Aviation Megathread 10: I'm dumb as shit

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Aviation Megathread 10: I'm dumb as shit

Mao Zedong Thot: Oct 16, 2008

My manifestation of midlife crisis is finally making an effort to get my PPL. Been working through sporty's groundschool, and starting lessons next week :toot:

I should have done this when I was younger and worked in aviation (technology) with a bunch of CFIs and plane owners. Oh well. They did take me flying a couple times at least.

# ¿ Jun 19, 2019 18:07

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# ¿ May 6, 2024 05:59

Mao Zedong Thot: Oct 16, 2008

I've got my first 'real' lesson tomorrow, after doing an intro flight two weeks ago. Pretty pumped. Been working through Sportys groundschool in the meantime.

# ¿ Jul 12, 2019 18:24

Mao Zedong Thot: Oct 16, 2008

Mao Zedong Thot posted:

I've got my first 'real' lesson tomorrow, after doing an intro flight two weeks ago. Pretty pumped. Been working through Sportys groundschool in the meantime.

Oh my gosh I really love flying, had a super awesome lesson today. Really pretty early morning flight. I'm sure every day won't be this great, but I'll try to remember it when they aren't.

# ¿ Jul 13, 2019 20:58

Mao Zedong Thot: Oct 16, 2008

Speaking of light chop, went flying again today. I thought it was pretty bumpy, my instructor laughed and said it was maybe a 2/10 day. Flew into some rain and around some big thunderstorms, which was kinda cool. Also managed to land the plane without dying a few times (bounced the first one pretty good though).

A lot of stuff has transferred really well from decades of flying sims, like the general "what is this thing and what does it do" and "how do airplanes generally not fall out of the sky and move places". The physical feel is, of course, just completely new, but I think I'm starting to get the hang of it.

# ¿ Jul 16, 2019 01:01

Mao Zedong Thot: Oct 16, 2008

Saukkis posted:

Sunday was a great gliding day, I achieved three personal records. Furthest distance from the home airfield at 38 kilometers, went to fly above the neighbouring airfield. Reached 2.1 kilometers above the home field, I can't even remember the last time I was flying with such a high cloudbase. And I managed my first 5 hour flight at 5 hours 20 minutes, finally passing my biggest obstacle at receiving my club's distance flying permit. This flight would have been a great opportunity to achieve 50 km distance but I chickened out, I already was much further than I had anticipated so I decided to stay within a gliding distance of the home field.

It has been way too long to reach this point but my gliding career seems like it's advancing for a change. Passing my club's field landing test a month ago was a nice feeling and an interesting and exciting experience.

Congrats, that's awesome! I would love to go gliding, but I don't think there's anybody that does it within a few hours of here (lots of hang gliders though), which is kind of odd since we have good terrain/air for it as far as I know. On Saturday my CFI and I were climbing >1500fpm in a thermal for a bit in a really pokey 172 (that can manage about 600fpm on it's own).

# ¿ Jul 22, 2019 23:27

Mao Zedong Thot: Oct 16, 2008

Have we done headset chat in a while? Thinking about picking up Lightspeed Zulus. I don't want to out bougie my instructors too much "with $100 shoes and a 10-cent squat" if you will.

edit: but also don't want to buy something I'll want to replace in a year or two

Mao Zedong Thot fucked around with this message at 19:52 on Aug 2, 2019

# ¿ Aug 2, 2019 19:48

Mao Zedong Thot: Oct 16, 2008

Animal posted:

How far are you trying to get with this aviation thing? If you are gonna pursue it professionally or will be flying a lot, do yourself a favour and invest in high quality noise cancelling headphones. $1,200 is nothing compared with having to deal with hearing loss. I have permanent tinnitus thanks to sticking to cheap headsets for years and also walking around the ramps without ear plugs.

Oh and don�t be afraid to buy used. A lot of people buy really expensive headsets and then barely end up using them.

No chance I'll fly professionally, but I would like to eventually buy a plane and fly as much as possible.

PT6A posted:

If you can afford a noise-cancelling headset, absolutely buy a good noise-cancelling headset. If an instructor looks down on you or gives you any grief for making that choice at any point in your training, they are poo poo and you should find a new instructor.

Almost every instructor I know flies with noise cancelling and god knows it’s not because instructors have huge amounts of extra money to spend. Flying is expensive and $1000 or whatever to be comfortable and hear things better is money well spent at any stage.

Yeah, I don't think any of them would give me grief. Just, you know, I'm the one that sucks at flying (relatively -- obviously I am an incredibly skilled 4 hour student pilot) with the fancy gear.

# ¿ Aug 2, 2019 20:24

Mao Zedong Thot: Oct 16, 2008

Flew a Cherokee today. What an odd little plane: manual flaps on the floor and trim spinner on the roof, wtf? Comfortable cockpit, and fun to fly, but it had gently caress-all climb power, and gently caress that single-door setup.

# ¿ Aug 3, 2019 22:37

Mao Zedong Thot: Oct 16, 2008

Man, I'm really enjoying flying, maybe even more than I thought I would (which was a lot). I flew on Saturday and Sunday, and got to do some new stuff like flight around a point, and then on Sunday I flew with a different instructor, which was great because she taught me about power-on landings which my usual instructor refuses to admit are real. Actually got half good at landing. Excited and terrified they're gonna make me solo soon.

Re: headphones, I ended up getting Zulu 3's and they are the bees knees, super comfortable and really clear. Big upgrade over the ancient DC school loaners.

I know I'm pathetically early in my flying career (8 hours :toot:

), but I'm already set on getting my CFI just so I can fly more. Also I am dearly in love with the Cherokee now, completely sold on the roof trim and manual flaps. It doesn't hurt that it's the less 'desirable' of the 2 basic trainers at my flight school, so I have an advantage when it comes to scheduling :getin:

# ¿ Aug 13, 2019 01:14

Mao Zedong Thot: Oct 16, 2008

Sagebrush posted:

I flew solo for the first time

It's been a long time since I took the first demo flight due to a variety of factors (suffice it to say it's important to be honest with yourself and respect the S and E of IMSAFE) but time doesn't matter. The weather was perfect, the flight was rad, the landings didn't break the plane or set off the ELT, and none of it felt like I was unprepared. I've wanted to fly a plane since I was a little kid and finally I can

Yay

gently caress yeah, congratulations!

# ¿ Aug 21, 2019 20:46

Mao Zedong Thot: Oct 16, 2008

Sagebrush posted:

The way my AME put it was "nobody's going to check into your medical history unless you make some really serious error or crash the plane, in which case they will absolutely look at your medical history, and then you'd better have told the truth."

The FAA is concerned with whether you might be unsafe to fly, not that you be in perfect health. It sounds like your lymph node condition is something that most doctors wouldn't have a problem signing off as "this condition won't cause problems in the air." The anemia sounds like a bigger question to me; if it's something that could, say, cause you to pass out unexpectedly then it's objectively a risk in the air, and again, you'll need a doctor who will put their name to a document saying it's under control.

I'm sure there are a variety of attitudes on how to handle medical exams, but IMO if you're safe to fly then there will be a way to get the certificate*, even if it's more of a pain than usual; and if the doctors say you aren't safe to fly then that's unfortunate but it's stupid to try and game it.

*mental health of course being an enormous

This jives with what my AME told me. He also said to bring in a printed copy of your submission so you can go over it with the AME first in case something needs changed before the AME opens it in the system and it can't be changed. He didn't literally wink at me when he said this.

He also said the FAA wants you to fly if you're safe, it might just be a bunch of bullshit you have to jump through to get there. Like you can have had a heart attack and still fly, you just have to do a lot of poo poo to prove it's under control.

Had a pretty MEH day of flying today. Was originally planning to maybe first solo this weekend, but got stuck in a plane I'm less familiar with, and didn't get to fly it yesterday because fog, and oh also can't touch and go anyway until it's new engine is broken in another 20 hours. And then we flew into a little rain that turned into a bunch of lightning and had to GTFO. Finally got to a sunny and clear practice area but neither me or my instructor were on our A-game. He was telling me to watch my altitude doing ground refs, and then would demonstrate a maneuver and gain 300ft lmao. At least it was flying though!

# ¿ Aug 24, 2019 20:28

Mao Zedong Thot: Oct 16, 2008

Sagebrush posted:

*I sometimes get a little indignant when I'm listening to liveATC and I hear MY PLANE's callsign, lol. Be careful with my baby, dammit

TOO real

# ¿ Aug 24, 2019 21:02

Mao Zedong Thot: Oct 16, 2008

e.pilot posted:

I own this shirt, I want to try it.

Getting this for my first solo shirt

# ¿ Aug 25, 2019 01:04

Mao Zedong Thot: Oct 16, 2008

e.pilot posted:

Sleepy class C airport where there�s good weather.

Have to get a clearance every flight.
Have to get an ATIS.
Talk to ground and tower every flight.
Talk to departure/arrival every flight.
Dealing with a mix of traffic from bigger airliners to other small planes.

It makes talking to and working with ATC second nature since you�re doing it from day one.

It makes the future transition to flying IFR and into bigger class B airports an absolute piece of cake.

Yeah, I'm so happy with where I'm learning because of this. Somewhat busy, controlled field. We can gently caress off a few miles and land at uncontrolled fields, but most of the time we're sequencing in the pattern with a calm but steady stream of GA/121/135 traffic. I'm probably a worse stick and rudder pilot for it (because of the luxurious bigass runway) but better at radio/decision making/awareness.

# ¿ Aug 29, 2019 07:06

Mao Zedong Thot: Oct 16, 2008

cigaw posted:

Do get an Instrument Rating as well. poo poo saves lives.

I just finished reading The Killing Zone, and while it was maybe a bit obvious, it was a really good and sobering read about what kills pilots <350hrs. Definitely would recommend.

# ¿ Aug 30, 2019 15:11

Mao Zedong Thot: Oct 16, 2008

dupersaurus posted:

It took 14 months and more weather cancels than flights, but I�m a real ~~boy~~ pilot now

gently caress yeah, congrats!

# ¿ Sep 1, 2019 19:27

Mao Zedong Thot: Oct 16, 2008

My (schools maintenance) schedule hosed me last week, but tomorrow I'm gonna go fly some more if the weather doesn't gently caress me (which seems unlikely at this point). Tldr gently caress me

# ¿ Sep 7, 2019 03:51

Mao Zedong Thot: Oct 16, 2008

Finally officially signed off to solo :woop:

Going to do it tomorrow morning if weather stays nice. About 6 flight hours ago the instructor I fly with the most was talking about letting me do it soon, and I felt ready, but also terrified. I am a lot more ready now, and so loving pumped, and really happy to have gotten 2 instructors (including a more 'strict' one) comfortable with it.

I try to mix the three instructors available as much as possible, but because of ~~**the schedule**~~, I've flown with 1 instructor 8 times, another instructor 4 times, and the chief instructor never (we're scheduled on Friday, but it's not the first time we've been scheduled).

Been having a lot of close calls with birds lately, the worst this morning on takeoff. Stayed on the runway late to go under them, which was the/a right call, but it was close and I'd probably pull power next time.

# ¿ Sep 11, 2019 17:58

Mao Zedong Thot: Oct 16, 2008

Soloed this morning! It was super great -- greased the last landing and then high speed taxied for almost a mile, just to really cap it off.

# ¿ Sep 12, 2019 17:56

Mao Zedong Thot: Oct 16, 2008

Animal posted:

Congrats pilot in command!!! Did you laugh out loud during the climb out?

I've passed my Boeing 767 line checks so I'm also a pilot in command now. e.pilot are you ready to be scheduling's bitch together with me!?

tyty and congrats as well!

Sagebrush posted:

Awesome! Schedule your first "real" solo right now so that you stay on the horse and don't get psyched out and put it off. And when you get up there, be amazed at how much easier it is to nail all the radio calls without your instructor yammering away the whole time lol

Thanks! Yeah, definitely going to book some extra time now that I only need a plane and not neccesarily an instructor :getin:

Not gonna lie, kinda pissed they didnt cut my shirt. There's fuckin other shirt tails hangin in the flight school office :colbert:

# ¿ Sep 13, 2019 01:14

Mao Zedong Thot: Oct 16, 2008

unpurposed posted:

Did my first solo xc today! I got my flight following and got a bit mixed up between frequencies when I got handed off to approach. All worked out in the end, just asked where I should be.

Fun!

Congrats!

I got to dodge a NORDO hot air balloon flying into the pattern and then landing off the end of a runway at an uncontrolled airport. As far as my instructor and I could tell it was legal, but it was maybe not the smartest decision nor terribly considerate. Not that we know anything about ballooning other than "don't hit them".

# ¿ Sep 13, 2019 18:15

Mao Zedong Thot: Oct 16, 2008

PT6A posted:

If this were an instructor-focused thread alone, I'd suggest the title changes to "situational awareness continues to need work."

It was one of those days.

I wish I could read my instructor to instructor notes.

I imagine they're like 'a+ student, great situational awareness, fantastic stick and rudder except for occasionally ballooning, very funny jokes, handsome fellow'. Right?

# ¿ Sep 15, 2019 02:11

Mao Zedong Thot: Oct 16, 2008

PT6A posted:

You can certainly ask. Typically, the notes shouldn't contain anything that your instructor has not already told you in debriefs and such, and the good stuff should go in there too in addition to the things you need to work on.

Besides, your instructor(s) felt confident enough with you to sign you off for solo after... two months? That's not typical in my experience, and it means you're probably a pretty drat proficient student with adequate situational awareness for this stage of training. It doesn't happen overnight, but it certainly sounds like you're well on track. Don't go getting a big head 'cause I say this, but: that's, sadly, not normal, you are probably above average. I have students I've been flying with for a year, and I still don't feel fully comfortable signing them out solo on any given day because I don't know if they're going to do some dumb poo poo without realizing it, or skip an important checklist step or whatever.

Also, in terms of things I grow sick of explaining to my students: we have checklists and procedures so we don't have to be superhuman pilots with excellent memories. Don't try to wow me by showing you don't need the checklist, impress me by demonstrating you can effectively use the tools at your disposal to help you manage the aircraft, such as... the checklists.

Don't worry, I don't have a big head at all about flying. It's pretty humbling, and seems like the kind of thing that will stay that way for literally ever.

I'm thinking about *efforting* my schools checklist into some electronic format, because there are a few things missing from the checklist, a few things out of order and I'd really love the ability to cross off steps instead of just following along with my finger. I'm not using an EFB, and haven't thought too hard about picking one, but all the standalone checklist apps seem really awful, so might do that (even if I don't use it for anything beyond checklists/backup info).

I've talked over the missing and out of order things with instructors, they're all super minor, but it's kind of annoying to run the checklist and hit "clearance, nope, not yet we'll come back 5 steps to that when we taxi over there". Or the time I left all the lights and pitot heat on because the checklist didn't say to turn them off :ohdear:

# ¿ Sep 16, 2019 17:58

Mao Zedong Thot: Oct 16, 2008

Sagebrush posted:

After I posted that mini-rant about the pattern being closed all the time and the phone number for the ATIS, and some people here said "that's really weird for a tower to just close their VFR pattern work and without a NOTAM or anything," the pattern has been open every time I've gone flying and I haven't heard any more references to closures. I don't know if it's just a coincidence or if someone, like, ratted them out to the FAA

I'm sorry if that happened, tower guys! I was just venting!

Or they're in the thread :ohdear:

# ¿ Sep 18, 2019 01:56

Mao Zedong Thot: Oct 16, 2008

"The Garmin says it's gravel"
*circling overhead*
"Looks paved to me"
"I dunno, could be gravel"

Reality:

First time flying in a month (schedules, maintenance, vacation all came together at once). Scheduled 5 times this week to make up for it.

# ¿ Oct 14, 2019 00:47

Mao Zedong Thot: Oct 16, 2008

Rolo posted:

So was it gravel

gently caress if I know where chip seal and grass counts on that spectrum

# ¿ Oct 14, 2019 04:18

Mao Zedong Thot: Oct 16, 2008

Did my first actual solo (like from scratch) today. The planes door was like stuck cracked open and shrieking in flight (but I couldn't get it closed fully, even on the ground) so I was just low key existentially terrified the whole time, even though the flying was great.

Also tower asked me when I'd be 'done' in the pattern. Jokes on him, I could fly the pattern all day, I don't have anywhere to go lol.

Well, good to get today out of the way either way.

# ¿ Oct 16, 2019 00:18

Mao Zedong Thot: Oct 16, 2008

Gonna go get some night hours for the first time :toot:

Seems fun as hell. I never did get that shirt, but I really should.

Wouldn't have mattered for my first solo, they didn't even cut my shirt. Still sore about that.

# ¿ Oct 18, 2019 00:33

Mao Zedong Thot: Oct 16, 2008

cigaw posted:

Night flying is a great experience. Enjoy the sights! Turn on some airport lights! Have fun trying to keep track of options to land in case of an engine failure!

Come to KSAC and I�ll cut your shirt for you. That is some BS right there.

Yeah, so night flying was interesting. I definitely thought it was going to be "hey, let's go flying at night, isn't it pretty and different?" instead it was mostly drilling emergencies. No lights (inside or out), no flaps, no engine was the most fun. It definitely brought the stress back to flying, in a good way sort of, the way it initially was. Can't wait to do a night XC, I think that'll be fun. My progress towards rating page on MyFlightbook is starting to fill up pretty quickly, I should probably finish groundschool and take the written huh?

# ¿ Oct 18, 2019 16:50

Mao Zedong Thot: Oct 16, 2008

PT6A posted:

things that are objectively right or wrong.

Yeah, issues like if a Cessna 185 is better than a Maule

# ¿ Oct 20, 2019 20:20

Mao Zedong Thot: Oct 16, 2008

Prefect Six posted:

Words

What the gently caress, hope your new cfi situation is way better

# ¿ Oct 22, 2019 06:19

Mao Zedong Thot: Oct 16, 2008

Well I thought I was still early/midway through my PPL, but I've really just about crossed everything off. Need some more solo time, and a solo XC and that's.... about it? Wild!

# ¿ Oct 30, 2019 15:56

Mao Zedong Thot: Oct 16, 2008

Sagebrush posted:

I was supposed to fly a cross-country last weekend but the plane I was booked in hit its hundred-hour inspection and was grounded. I rebooked in another plane for the next day but the winds picked up to what the NWS was calling a "99th-percentile weather event" so I exercised some aeronautical decision-making and cancelled.

Today I was supposed to fly it again but the plane's mixture control was busted. Got in the plane and it was basically frozen in place and the mx guys who took a look said oh yeah the cable is hosed. Grounded. The other plane is also still grounded for the inspection and the third 152 is on engine break-in so no students are allowed to fly it yet.

hosed by the schedule again.

At least I'm getting a lot of practice doing the flight planning

Goondolences, my trusty Cherokee went in for it's 100hr.... 3 weeks ago :ohdear:

Guess I'm learning to love Cessnas again? Weather has been mostly good at least, albeit cold.

# ¿ Nov 1, 2019 19:16

Mao Zedong Thot: Oct 16, 2008

Uhh so, what's the deal with buying a plane? I'm starting to get close enough to finishing my license to think about it, and it might be kind of sort of financially doable. Any suggested reading or learning outside general AOPA info?

# ¿ Nov 1, 2019 19:18

Mao Zedong Thot: Oct 16, 2008

PT6A posted:

Re: airplane ownership, I don't advise buying a C172. There's so many training fleets based around them that want to snap them up for commonality that it's hard to find a good example for a good price. If you want to go Cessna, step up to the 182 or even a Cardinal if you can find one.

I need to sort out what I actually want to do pretty significantly but I'm really leaning towards a 185, or a King Katmai if I can find/afford. I live out in the mountains, so backcountry flying is very appealing, but I also want something that's got enough speed and range to actually travel with 2-4 adults. Which leads you to a 185 or a Katmai or maybe a Maule, pretty much.

Or a really pimped out Cherokee 235 on bush tires :riker:

PS If you've never heard of a King Katmai until now, you're welcome

# ¿ Nov 2, 2019 03:45

Mao Zedong Thot: Oct 16, 2008

Rudest Buddhist posted:

It is definitely do-able and worth it if you fly at least once a week. Ownership beats the hell out of having to fight with other people�s schedule to get in your plane.

Start asking around your local fields for who�s selling. Find a plane in your budget that has been flown a lot recently, more than 100 hours a year for the last few years is good. Start going through the logs (digital copies if you can) and look for anything out of the ordinary or recurring. Once you find something I recommend throwing some money at an A&P with a lot of knowledge in type for a pre-buy. They should be able to give you a list of things that should be fixed now, fixed later, and quirks. Use that to negotiate on price.

I think there�s a few owners on here so feel free to ask specifics.

Edit: Airplane Ownership by Ron Wanttaja is a great read. Looks like it's $11 for a used copy on Amazon

Double Edit: There's an FAA publication about aircraft ownership, I'm just flipping through it but there's some good info in it: https://www.faasafety.gov/files/gslac/library/documents/2014/Dec/96288/faa-h-8083-19a.pdf

Awesome, thanks for the recs.

# ¿ Nov 2, 2019 03:47

Mao Zedong Thot: Oct 16, 2008

Think it might be time for a gopro, so I can start critiquing my 'interesting' flights with an impartial observer. Wasn't really feeling flying today, but was scheduled for a few hours solo in 'my' Cherokee, so decided to go. I'm signed off to X/C to an airport to the north, but weather was lovely that way, so decided to go fart around to the south where you could at least see the sun. I live in the mountains, there's always mountain wave turbulence everywhere around here, but it's usually just a few bumps. I knew winds aloft were pretty ripping today, but figured it'd be a normal day down below 8000MSL or so.

Anyway, I take off, head south, and Tower asks me to move over to the windward side of a valley on my way south (to stay out of the way of some A-10s doing a stadium flyover). I do so, and all of a sudden I'm in in the worst turbulence I've ever experienced @ 6500MSL, easily an order of magnitude worse than anything I'd previously been in. I'm sure it wasn't a world record, but I was yawing, rolling and pitching violently and legitimately scared like I haven't *ever* been in a plane. I decided to dive down to about 1500AGL and turn out away from the ridge under traffic. It worked, after a terrifying 2-3 minutes the air did smooth out as I got distance from the ridge.

In hindsight 1) I should have turned out from the ridge immediately, and not worried about traffic while I was worrying about also making a crater in the ground (probably irrationally, but still) and 2) I should have maintained altitude or climbed. Because I knew winds aloft were fast today, I was worried that the turbulence wouldn't get better unless I could climb another 3-4kft, up completely above the ridgeline. I think that's wrong though, and clear(er) air was probably closer than I thought above me.

That said, I kept my poo poo together during+after, flew out, flew home, and landed safely. I talked to my instructor afterwards, he'd gone out the same way with a student after me, and they also turned around and called it day after hitting that area.

# ¿ Nov 9, 2019 23:04

Mao Zedong Thot: Oct 16, 2008

unpurposed posted:

Well I did it y'all, got my license to learn today

It's been an incredibly stressful, exhausting, and demanding two weeks of checkride prep as I didn't fly for 3 weeks on account of being on vacation. My checkride date got moved up a week, leaving me with 2 weeks to prepare.

Lots of tears, sleepless nights, and hard work and I finally did it. Feeling more relieved than excited but thrilled that I was able to do it with the support of my instructor, flying community, family, and friends.

On to instrument rating! (After a good break)

hell yeah!

# ¿ Nov 12, 2019 06:34

Mao Zedong Thot: Oct 16, 2008

My favorite thing about Jerry is the multitude of people that comment on his videos "Great flying! Very entertaining video! Always learn something new here" in apparent sincerity.

# ¿ Nov 13, 2019 18:36

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# ¿ May 6, 2024 05:59

Mao Zedong Thot: Oct 16, 2008

cigaw posted:

Got my MEI today! My program with ATP is done!

This was after my checkride got pushed back 5 times, so I guess I got babby’s first schedule fuckery in the aviation world.

Going to indoc on December 2nd, officially instructing at KSAC the week after.

Super excited and relieved!

In other news, Jerry continues to be an asshat.

congrats!

# ¿ Nov 16, 2019 01:52

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