- Maksimus54
- Jan 5, 2011
-
|
Any CFI's or recommendations in the Seattle area? I was a plane nut forever and life got in the way and now covid has made me revisit all my previous passions.
|
#
¿
Nov 2, 2020 02:40
|
|
- Adbot
-
ADBOT LOVES YOU
|
|
|
#
¿
May 6, 2024 06:55
|
|
- Maksimus54
- Jan 5, 2011
-
|
Hey I just wrapped up an online ground school and should knock out a written test and start flight training in the next couple of weeks. I'll be working with an independent CFI and flying one of my Dad's planes. Any last words of wisdom? Little thing you wish you'd known at the start? Favorite piece of gear you can't live without?
I believe I've got an overly optimistic goal in regards to ratings, looking for my PPL, IFR and ME certs in 2021. Am I nuts? Just hoping to fly for fun(for now)
|
|
#
¿
Jun 28, 2021 03:37
|
|
- Maksimus54
- Jan 5, 2011
-
|
As far as getting all of your certs by the end of the year, there are a ton of factors outside of your control. It's could be done but weather, aircraft maintenance, illness, and CFI availability are just a few of the things that could slow you down. It would also be a ton of work if you have work, school, or family obligations.
Thanks! I am not independently wealthy and I very much have work and a family to balance as well. I suspect I'll be very happy to end the summer with a PPL and start working on Instruments for the fall.
It seems most of the high end headsets bounce around the $1k mark, based on postings here I've seen the DC ONEX and the bose A20 spoken about well. Anyone have experience with Lightspeed?
|
|
#
¿
Jun 28, 2021 21:07
|
|
- Maksimus54
- Jan 5, 2011
-
|
So I completed my first flight. I flew the Piper Warrior. I finally understand what pilots actually go through when flying the plane. For whatever reason the instructor threw me in the deep end and gave me control of the aircraft right at taxi and takeoff while he controlled the throttle and fuel mixture. There is so much to keep track of I was so focused on trying to fly the thing that even controlling the trim level felt like it was taking away from my ability to fly the plane. Eventually I got used to it but I had a lot to learn. I don’t know how you guys juggle talking to ATC, making route changes or even navigating when hand flying the aircraft. Until someone flies a plane themselves I don’t think they know what they’re talking about when making fun of pilots for using autopilot.
Anyway back to my first flight at 0 lifetime flight hours:
I’m so used to watching IFR flights with full glass cockpits, waypoints and flight directors that I found VFR somewhat disorienting. I don’t know how the instructor was able to memorize the flight route and navigate us to where we needed to be. But I want to be able to do that too. Even just doing basic controlling of an aircraft gives me such a thrill and a sense of confidence that I didn’t think was possible. Even if this never becomes a career for me it’s an extremely valuable experience I’ll never soon forget.
During takeoff he just said “When I tell you to, pull back on the yoke. I’ll say rotate so you know.” I said “Hang on, tell me what V1 is”. Without any pretensions or hesitation he tells me “60” and I started calling out the instruments and following along with his instruction but also making sure I was actually acknowledging and understanding what the aircraft was doing before rotate and takeoff. It felt so satisfying to say “positive rate of climb”. I also picked up on Canadian ATC lingo and how they say “Circuit” instead of pattern. I know I’m supposed to rep Canada here but I much prefer pattern!
Overall I’m very impressed with this and looking forward to learning more. But also I feel like I have to expand my mind and multitask because I was so absorbed with just keeping the aircraft steady and level that I didn’t even have the bandwidth to think about throttle, airspeed, fuel mixture and navigation. I have a long journey ahead of me but I’m very excited. In spite of the nerves I felt a strange sense of calmness up there and flying the aircraft for the first time and hearing ATC on the radio (even if I didn’t control the throttle). It felt like I was putting on a brand new pair of shoes for the first time. It felt strangely familiar, yet surreal like my physical senses were finally plugging into what I understood from an academic and 3rd party perspective. I could feel what the airplane was doing in the sky, even if I didn’t fully understand what all of it meant yet. But on an instinctive level it made me trust the machine more. I was less worried about mechanical failures because of how the plane felt. During landing, felt right so I didn’t even feel that rollercoaster feeling you get before the wheels touched the runway. Even the left and right spark plug test produced tactile sensations that helped me recognize the plane could be an extension of my own body and that with time and practice I’d better understand all the non visual feedback it was giving me.
I hope I pass my medical because I don’t think I can give this up.
Congrats new flying buddy. I just did my first two flights this week and it is fun just how quick you pick up on new skills, and also intimidating on just how many new skills there are to learn in a plane.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 31, 2021 16:53
|
|
- Maksimus54
- Jan 5, 2011
-
|
So I've been going over some paperwork while I wait for my medical appointment in 2 weeks..
Is it okay to take ground school online? Or would it generally be better to do it out of a classroom? Perhaps the classroom option lets you meet people within the industry and network a little better for jobs later on when you're working on the CPL?
It probably depends on how you learn best. I'd think for the money it's tough to beat something like Sporty's or Kings online school because they give you lifetime updates and you can revisit the lessons anytime you want. They'd be a decent supplement if you decided to do lessons out of a classroom too.
You'll want a couple books too, I know Canada can be a little different from US standards but the Airplane Flying Handbook put out by the FAA has been helpful to me.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 5, 2021 20:57
|
|
- Maksimus54
- Jan 5, 2011
-
|
I know I entered this thread in the summer full of unrealistic zeal and optimism, but I thought I'd check back and just say I had my first solo last night and weather permitting should wrap up a PPL before we reach 2022. Flying is rad and fun and I'm looking forward to learning more.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 6, 2021 18:52
|
|
- Maksimus54
- Jan 5, 2011
-
|
Eat a bag of dicks: AS REQUIRED
Jokes on you SEA guy. I did, and I liked it
|
|
#
¿
Sep 11, 2022 03:57
|
|
- Maksimus54
- Jan 5, 2011
-
|
It's absolutely worth noting that a 150 horsepower auto engine is designed to produce full power almost never, and spend most of its time cruising around at like 15% throttle, while a 150 horsepower aero engine is designed to use full power several times per flight and spend most of its life at 75% throttle or more. Those design choices will have an impact on reliability. Try driving around your Subaru at its peak power RPM continuously and see how long it lasts.
Funny enough the Subaru EJ22T was a popular choice for auto conversions for a minute. I'll pile on though and say a concern about auto conversions is the added complexity of gear reduction drives. They become a whole nother system that can prove problematic. I think even in Diamonds they require quite a bit of maintenance and can cost quite a bit to rebuild.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 1, 2022 02:22
|
|
- Maksimus54
- Jan 5, 2011
-
|
Could very well be waiting on parts for a rebuild. I've heard overhaul timelines are running 8-16 months
|
|
#
¿
Oct 2, 2022 18:07
|
|
- Maksimus54
- Jan 5, 2011
-
|
I use the latest gen Ipad mini with cell. I'm sure you could get by with wifi but I really like the size of the mini for mounting on a window, I could see using something as large as the pro 11" on a kneeboard.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 24, 2022 17:13
|
|
- Maksimus54
- Jan 5, 2011
-
|
Hi there, i wanted to give an update. I think a long time ago I drove by this thread to talk about maybe getting a PPL, and well, I'm almost there. Started last year after shopping around for a good school, found one. I'm know at 42-ish hours and through the official syllabus, so we're prepping me for the exam that oughta happen within the next couple of weeks. I'm quite happy with the prospect of perhaps getting my paper at or around the minimum hours -- being a lifelong airplane dork might have given me a little advantage here. From what I've been given to understand, the EU checkride experience differs a bit from the US checkride experience.
First of all, my instructor told me to consider the checkride not so much an exam but as the final learning experience at the school: the examinee will not be expected to immediately know the right solution or answer to each problem the examiner throws at them, and the point will be to either know how to look ik up, or practice safe (and appropriately legal) decision making. That relieves a lot of my anticipated tension. Whenever I read checkride accounts on /r/flying, which mostly US-centric, it's one horror story after the other about examinees being grilled for hours and then having to execute their airwork to an inhuman degree of precision.
The first part of the exam will consist of a theoretical bit. We'll talk about the details of "my" airplane: the engine, fuel system, instruments, and so on. Pretty straightforward with the steam gauge C150 I'm flying. The only wrinkle is that by the time the exam rolls around, that particular plane might be in the shop, and we might have to take another one where the Vrefs and certain procedures and details are just a little bit different. I'm sure that I'll be excused for being unsure whether the proper engine settings was 2200 or 2300 rpm or whatever. I'll just read the manuals and ATO's type-specific SOPs and try to prep them well.
Then we'll walk through all the paperwork -- I'll have to demonstrate that the plane is airworthy and how it has been modified (such as that it is running on MoGas, which applies to the majority of planes around here for a long time now, and has some maintenance considerations).
After that we go to flight planning and briefing for the day. I think this is where the biggest deviation from the US checkride, and thereby 90% of online information, is. Because the flight will always be to a foreign, controlled airfield. This is because it has to be representative of every day life, which in the EU means hopping around between different countries - one border is like 20 minutes away, another 30 minutes. Luckily, there is a pre-determined set of destinations from which one will be picked. Luckily, traveling within Schengen is not a big problem from a legal perspective. The practical aspects are a little bit more interesting. For instance, one of the possible destination countries is where I've been born. But because I only have English radio proficiency, I wouldn't be able to radio there in my native language, so if it was a really small airfield, English radio might be available only on PPR-basis. There are more obvious differences such as different transition levels, but also funny things such as knowing that the destination country does have free general aviation weather brefings, but the weather service doesn't advertise them on their home page, so you have to kinda find it by googling directly towards it. Lastly, the quality of the AIPs and on-line materials varies widely between countries. Some countries publish very detailed descriptions for every, with the procedures spelled out to a t. Other countries just put up some VFR charts, what you can tank there, and a phone number if you have questions. Usually the airfield's website still has a lot of information, though. What makes this easier is that the EASA countries have pretty good tools for flight planning, so at least I can get a pretty good picture of the route in advance.
Oh, and the NOTAMs are probably going to be like 45 pages. Mostly about wind farms where one of the lights doesn't work. I'm thrilled to walk through that with the examiner.
Anyhow, I'll brief the examiner on the weather, route, performance, mass & balance calculation, radio plan, and so on. We'll fill in the flight plan but not file it, because the funny thing is we're not actually going there -- we'll hop in the plane, navigate the route until the border, then the examiner will tell me that the destination is unavailable and give me a new destination. When they're satisfied with the navigation part of the exam, we'll do airwork: stalls, steep turns, slow flight, precautionary and emergency landings mostly. The only thing that concerns me about this part is that my C150 has a tendency of blowing the flaps motor fuse in warm weather - I really hope I don't have to debate with the instructor whether we want to get stuck with 30 degree flaps and a bunch of exercises to still perform. Finally, there'll be a couple of circuits in different configurations, plus probably a glide in and an engine failure after take off.
We did a mock exam last week and I gotta say I was pretty tired after that one. Navigation is working very well as is most of the airwork. But on some days, probably when I'm exhausted, I'm sometimes getting into some sort of choice paralysis when selecting the best field for an outlanding. The chief instructor tells me that's completely fine, I should just figure out where the wind comes from, fly downwind, and as long as there are some fields in the area, I'll have it figured out by the time I've committed to calling in the outlanding. I'll take that advice to heart. In fact emergency landings used to be my favortie part of training so far because they're a little game, but knowing that you'll be tested soon has a way of making the ticking altimeter look way more intense.
I've also started to network a bit -- talked to flying club at the air field, signed up online on some forums, to find people and planes to fly with. And I'm already side-eyeing some interesting flights that my girlfriend and I could take together. So I'm looking forward to that!
I've only had the one checkride for my private but it was a positive experience. Here in the states and my DPE in particular they are usually not out to get you. They'll want to see you prove you're capable of safe flight. Explaining to them you know that aircraft in particular and a potential failure point I'm sure they'd accommodate you unless they are very greedy and just want your test money.
Mock exams are often tougher than the real thing because the mock examiner is trying to find failures for you to practice on. I had an rear end in a top hat do a mock exam that spent 2 hours going through aircraft log books.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 5, 2023 17:18
|
|
- Maksimus54
- Jan 5, 2011
-
|
If you don't use Kings how are you expected to experience the Martha King Sex Dream?
|
|
#
¿
Jul 17, 2023 17:24
|
|
- Adbot
-
ADBOT LOVES YOU
|
|
|
#
¿
May 6, 2024 06:55
|
|
- Maksimus54
- Jan 5, 2011
-
|
USA ASEL PP
|
|
#
¿
Oct 8, 2023 16:29
|
|
#
¿
Nov 2, 2020 02:40
