A Student Pilot Blog by David Jen
Super busy at KPAO today. We were number four or five in sequence waiting for departure when a twin had an engine fail at the start of its takeoff roll. Black smoke, tried to get it restarted for a couple minutes before finally taxiing off the runway with its one good engine. Caused, I think, two go-arounds. And then, while on the taxiway, gets the engine restarted, and elects to takeoff. I'd feel better at that point going back to parking and having a good look at the engine, but maybe they knew something I didn't. Anyway, lots of time wasted sitting in the runup. It was also hot.
We finally got up and did some airwork out past Stanford. I got tired faster than I care to admit, so we skipped landing practice.
We did some airwork out towards the coastal range today, then practiced a diversion to KSQL. The idea is, if the runway at KPAO closes for any reason, then KSQL is my alternate.
KSQL has tall buildings just north of it which makes takeoffs more interesting. They also have the marina close by which is a distraction because I like to look at boats. And... mucho crosswinds today. I think I handled them reasonably well, but I really had to fight.
We went to Hayward for pattern work today. This was the first flight where we started assuming I'd handle all comms. Rimas is still happy to fix my mistakes, but now I'm the default. As mentioned before, I started flight training at an untowered airport in rural New Jersey where it was often the case that I was the only aircraft in the pattern and just made position reports to hear myself talk. Transitioning from that to one of the busiest airspaces in the country was intimidating, but my comfort preferences have switched now. I'd much rather be talking (making mistakes, feeling embarrassed) with a controller than bear the entire burden of traffic avoidance myself. In controlled airspace, help is always one button away, but outside, in the wastelands who knows if some crazy with no radio is trying to land on top of you where you can't see him.
I had a nice moment while in the pattern, where it hit me that I'm actually having fun doing this. I was looking forward to my next chance to talk to the controller, to my next chance to make my approach better, every leg of my pattern better. I like flying. That sounds obvious, but because lessons are always at the point of task saturation, it really is hard work, and it's easy to forget that I'm doing this voluntarily as a leisure activity. There've been multiple times driving home exhausted after a lesson thinking how I have a strange concept of leisure and, yeah, probably can't argue that, but it's not completely illogical. There are benefits to this.
Zulu is still under construction at KPAO, so after taking off from there, we did a right Dumbarton departure to do pattern work at KRHV, with some air work along the way. Somewhere over the Fremont hills, we started with some wing rocks and then slow flight. With wing rocks, I still don't feel like I can anticipate how much rudder will be needed so am still reacting. Slow flight wasn't bad, though I think I can be more aggressive with power changes, both when slowing down and maintaining altitude.
There was also construction at KRHV and they were only accepting full stop landings, so we diverted to KLVK by way of San Antonio Reservoir. We did three touchngos on 25L (the short one), which were all less controlled than my previous lesson. On the first two landings, the ground came up faster than I was ready for and we touched down hard. The third was a little better. In general, I never got the approach fully stabilized and felt things were happening fast. Also, some uncoordinated turns to a left crosswind, since I think because they were in the climb, actually needed right rudder.
On the way back, some pretty strong turbulence over Pleasanton Ridge.
I'm not sure why, but I felt slightly behind the plane for a lot of this lesson. Partly because it was a new airport with a small runway, but also because I think I approached the flight too passively, planning on getting down to the runway and see how it goes. The last lesson I was more "I will land this". This attitude also showed in my radio work today, happy to let Rimas handle a lot of the radio talking.
- Flight Hours: Δ1.3 Σ27.1
- KPAO 092347Z 32012KT 10SM FEW020 A3004
- KLVK 092353Z 26014KT 10SM CLR 20/09 A3002
I had my medical today. This amounts to a ten minute physical and then paying a doctor $165 for a piece of paper saying yeah, this guy probably won't have a heart attack while flying. A third class certificate, which is what I got, is good for non-commercial flying and lasts five years. This medical certificate coupled with my student pilot certificate is all the legal documentation I need to fly solo as a student. The only thing left is the go-ahead from my CFI.
Interesting thing of note, I am red-green colorblind, which means my certificate is restricted to daytime flying with a radio. I haven't thought too much about how this would hamper my plans with flying. I imagine it'll be easy enough to plan trips during daylight hours, and I can't imagine why I'd want to go up without a radio. I have the option to contest the restriction though, by going up with an examiner and demonstrating I can see the color signals from a control tower. Colorblindness varies widely from one colorblind person to another, and so do the actual colors used for things like traffic signals and navigation lights. One of these nights, I'll hang out at an airport to see if I can tell the difference between the colors being used because I've never tried it.