Almost up and Running...

Hey Guys!,
 Been a little bit since I have written, and I thought I would get on and do a quick update. Just to let people know what has been going on for the last few months.

To tell a long story short,my instructor James had a knee injury a while back.He had been waiting for an opportunity to have a surgery to repair that injury.Fortunately  for him that opportunity had come. However, it required him to stop flying for a few months, and return home to England to have the surgery.

 So James gave me two options;
1) quit flying for the winter, and wait until I return to start again..using that time for studying and money saving etc.
OR
2) continue flying with a friend of mine, and train under him for your private license.

 Well,  after Christmas I got another jeep, and my financial status was not going to allow me to keep flying, so I opted to wait until he returned to continue my training.

 Fast forwarding a few months(now current) he is scheduled to get back and be ready to fly the first week of April!  So that means that within a month or so I will be flying again!

 I have had some major changes in my life that I think will ensure a better learning environment.
 One of those changes that has yet to be finalized, is my moving back in with my dad, so that I will not have to pay rent. The idea is that money will go directly into my flying and I can focus. The other change, is I have taken a new position, working at American Extermination. That means that my schedule will be a little bit more flexible, and again I will be able to focus on flying.

 I have been studying a lot this winter, looking forward to James getting back so that i can fly a few times a week.

 My goal this summer is to have at least my private pilots license. If i can get everything to work out in my favor, i would like to have my commercial as well.

 I have also been thinking positively about the future, and what my plans are as far as my career. I have really been drawn to M.A.F. So if anyone has any thoughts on that, pro or con, please don't hesitate to share with me. I would very much like to hear your input.

 Well I guess that is going to be all for now,
 I'm going to sleep for a few hours, then get up and study for a bit!
 see ya in the Skies!

Delivery flight!

James and I had a great day flying yet again today. We have been battling the weather, as it has been stormy and rainy for the last few weeks.. but today it was forecast to be nice..for at least the morning. So right after i got off of work at 6 15 am, I went home, took a shower got cleaned up, ate some dinner, studied for a few minutes, then went flying! Betty Stark, the owner of the flight school, asked us to do her a favor and fly out to scapoose industrial to pick up a magneto for one of the other airplanes.  Taking advantage of some nice weather, James and I took off from twin oaks and made our way to Scapoose!
 Now i know i say this every flight, but what a gorgeous flight. In the morning, there is still some frost on the ground, the sky was mostly clear, and it was very very calm.Just a great day to fly. On the way out there, James had me practice some steep turns again, some stalls, (both power on and power off) and some slow flight.

 The steep turns i was having a little bit of a problem with today.. i'm not exactly sure why. I was having a lot of trouble keeping the plane at altitude. OH well! Great practice day.
 Also got to land at scapoose.. that was interesting! on final i was a pretty high, so James took over for a few minutes, and showed me how to land with a forward slip! Very interesting! That is definitely something that i am going to have to practice! He got the airplane into a slip, then gave the controls back to me so that i could feel it.. But he wanted me to come out of the slip and land the airplane.. Well,.... coming out of the slip didn't work so great i kept to much rudder in, way to late, then let it out really fast, so we set down kind of angled to one side..and just a tad bit hard. That was only the third or fourth time that i have ever landed a plane however so i wasn't going to complain.
 After we visited Trans-western to pick up that mag,  we headed back towards twin oaks. This time, we cranked in the power so that we could get back.  We had been practicing some steep turns, to try to get a handle on them before we landed, and realized that we were a little bit over our time so we got set up to land. We were extremely close to the twin oaks, so James, with that wonderful sense of humor that he has, reaches over and pulls my throttle to idle again!Says to me "there, you have had an engine failure, now fly the plane to twin oaks and lets land" Well, we were at about 3,000 feet, so i had plenty of time to maneuver towards the field. when we were abeam the numbers, James decided i had enough engine off practice for the day, so he stated "ok you have your motor back, lets get in"
Well i was a little bit relieved at that point, until i turned final, and saw the sidewalk i had to land on!
Compared to landing at aurora or scapoose, twin oaks is a very very small strip.I felt like i had a lot of room to land and make corrections..but when we got to twin oaks, I didn't have that room! I guess you really learn how to land an airplane!
 Great flight. A little bit frustrated with the rust that seems to be after a week or two of not flying. But i am excited to just be progressing.
 I am going to start looking for an aviation related job also.. so that may help.
 well thats all for now!

Not my picture, just wanting to diagram a slip landing.

 cheers!

Mayday Mayday!

 "Mayday Mayday Cessna 734KU Engine Failure,  Flying 3500 feet, putting it down in field north of Banks, north of highway 26, Request Assistance, 734KU"



 James, on our way to banks, asked me to climb from 2500 ft to 3500 ft for a safe cruise altitude. As he was explaining a few maneuvers that he was going to have me do when we got to banks, he casually reached over and pulls my throttle out..and states "Engine Failure". He told me quickly to find an emergency landing field. I thought it would be okay to just point out a field and say that i would land there.. But nope. From about 3200 ft, we picked a field, and glided the plane all the way to 500 ft, picking an exact spot to land. At first, when he made the announcement, I didn't think much of it, but, when he told me to fly the plane all the way down, it became a little bit more real. Starting with a radio call, we informed everyone around that we had experienced an engine failure, and that we were attempting to put the airplane down in a farmers field.

 " Mayday Mayday Cessna 734 Kilo Uniform,experiencing an engine failure, cruising at 3500 ft, will attempt forced landing in field north of banks requesting assistance, Cessna 734KU"

 Next we moved to passenger briefing.
 " We are experiencing an engine failure. Nothing to worry about, however we may be forced to land.. Please Fasten your seat belts. If we are forced to land, please be aware that the exits are here and here. As we come in to land, the door will be unlatched. When we come to a stop please exit the aircraft as soon as possible. Also the windshield kicks out if there is a big problem.Again, there is nothing to worry about. should be just another landing!"

After we made our radio call, and our passenger briefing, we move to the emergency checklist, where we check things that could have made the engine turn off. Such as bumping the fuel selector, or the mag's,or leaned the mix to much etc. After we have diagnosed the problem, we make an attempt at restarting the engine. If the engine will not restart or you can not diagnose the problem, you move to forced landing.
 Simulating the worst possible situation we made as if we were going to land the airplane in a farmers field.
 As we made our base turn,  I realized that i would have over shot the area that i was intending to land. So it is a good thing that i didn't loose my engine, because it may have been a bumpy landing.
 Practice makes perfect as they say. Hopefully when the time comes if it comes, i wont have any problem putting it down safely.

 Once we had descended, we climbed back to a safe altitude, about 1500 ft msl, and started reviewing ground reference maneuvers. We started with turns around a point, at the turning tree. This time i did much better maintaining altitude. Still a little bit rusty because i only get to fly once in a while, but over all it was much better. We also did some s turns over a strait road out in the same area. This maneuver was a little bit rusty.. I attempted to chase the turn and ended up turning to far to be lined up. But again , practice makes that perfect. I really enjoy practicing these ground reference maneuvers because I feel like it is developing skills that i want to use in my future profession.. Bush flying!


 Worked on some stalls as well, getting some power off stalls in. They were a little bit rusty as well, but Im getting a lot better at flying in general..When we get to altitude I am getting better at leveling off, getting the pitch set, the power, and then the trim. Also being able to control the airplane on the brink of stall. James says that a good pilot is good at controlling the airplane even in super slow flight, on the brink of a stall. So that is what we worked on for a while!

 The last few minutes of the flight was fairly eventful. We flew back towards home field of twin oaks, and made our radio call to let people know that we were entering the pattern on the 45. Responding to our call, was a lady on the cross wind in a Mooney. As we approached the  field, where we would make our turn on to downwind, I noticed a plane directly above us about 500 ft flying in the opposite direction. With out taking a good look at the airplane, we figured it was the lady in the Mooney, that was just overshooting the approach. So we started to make our turn onto the down wind for our approach, to also avoid conflict with that plane. Right as we started our turn to downwind, I looked right out the windshield.. and low and behold a Mooney about the same altitude as us, and flying directly at us! With one swift movement, James took control of the airplane, punched the throttle, and made a climbing left turn to avoid the lady, who apparently did not see us. Apparently the airplane that i had spotted above us, was not the person that had made a radio call.

 After that close call, James made a radio call, to let all other people know we were out of the way in the pattern, and rejoining for the downwind. As we thought back on the situation, both James and I wondered what the other aircraft was doing, and how come he had not made a radio call to let people know he was intersecting the pattern, around pattern altitude! All in all however, we followed the Mooney for a big pattern, to give each of us time to breathe, and made a safe and uneventful landing.

A Mooney Bravo similar to the one that James and I encountered.

 Over all it was yet another amazing flight. With lots of lessons to learn. Both in and out of the lesson plan.

Till next time!

Happy landings

watch out below!!!

"Aurora state traffic, Cessna November 7 3 4 Kilo Uniform, Making left downwind for runway 35, full stop landing. Aurora State"


yup thats right full stop landings!
 The flight yesterday was a tad bit short because James and I were both a little bit short on time, however i think it was one of the more productive flights that I have had so far.
 Starting at the home field of Twin Oaks (7S3) we flew south for a few minutes and  practiced a few power off stalls, just to refresh, and then worked into a power on stall. Once we got over towards the river, we started descending from our cruise altitude of 3000ft msl towards Aurora State Airport (UAO) to practice some landings!

The stalls that we practiced before were very helpful when it came time to land because i already had an idea of how the airplane would react at the slower speeds. It was really fun getting to land a few times at Aurora because the runway is pretty big compared to Twin Oaks, giving lots of room for forgiveness. Which, for the first time landing a plane, is very useful.
 The flight was fun.. very very cold, but fun. At one point out over Newburg it even snowed!
 Great fun and great flight. I am really feeling like i am progressing.Such a great feeling.
 It is so pretty to see the ground  from the sky with snow cover. Very pretty.
well thats all for now.
 Tailwinds and happy landings!

The 5th Hour

 Wow what a flight!
 Today the weather was a little bit questionable. we had about a 4500 foot ceiling, with wind that made most of the maneuvers a little bit more difficult.  We worked on some more ground reference maneuvers, including turns around a point, rectangle patterns and s turns. Also threw some stalls in there like last week, and we actually worked on some power on stalls too!
     Power on stalls are to simulate taking off with full power, and stalling the aircraft while you are very close to the ground. So practicing these is important, because if it happens, you need to be able to recover quickly to avoid a problem.
    In "The 5th hour" it was cloudy and overcast, but we were able to find clear spots to do some training in. However the sun liked to poke its head out every once in a while.It seemed to shoot right through our field of vision every time we found a clear spot. Oh well! the ground reference maneuvers went a little bit better this time, because i understood ahead what we needed to do.

   When we went for the turns around a point, the wind would play with the airplane, and i had to learn to correct for that with the bank angle. This was also the case with s turns and rectangles too, but i could really tell when we did the Turns around a point.

 Today James and I had a special passenger with us...my mom! She wanted to ride along, so today she gave me a ride to the field, and in turn got to ride along for the lesson. I didn't know for sure what we were going to do during the flight, so i invited her to come along.. Little to my knowledge James had planned on working on stalls more.But mom enjoyed them a lot and we had a lot of fun flying! I guess this means that some day she wont worry about my flying in Alaska!

In all it was a great flight.. but today i was a little bit rust from not flying in two weeks. ( James was gone to England and the weather was not that great) The rust will be kicked off for sure when i start memorizing the checklist, memorizing the maneuvers and things so when he says something, i already know ahead of time what to do and expect.

 Well, short post for now, but i have to head off to work, maybe ill ad some later.
  Sunny skies and tailwinds!

Up...Up..And Away!!!

Today's Flight was great!
 I was really worried about the weather, because we had a very low ceiling and some fog. However, by the time we finished the preflight, and the ground lesson it had burnt off into a beautiful day!

This is the 1946 J-3 Piper Cub that Bob and Emily had out today. Such a beautiful majestic airplane!

 About 1 o'clock, airplanes seem'ed to sprout from the woodwork as the clouds parted, and the sun showed its face for the first time all morning. There were lots of R.V's ( Kit built sport planes), Cessna's, and Emily and Bob Stark even got out the 1946 J-3 Cub! I tell you, on days like that, I could just sit and watch airplanes come and go all day and be so satisfied. On the other hand, there is nothing that can come close to comparing to the powerful feeling of stepping into the cockpit, closing the door, firing it up, and giving it full throttle as you fly down the runway just waiting for Vr, or rotate speed.( the Speed you take off at) You find that rotate speed, and everything that you had worried about the whole day, everything that was upsetting you just sinks with gravity, and it is just you, and the airplane. When there are so many things weighing you down mentally,and physically, it is an incredible feeling to lift off, and fly and be free, away from all of that. Such an amazing feeling, i cant even begin to describe. It is also great to being flying with a good instructor. Being friends and having similar interests really helps that we can just relax and fly the airplane.

    Due to cost, and some maintenance issues, the Piper Cherokee is being taken off line for the winter! Some what disappointing because i really enjoy that airplane! But that's okay because we transfered into a Cessna 172 today. N734KU, or November 734 Kilo Uniform. Very nice plane actually. It is a little bit newer I believe and it fly's very well. I enjoyed the flight very much. The c-172 feels like it is a little bit more stable than the Cherokee but that could have been just because it was a very calm day out in the valley.
 
Today the maneuvers that we focused on were a little bit difficult for me.First off, because we were transitioning into a different airplane, second because i haven't flown in two weeks, and third because they are completely new maneuvers to me, so i was not sure how to complete them correctly. The two GRM's( Ground Reference Maneuvers) that we did practice were "Turns around a Point", and "S-turns". The  "turns around a point" were fun. What we do is pick a tree in the middle of a field, and turn our airplane around that point, staying an equal distance from the tree at all times, and fly a complete 360. Referencing the ground to make sure that we are indeed where we need to be. We do this maneuver at 1000 feet, so there is not much room for error either. You have to keep your airspeed up, stay at altitude, and stay around the tree. Multitasking!

  The other Maneuver is  "S-Turns". For this Maneuver  you pick a long strait line on the ground  that you can reference, and fly strait towards it. When your wings line up with that line on the ground, you start a bank, still maintaining your airspeed and altitude. When you have turned 180 degrees, and roll out, your wings should be again lining up with that line on the ground. As soon as they do line up, you start your bank for the next turn, being careful all the time to remain aware of your altitude, airspeed and where you are in reference to the point or line that you have chosen. We fly low(1000 ft agl min) over the town of banks, where there is lots of farm land that we can use as reference points. Great training terrain.

 After we got some good practice of ground  maneuvers, we climbed to 4500 ft and headed out towards Yamhill on the other side of the hill to practice some slow flight. During slow flight, you slow the airplane down to just inside your Vfe (Maximum flaps extend speed) and start extending your flaps. As you slow down, you extend more flaps until they are fully deployed.By the time your flaps are fully deployed, you can adjust your trim settings, and your throttle settings to maintain your altitude, and keep the airplane just above stall speed. This is the configuration that you will land the airplane in.That is why we practice while we are at altitude, so i can get a good feel of how the airplane reacts prior to actually trying to land on my own. After a few minutes, James asked me if i would like to have a stall demonstrated. As nervous as i was to be in a controlled "Drop", i said yes.
           For a stall, all you do is when you are in slow flight(flaps down, throttled back, carb heat on and pitched  up) pull the throttle all the way out to idle, and hold the pitch of the airplane, so that you loose the airspeed that the power was helping you maintain. As you slow down, keep the nose of the airplane pitched up to burn off the excess airspeed. When that airspeed is gone, the airplane will stall, and momentarily loose lift. As a result of loosing the lift, the nose of the airplane will pitch down slightly. To recover from a stall, all you need to do is "punch it" as they say. Let the nose of the airplane pitch down slightly, give it full power, reduce flaps to 20 degree's, turn off carb heat, and give the control yoke the back pressure to pull the nose back up after you have gained some airspeed back.
 After feeling it when James did it, i decided that i would give it a  go and see if i could do it. I was very nervous the first time i tried it, because again, your falling, but after a few times of doing it, i wasn't scared at all. It was actually kind of fun.
 After an hour a a half of flying we decided to head in and call it a day. Getting late in the afternoon, and it was  time to land under the supervision of the sun, which was still out! We came over the top of chahalem  mountain and dropped into the pattern. I have yet to land, but James wants me to "ride the controls" so i can feel the inputs that he is making.

 Over all a wonderful lesson. Great fun as always. I think a stressful day flying beats the crap out of a good day at work anyways. ;)
 Being able to forget everything and just float and fly is something mankind has dreamt of for hundreds of years. I am glad that i am able to fulfill that dream, because believe me it is worth it.
cheers.

weather...what a buzz kill. ;)

 Huston we have a problem,

 That's a no go for launch, repeat thats a no go.

 Well that was my third lesson, but not my third flight.

 The great thing about learning to fly in Oregon is you finish your training with experience in a wide variety of weather situations.. However the annoying thing about learning to fly in Oregon is sometimes you are hindered by that very same weather..actually a lot of the time. During the winter of course.

 Even though we did not get to go flying, James and I had a good time hanging out and talking about airplanes. Granted we spent more time talking about how they worked, but hey, talking about planes is talking about planes right? 

  The book work is actually really interesting. Knowing how the airplane works helps a lot when your in the air and feel something thats not quiet normal.You can quickly diagnose a possible solution, or if need be, you can foresee a larger problem, and make it to a landing strip before something bad happens.

 When i get discouraged about sitting and just doing book work instead of being able to fly,  I think of  Captain "Sully" Sullenberger, and how he knew exactly what to do because he was able to figure out exactly what was wrong. He was able to diagnose the problem, and decide on a solution before it became a disaster that could have ended to tragically for so many people.

 We talked about fuel system, the oil system, the instruments, the construction/structure and the landing gear.

We also talked about some of the problems the some the instruments can have, and how to avoid, or correct for those problems.

  Lots of information to take in all at once, but i'm glad that we can make good use of the things that good Ole Oregon has to throw at us!

  Huston...we have Preflight done, we are ready for take off when the weather clears!

Okay so we may have sidetracked to some talk about snowboarding and stuff like that, but hey, give a guy some slack ;)

Second Flight!

    I went out last Tuesday for the second flight!

 Great flight! Went up about 4:30 in the afternoon,so it was getting to be dusk about the time we were heading back in to land, making beautiful light on the terrain.

    During the flight, my instructor felt like i was progressing well through the basic turns, climbs and descents, so we moved to steep turns. Which, for those of you who don't know, consists of banking the airplane 45 degrees, giving it full power, and a little bit of back pressure, so you can maintain the correct altitude. These turns are really fun, because you get turned around 360 degrees in very little time.

This is the airplane I will do my training in! It is a Piper Cherokee 180
or PA-18 with a 180 hp Lycoming 0-360 a2a

This is my instructor James Boughen.
He is a great instructor, I have learned a lot just in the few lessons we have had.
 Very fun to fly with and great sense of humor making the flying pretty awesome!

Starting Pre-flight check, filling the fuel/ check for moisture, checking the Pitot tube, and the landing gear /breaks for any leaks, or abnormal wear etc.

Next we Check the oil, break fluid, and inside the cowling for any leaks or wear etc.
 The great thing about the PA-28 is the entire cowl folds back so you can see the entire engine.

 Then we finish off the Pre-flight checklist in the cockpit and get rolling down the runway!

Off the left wing en route 

Henry Hagg Lake- Big lake Looks pretty small from 4500ft!  

Rivers also look pretty small from up there!

  Over all the training is going well. The flying is super fun!

The part that i am having the most trouble with is the studying and book work. A lot of the concepts are somewhat difficult to understand while sitting in a recliner drinking coffee. However the saving grace, is they make way more sense when we get into the airplane, and i am actually able to experience them.

   I have not had much experience in poor weather, because the days i have flown have been really nice! However I am sitting down to study up for my third flight here in the next day or two, and there is a large thunderstorm outside.. So I am really hoping that it will clear up enough to make a good v.f.r flight!

  Then again I don't really mind if the weather is bad, because the next flight we will be working on stalls! 

Actually stalls sound really fun. I'm looking forward to getting more hours and experience, and it will actually be good for me to learn to control the aircraft in windy or rainy weather.

check back for the third flight update!

Tailwinds and happy landings!

First Post-also my first flight!

  Went for my first flight a few weeks ago, and just today decided that i wanted to put up a blog about the flight training. This is the first out of many many years of flying to come and I am very excited to get up in the air and learn all that i can. Some day i hope that my flying ability will be used to help someone,  change lives, like flying has done for my life.


  Because my dad has been so supportive over the years of my flying infatuation, i thought it would be fitting to have him share the experience of my first flight lesson. I was extremely happy the day i started because it was more than a dream come true, but the fresh start that i have been looking for. The transition into the life that i have wanted to live. To commemorate the occasion, i made a video of the first flight. During the flight and the preceding ground lesson, dad took some pictures and video that i have now compiled into a 20 Minute long video . Here is the link, i hope you enjoy it!




 My Aunt Susie moved to Alaska a few years ago, so that she could raise her Siberian Huskies For the Iditarod race. Ever since then i have been interested in Alaska. When you combine my love for flying, and the longing to get outdoors and hike and explore and hunt... you get the dream to bush fly! Thus my interest in the Piper Super Cub, or PA-18.  The ultimate Super cub for me is the aircraft that has 31 to 35 inch bush tires, lifted, with an extra fuel pod,S.t.o.l kit, and a 180hp engine.
But i suppose that is a long way off yet. ;)
 I am excited to start this journey and i am even more excited to be able to share it with all my friends and family..

I look forward to sharing with you, and I hope you enjoy the pictures and videos! Feel free to comment and leave your thoughts! 

 Thanks!

This is the type of airplane that i want to own some day. This particular plane is owned by Shaun Lunt.
 Shaun has his own blog that you should check out with all of his pictures of flying in Alaska Check it out!
http://shaunlunt.typepad.com/