German Lesson for pilots
(Helps if you say the "German" parts out loud):
Aircraft:
der fliegenwagon
Light aircraft:
der kleinen fliegenwagon
Helicopter:
der schwingen fliegenwagon
Crop dusting aircraft:
das fliegenwagon mit der holinder buttonvor puffen der pauder auder
Propeller:
der airfloggenfann
APU/GTC:
Der airfloggenfann flinger
Passenger jet:
der grosse fliegenwagon mit sckull splitten schremen spittenfirenbakof
das airfloggenfann
Cyclic:
der pushenpullen schtik
Anti-torque pedals:
der tailschwingen werks
Pilot:
der pushenpullen schtiken tailschwingen werker
Student pilot:
der dumbkoff lernen fliegen
Instructor:
Mein fliegen furher
CFI:
Uber fliegen furher
Air traffic controller:
der schweinhund ubben sie tauer watchen allo der dumbskoffs fliegen
Ground Studies:
Das headschratchen bukwerken
Link Trainer/Simulator:
Boks mit aller fliegenwerks innit mit on der ground stayen
Visual flying:
lookenoutenseein fliegen
Instrument flying:
lissenwaitenhopen fliegen
Forced landing:
trinen gebackonner graund mittaut der kraschen
Parachute jump:
trienen gebackonner graund mittaut der fliegenwagon
Weather radar:
das electroniken stormengerschniffer
Bird Strike:
Der fliegenwagon und dumkoff fliegen birden dat kraschen und kausen
poofen fedders und twisten arsen
I'm not dead....
The plane isnt broken....
I suppose we can call that a success.
Today's lesson was steep turns and landings. Steep turns are basically 45-degree constant-bank & constant altitude turns.
I did OK on the first turn, but I'm chalking that up to a fluke, since the rest of them were pretty lousy. My first turn I nailed the bank and held altitude easily. Then we went the other way, and things started getting funky (couldn't make the plane stay at a 45-degree bank, which then made the altitude go all over the place).
I started getting the hang of it again toward the end, but steep turns are on the top of the list list for next weekend (along with a bunch of other stuff that I want to work on to get closer to PTS).
Then we headed back to the airport to work landings... hence the THUDs.
First landing was OK. I flared a little high, but we landed pretty decently. This was my first touch-and-go at FRG, and the pace is definitely fast-and-furious, no sooner does the nosewheel touch the ground than you need to yank the flaps up and firewall the throttle (before someone lands on your slow ass).
The other two landings.... not so much with the smoothness. They were definitely safe landings, bud they were definitely THUD landings - the main gear pretty much banged into the ground. Apparently I'm entering the flare too high, so that's going to need some work next lesson too.
And of course, the next problem - Apparently at some point my brain and my feet stopped speaking. Because of the left-turning tendencies of properller-driven aircraft, you need to pretty much STOMP on the right rudder pedal whenever you're moving slow with lots of power on. My brain knows this. It's known this for a while. It has made my feet do this on climbout every single time I've gone up.
Unfortunately my brain or my feet werent paying attention during the touch-and-go's. We were constantly drifting left on the "go" portion. I kept us on the runway, but well off the centerline. I'll need to figure out some way to keep my brain and feet on speaking terms for the next lesson.
That's it - short cuz I'm tired :)
I'll write something tomorrow about the next lesson, and maybe a more thorough review of this one.
Sometimes I question my flight instructor's self-preservation instincts.
He's had me preflighting the A/C unsupervised since lesson 2 (not that I'm not thorough, I'm probably pickier than he is, and the mechanics throw things at me when I walk by (the sparkplug wires were chafing damnit!)), and unless he's far more sneaky than the other instructors he hasnt been doing the "peek at the student from behind the fuel truck" thing).
And last weekend for whatever reason he decided to go pretty much hands-off on the final approach and landing. Surprisingly I managed to keep 1933H shiny-side up and rubber-side down (although I landed with more of a "THUD!" than a "squeak").
Continue reading "Lions and Tigers and Landings, Oh My!"
More flight training this past saturday. In haze. Again.
The bright side is that if I can learn to fly in this crap "VFR" (who are we kidding? There's no horizon!) weather, I'll be able to fly in damn near anything. The bad news is... there's no horizon!
So yeah, I was all over the sky (not like WAY all over the sky, but definitely not going to hold up to the PTS - Altitude +/- 100 feet my ass!)
At some point I'm sure this will all come back to me, and I'll remember how to put the airplane where I want it, when I want it.
Also I couldn't keep a turn coordinated for shit - my feet and my brain not much on the speaking terms. I was skidding across the sky (though I managed to roll out on heading about 75% of the time).
Continue reading "Hazy dayz of summer..."
Just on a whim, I went and punched up an insurance quote from AOPA. I'm gonna go out on a very thin limb and assume that the numbers they're giving me are annual numbers (i hope so anyway)...
If I purchase a PA28-140 (the same class of Cherokee I'm training in), insure it for $30,000, and get my private with 70hrs, insurance will run me $950/yr (about what I pay for car insurance... I'm shocked by that!).
Assuming I get my IFR ticket in a rather generous (low) 45 hours after that (115h total time), it drops to $875-$900ish.
If I buy an IFR-Rated Cherokee (which can be had for about 30,000 right here in NY (Dunkirk)), I can use it for my IFR training.
I need to amortize a few more costs into this (tiedown @ KFRG, annual inspections, etc.), but I was viewing insurance as the "OMGZ0R" expense, and it's starting to look reasonable ($150/mo will amply cover it, and thats about what I spend in ONE LESSON renting 1933H (the cherokee I seem to have the best luck in out of my 3 flights so far) at NFI, not counting instructor fees)).
What sucks is I don't believe I can secure a decent aircraft loan (looking at that now, thinking a 10% downpayment will get me about where I want to be so $3,000 toward the plane from the outset).
Continue reading "Buying Things..."
