Mid-May Flight Journey Update

Since when did it become half-way through May, already? Wow! Times flies when you're having fun (flying.) I wanted to give a quick update on my latest pilot journey "happenings." This past week was very good to me for committing aviation.

On Wednesday, a day on which I work, the weather was simply beautiful. The temps hang around 70F,, no clouds in sight, and little wind. Thanks to our dedicated, hard-working crew on the job, I was finally able to take my co-worker, and good friend Steve Y. for his 1st airplane flight. We've been trying to get this done for quite a while, now. I am so happy that we finally got up together! 

He's hooked, now...

After we got out from work, we swung down to the museum and rolled out the L-16 from the hangar. The flight itself was great, and Steve really enjoyed it. We flew over the salt-mine, Conesus Lake, and my hometown of Avon (where Steve also lived for a time.) Once we came back to Geneseo, we faced a sudden-strong crosswind. I was able to land with Steve still holding down his lunch, so all was good! We taxied back, and Steve helped me re-fuel and wipe-down the L-16 with our "secret sauce," Lemon Pledge. What a great day!

Thursday, I had another day off to focus on my flight training. As I may have mentioned earlier, it was decided between my new CFI (Scott) and I that we should do some "re-training" on my IFR skills before continuing with the Instrument Checkride. This is because I had a few different CFIs during my IFR training process, and my meetings with them were not weekly. So, I may have missed a couple of things. Also, it never hurts to develop better cockpit flows to help as well. So, that's what Scott and I are now working on! The IFR Checkride will be soon, but just not as soon as I thought, and that's okay!

Scott is the perfect CFI for me, and he really "gets" how I fly and why I do, what I do. He decided that, since my goal is to become a CFI and Corporate Pilot, we should continue my training as such. So, even though I'm still IFR training, I will be doing so with the attitude that I know it as a Commercial Pilot, or can teach it back to him as a CFI. I really like this approach. Another thing Scott has begun to get me assimilated towards is cockpit "flows." These help simplify the pre-during-transitions-post flight process. Fuel, Belts, Pump, Heat, Lights...rinse and repeat!

We flew the C172 on Thursday, doing some IFR procedures...

IFR Checkride Practice Flight - 5/12/16

1.) Procedure Turn into VOR-A Approach for Leroy (5G0)

2.) Missed Approach @ 5G0

3.) DME Arc @ GEE VOR

4.) RNAV 25 Approach into KROC

Overall, I flew quite well. However, there are a few things I need to polish-up on...

• Cockpit Flows: Use during every phase of pre-flight, flight, transitions, and post flight.
• Radio Stack: For IFR, have all Comm/Nav freq's dialed in, including stand-bys.
• Maintain Consistent Altitude: This one has always been an issue for me. Scott and I *think* we have found the issue, though! Time will tell if the solution works long term, but my issue with consistency may be related to how I hold the yoke (even when using the IFR two-finger flying technique!)
• Sloooowwww Doooowwwwn: Yup. Turns out I need to really slow myself down, pre-during-post flight. Makes sense! I get amped up before I go, and somehow get moving too fast. So, I need to dial back for success.
• Persona: Along with slowing down, Scott suggested that I try and take on the persona of a Professional Pilot I know/admire. This is a bit tricky for me, as I don't come into contact with pro-pilots as much as I do warbird/recreational aviators. This is not a slight against them, but rather a realization that Professional Pilot's fly with a distinct purpose and "gait," as it were.

Taking all the above into account, I used my favorite practice of visualization/meditation to "chair fly." Yesterday, I met with Scott again and we flew in the Redbird SIM. Well, all I can say is that things went much more smoothly. I owe this to calming myself down, and being mindful of the fact that getting excited about flying puts me in a rush. So, I was able to slow myself down. My speech, actions, flows, everything.

In the SIM, we flew the same procedures as seen above from Thursday's flight, only we substituted Canandaigua's (D38) VOR-A approach with Leroy's. I was able to maintain my altitude, handle the flows, anticipate, do all the critical actions for a safe and successful IFR flight. There still remain a few things to sharpen up on, but I will get them soon.

Until next time, "Keep 'Em Flying," and "Never, Never, Never Give Up."

FAA Instrument Rating Checkride = TBA

5/12-5/14 Flight Time Logged = 1.4

Total Flight Time = 213.1 Hrs

Total Flight Time to Commercial License = 36.9 Hrs