for 10 hours, 4 of which were spent flying. Got some experience scanning, which I am now a qualified scanner for CAP, and had a fun day spending time with some seasoned pilots.

These pilots where in an actual mission last week. It was a big deal for us because our squadron has just recently been building up our emergency aircrew. It was our squadrons first air mission in 20 years I believe. There was a glider pilot who was overdue and rescue services where sent out to find him. Unfortunately he was later found dead. His glider crashed onto a mountain side. It was a sad ending and our hearts go out to his family and friends.

Little bit of humor

Well summer is here and I don't have the money to fly, so thought I would put up a little bit of aviation humor. Here you go!

ATC Mother-in-Law

Post # 21 - Instrument Check Ride Flight

On Friday, June 25th, I was able to meet with the FAA Check Ride Examiner to do the flight portion on my Instrument Check Ride. This test would determine if I would get my instrument rating. I did the necessary flight planning and flew solo down to Ogden to meet him there. I got there about 20 minutes early and went over some approaches to make sure I understood them completely before going up. However, that morning when I called the flight briefer to get weather and NOTAMS (Notices to Airmen) I found out that Ogden was doing some repairs and their ILS would be out of service. This was going to change things a little because I would need to fly an ILS approach for the test. When Clair got there I told him about this so we decided that we would do the ILS approach at Hill Airforce Base. We started our flight with vectors for the GPS approach and then did a hold 10 miles north of the Ogden VOR. About 5 seconds after Clair gave me directions for the hold ATC asked me over the radio what and where we wanted to go, after telling them I needed to climb to a different altitude and do this while planning my entry into the hold. After that was situated with ATC I had 0.2 miles to find out what the holding side was and my decision for the holding entry. This left me about 10 seconds to make the decision, and from what I have heard from other pilots that have failed the checkride, that they failed it because of a wrong entry or wrong turn on a hold. This made me a little nervous for a moment because I had a few seconds to make sure I did it right the first time. Usually for the holds I like to draw it on scrap paper and double check it with how it correlates with my instruments, but this time I had to do it purely in my head. Well, needless to say, I performed the hold correctly, because I PASSED MY CHECKRIDE! I am now instrument rated and am going to start working on my commercial license.

I am excited to start flying the Piper Arrow. It will get me my complex aircraft rating and I will then start flying the DA-42 a multi-engine aircraft. Below are pictures of each.

Piper Arrow

Diamondstar DA-42, left and below

Post #20 - Instrument Rating Checkride

Today was a fairly stressful day. I woke up early to finish the last minute touches to my flight plan. I needed to make an IFR flight plan to Missoula, MO and show the check airman that I was capable of doing so. So anyway, I woke up early to get weather information and make all the corrections on my plan as need for wind, etc. Then I started some last minute studying for things such as holding speed/altitude maximums, types/distance/heights of navaids, maximum safe distance for circling minimums, etc. All things that require tedious memorization of altitudes and distances for the ground interview. Well, the time came for me to leave and Justin, my flight instructor, called me and said that the check airman was going to be a little late, maybe 45 minutes. Well it turned out to be about 2 hours. Then I needed to fill out some information on the FAA website before we could begin. I had to work at 6pm that day and it was getting later and later. We decided to only do the ground and to finish the flight another day. The ground was intense. We talked about types of clouds, precipitation, and weather associated with different fronts. We also talked about different types of scenarios that he had been in. This ground was way more intense than the stage checks I had previously been in. It was a big change from having a CFI saying I really know my stuff, to being quizzed by a check airman with 40+ years of experience. Although I didn't feel as good about this ground, I did pass. He said I knew everything that he expected me to, so that made me feel better. I am going to contact him later this week and we will finish the flying portion of the check ride.

On a different subject - HAPPY FATHER'S DAY to all you fathers and fathers to be. I called my dad today and wished him a special Father's Day. Was good talking to him and my mom. I sure do love those two. Here is video from Youtube for the fathers out there.