This weekend I had the opportunity to try something new related to flying.  Instead of flying an airplane, I attempted to go hang gliding.

Hang gliding takes a lot more physical work than flying airplanes, but just wasn’t for me.  Perhaps it was because my instructor was a jerk and wore “jorts” (cutoff jean shorts), or perhaps it was the cost and time it would take to really get into hang gliding, either way, not something I’ll plan on continuing until a while later in life.

The idea of hang gliding interests me because of how you can fly without anything mechanical which is the main reason my friend and I signed up.  After starting the class however, we were quite disappointing in this guys attitude to his students who weren’t “serious”.  We spent just over three hours listening to this guy complain about Groupon, people in America, and whatever else he decided to throw at us.  The info was presented very poorly and didn’t make me want to pursue hang gliding.  Especially with him as an instructor.  In fact, we didn’t even get to go “hang gliding” like I was expecting.  We spent $49 for him to tell us about it and show us an introductory lesson the subject.  Wish I would have known that was what I was paying for because I wouldn’t have done it!

Hopefully he changes his ways and becomes a better teacher.  The experience, though taught poorly, was interesting.  I would consider hang gliding again, just not anytime soon.  I have so many other things to focus on!

After taking over two and a half months from flying, I finally got to get myself in the cockpit of a plane again to go flying.  Though I told myself I wouldn’t go fly again until I finished my written test, I also knew I didn’t want to waste such a beautiful summer due to my lack of studying.  So I allowed myself to get back in the air and even land at a new airport.

Getting Back Into Flying

Though I’ve soloed before, it had been sometime since flying, so I wanted to make sure I was still able to do it and therefore I had my instructor, Rick Payne, go on up with me.  I was surprised about how much I was able to remember which happened to be most of it.  There were a few things here and there that Rick had to remind me of, but overall things went fairly smooth for how windy it was that day.

I took off without a problem and planned on flying to Aurora Airport and then to McMinnville and back to Twin Oaks for the Triangle of Death run, but instead I flew to Aurora, then to Mulino, and back to Twin Oaks.  The flight into Aurora was going the other way than what I was used to landing, but other than a few timing issues, I was able to get down a few landings and make my way over to a new airport for me, Mulino Airport (4S9).

Though there were a number of trees around the Mulino Airport, I really enjoyed flying in and out of this airport.  When landing on runway 32, you fly over the nearby river and onto the runway which looks amazing.  The runway is over a thousand feet longer than Twin Oaks and about fifty feet wider which made landing there much easier; especially with how much of a crosswind I had to deal with.

New airport and all however, I was able to get the plane down and take off without any problems.  Just need to watch my corrections with my ailerons when dealing with a crosswind.  Even still, I had a blast with the new place.

I landed just a couple times at Mulino before taking off back to Twin Oaks.  I had a nice landing on runway 20 at Twin Oaks and finished a nice 1.3 hour long flight on a high note.

Finding The Need

I needed this flight.  I needed to remember why I was studying so much.  I needed to remember that this was something I loved to do and therefore, though spending time with friends and socializing in general is more fun than staying inside studying; doing all that isn’t going to get my up in the air and allow me to share this with my family and friends.  I needed to remember all of this.

My time is finally freeing up again due to sports ending and having a break between them starting back up.  Other than some busy weekends, my weekdays are quite free and therefore I should be able to get a lot of studying done as well as my practice written tests finished up.  As long as I score 85% on a few, then my instructor is going to let me go on and take the written test ($150).  All I need to do is score at least 75% and I’ll be able to pass.  I’m hoping for 90% though!!!

Wish me luck with finishing this – very demanding – adventure!

Logs:

Flight Time: 1.3 Hours
Landings: 6

Other Shots

With my attempts of juggling work, sports, seeing friends, continuing my hobby becoming a pilot, the latter of these has taken the back seat. Not that I do not want to finish it up, but it is definitely the biggest impact to the negative cashflow in my finances. This is a problem, but one that won’t stop me from planning to finish it by the end of the summer.

Flying has to be one of the most thrilling things I’ve ever done and has brought me so much joy; studying on the other hand has the opposite effect. I know knowledge of the ins and outs of flying is important, but sitting down to study has never been a skill I’ve managed to attain. I am determined however to gain the knowledge I need and get my written exam out of the way.

In fact, other than roughly another ten hours of flying and then my practical exam, the written is all that is holding up me finishing this license.

Note to others:
If anyone wanting to become a pilot happens to be reading this, take it from personal experience that keeping up with studying, or holding off flying all together until you finish your written exam, is a financially intelligent thing to do. Probably would have saved me lots of time and money, but like me, you’ll probably rather just go flying.   (The much more fun thing to do…)

Whatever is decided, keep studying! And to make things easier, quit your job for the time, rob some banks for the money, and get in the sky!

photo 1, photo 2

After a couple weeks without flying, I decided this last Friday to get some air time.  My flight training for the day ended up being very short due to some unfortunate complications.

Taking off on a hot day, uphill, with little wind is trouble

The flight training today was in the Cessna 150, N66589.  I ended up getting things pre-flight ready, listened for the weather, and went on to the taxi way.  Listening to the weather, I found that the winds were fairly calm and in the direction to the south, so I chose to take off out of Twin Oaks in the direction of North.  The winds were quite calm and the direction north is uphill so I found I didn’t have enough power in the Cessna 150 to be able to take off. I quickly pulled back the throttle and got off the runway to take off in downhill to the south.  My first take off was great, though it had been quite a while since flying a Cessna 150 so the lack of power threw me off.

I ended up deciding to stay in the flight pattern and do a landing right away.  The landing was nicely timed, and adjusting the controls to land went fantastic.  The landing was very smooth.

Flying with flaps is trouble!

I headed off the runway and found another aircraft about to take off.  I decided to just follow suit and get behind him for the takeoff.  He flew on out and I prepped for my own.

I took off down the runway and realized it was a tad bumpy; however I didn’t think much of it and began my assent into the sky.  I found however that the plane just would climb.  I checked to see if I left the carb heat on or if I didn’t have full throttle.  Neither of these conditions were the case.  Before I had time to check much else I heard my tail numbers called on the radio and the announcement that my flaps were in.  I took a look and to my surprise and realization, I found I forgot to raise my flaps after my landing.  As soon as I found things out, I began raising the flaps making sure I didn’t do it too quickly and dip down into the earth.  Thankfully I didn’t have full flaps in on my landing; I really could have caused some structural damage to the plane, and if the worst case happened, myself!

A short day is a good idea

I flew the pattern and ended up landing, and getting the plane parked.  I was quite thrown off with this mistake and realize that I MUST follow my checklists.  This was a scary lesson that could have caused some major damage, therefore, something I will not forget anytime soon.

All in all, it was fun to get out and fly again, but for the next flight, I need to remember to plan ahead, think things through, and follow my lists.

What have you done lately that scared the s**t out of you?

Leave your thoughts in the comments!

Logs:

Flight Time: 0.5 Hours
Landings: 2

photo 1, photo 2

We started out the day with me flying the Twin Oak’s pattern a few times with Rick since it had been a couple weeks since I flew.  That went well, so he sent me on my marry way.  I took off out of Twin Oaks and flew SE towards Aurora.  The flight went just great and I was able to take some pictures once I stabilized the plane.  I did a full-stop landing and took off out of Aurora to McMinnville. Aurora didn’t have much wind at all and the landing and takeoff were just great. McMinnville had 6 knots when I listened, but got up to around 9 knots when I took off.  Thankfully there weren’t any problems and I was able to land and takeoff just great.

My flight out of McMinnville was great and I made it back over to Twin Oaks where I flew to the west of the airport so I went in on the 45 for the downwind.  I did this just great and it gave me a nice entry for the pattern.

The pattern work at all three airports was great along with my landings.  I was quite happy with the entire flight.  There is always work to do to get better and there were definitely areas to improve.  Mainly making sure that I am on the right speed when landing to avoid having to break too hard.

Logs:

Flight Time: 1.4 Hours
Landings: 6

During the flight I went to three new airports I had never been.  Two were planned out by Rick, the third was a stop I wanted to make for a friend.  All three though were different in their own way.

Eugene Airport – Mahlon Sweet Field Airport (EUG)

We took off out of Twin Oaks and began our flight down to the Eugene Airport (Mahlon Sweet Field Airport) (EUG).  It is amazing how the cities along the way light up, and when you know the area, how useful they are to navigate a route.  We contacted Flight Watch to watch our flight and went on our way.  The flight south was flown at 5500ft.  This was to avoid the high terrain sitting around 4200 feet and also because traffic flown south is at odd thousands of feet (north is even thousands).  Eugene was easy to navigate to even though the airport was on the west of the city.

Flying to this airport brought up a number of memories from when I was a kid.  Mainly riding my bike to the Eugene airport, being able to fly around the city, and get my first feel of what flying was like.  Since then I’ve had this itch I’m finally scratching with this adventure learning to fly.  What a thrill.

I ended up doing three landings into Eugene, and they were awesome.  For being my first time there and first time landing at night, I was thrilled with how I did.  Wish that was the same for the other two airports.

Albany Municipal Airport (S12)

We took off out of Eugene and directly flew north.  The flight to Albany Municipal (S12) was an easy flight, though there was definitely a head wind slowing us down.  I did two landings at Albany and each time my eyes played some tricks on me due to the darkness and I landed a bit off.  No crashes or broken parts or anything, just flared early causing us to bounce when we landed.  Just something I need to practice and get over.  The stop to Albany was an important one cause now I can go down and visit my friends in the area!

Independence State Airport (7S5)

My last location before heading home was definitely a detour.  I need night time and landings anyways so it wasn’t a big deal.  I needed to drop something off to a friend who lived in Monmouth, so I decided to make a stop and give it to him.  Pretty awesome to have a friend watch me land at night.  I didn’t have it in my heart to tell him how much that delivery cost me though!

The landing into Independence (7S5) was a bit fickle.  For one, the lights didn’t turn on until we were right next to the airport.  Then when landing, the same thing that happened into Albany happened here.  Had a bumpy landing.  I need to start getting down lower before doing my flair!  Oh well, I made the drop and got out of there.

Back Home – Twin Oaks Airpark (7S3)

We headed north out of Independence back home to Twin Oaks (7S3).  There is quite a ridge before Twin Oaks so we needed to be high enough to clear the terrain.  So we got to around 3000ft and flew home.  I made my way around Twin Oaks through the pattern.  The first attempt was high, and it was probably due to the haze and the darkness messing with me again.  I did a go around and had Rick take the controls to avoid causing us to be broken.  I held onto the controls and felt how it went.  Thankfully he’s done this before and is quite a good pilot.

What a night.  I can’t believe that we just flew 2.8 hours (almost $450 out of my pocket ) Oh well though, I needed to get 3 hours of flying and 10 landings done, so I’m almost finished with required night flying.

Amazing to think how expensive flying is to do.  Makes me wonder sometimes if this was worth the cost.  Then I remember that I was just flying and I remember how it makes me feel and I know I’m doing something I love that is totally worth the cost.

Logs:

Flight Time: 2.8 Hours
Night Time: 2.8 Hours
Landings: 7
Cost: $420 – Yuck!

Fridays Change of Plans

Friday I went out to fly with Rick.  I got there early even, but the plane wasn’t ready.  When it finally was, Rick ended up having to go on a flight he had scheduled but thought was cancelled.  Oh well.  It gave me a chance to talk with James and figure out what I am going to do with my flying with regards to the size of plane I’m going to use.  I made the decision that since I had over 40+ hours in a 172, that I would finish in a 172 and spend my solo time flying the 150 (except for some cross country flights).

I didn’t want the beautiful day to be a waste, so around 3pm or so, I decided to grab the flight book for Cessna 150 N66589 and go on up.  I got the plane ready, made my calls, and took off.  I did a couple flights around the airport and had two successful landings and take-offs.  Not a huge deal, but I did everything on my own from start to finish.  Such an awesome feeling!

Logs:

Flight Time: 0.4 Hours
Landings: 2

Grass Landings

Sunday I finally got the chance to actually land on a terrain that isn’t pavement; hard grass.  Like any other day, we got the plane (Cessna 172 N734KU) ready and took off out of Twin Oaks after talking a bit about soft field landings.  We flew to Aurora State (UAO) and practiced a couple simulated soft-field landings.  Rick said that things were going well so we took off south down to Lenhardt Airpark (7S9).  This Airpark has a runway around the same length and direction as Twin Oaks, but to the west of the runway is a grass strip generally used a taxi way.  This wide grass strip was the location of my soft field grass landings.

Unlike a cement landing, a soft field landing takes a bit more finesse as you have to glide over the runway after entering ground effect and gently bring the plane down to avoid getting the wheels to hit too hard and sinking into the terrain.

My first grass-field landing was awesome.  I dropped the front a tad too soon, but my glide and flare were spot on.  Such an awesome feeling!  My second, after doing a go-around because I was too high, was also great; a bit smoother than the first.

Practice Maneuvers

After another great landing, I flew north and ended up flying over UAO to head to the south practice area for some stall practice.  Other than once before, Rick and I hadn’t done much in the way of stalls, and I was feeling rusty.  And though I was a tad rusty, instincts took over and I ended up performing my stalls very well.  Still need to practice stalls and other maneuvers during my solo time.

Flying Home

Practicing the stall maneuvers made me even more confident and we were running out of time so we headed back to Twin Oaks.  The flight there was great due to the beautiful weather conditions and my pattern and landing into Twin Oaks was awesome.  Perhaps it was getting the feel for the soft-field landings that improved my landings or practicing in the 150, but either way, I was excited.

The blue skies and sunny weather made this flight even better.  Makes me so excited to get my license and take my friends up during the summer!

Logs:

Flight Time: 1.4 Hours
Landings: 5

My flight with James in a Cessna 150 was brought on by the increased cost of flying due to the fuel prices going up ($4.00 when I started, now $4.80 per gallon). The 172s have increased in price to $115 an hour. A $16 increase while the 150s only increased by $10 making them $85 an hour. Now that a lot of my flying time will be getting solo hours, the $30 per hour difference is worth learning to fly a 150.

Wednesdays flight was not just a chance to fly a cheaper plane, but a great way for me to get reconnected with James.  We haven’t flown together for a few months so it was great to get up in the air and show him some of what I learned with Rick.

It was as though we had been flying together for quite some time.  We got the plane prepped, went over some of the differences between the 150 and the 172s and then took off.  The flight covered power on/off stauls, steep turns, and take-offs and landings at McMinnville (MMV) and Twin Oaks (7S3).  There were definitely some differences between flying to two models of planes, but nothing that I couldn’t get over. Real difference was how long it took to climb.  Much longer in the 150s.

I really enjoyed flying the 150.  It has eighty horse power less than the planes I’m use to flying, but with the smaller body and less fuel, the plane took off and landed as expected.  I’m not sure if I can claim that I am soloed in a 150 as I haven’t actually flown the three landings/take-offs on my own, however I am endorsed to do so.

The week was beautiful and allowed for some great flying.  I hope I get some more of these soon!  I am on the home stretch of this adventure and can really feel the pressure.  I have a lot of studying I need to do and practice tests I need to take before I can go and take my written FAA exam, and passing this exam is something I need to complete before my check-ride for my PPL.  Hopefully all goes smoothly and I make things happen without a hitch!

Logs:

Flight Time: 1.4 Hours
Landings: 5

I’m now soloed at all three of the non-towered airports around Twin Oaks.  Those are Aurora State (UAO), McMinnville (MMV) and Stark’s Twin Oaks Airpark (7S3).  Since I’m soloed, I’m now able to fly between these by just renting a plane from the airport and taking off; which is quite a thrill in itself.

The flight between all three of these airports is nicknamed the “Triangle of Death”.  Not that anyone has died during the flights in this triangle; however there is quite a lot to consider.  For starters, there isn’t much distance between the airports, so planning ahead is important.  Also, there are some small mountain ranges from Twin Oaks to Aurora State and from McMinnville back to Twin Oaks.  The ranges are only around 2000ft, but important to keep in mind the amount of wind that can get kicked into the plane causing for some turbulent flying.

On Monday, Rick and I flew this course.  Actually, he really just went along (off the clock) as a final unwritten check-off to make sure that I did just fine, and with no surprise, it went great.

The day was beautiful, not a lot of wind out, and just a few clouds to get in my way.  I prepped Cessna N734KU, plugged in Aurora State, and got my radios ready.  I took off out of Twin Oaks without a hitch and made my way on over.  One area I know I need to work on are my outgoing and incoming radio calls when exiting and entering the different airspaces.  The flight over to UAO was wonderful.  Nice climbing speed, steady controls, and nicely directed.  The first landing over at UAO ended up being a bit rough, but then Rick hopped out, I got going and flew a solo flight around the patter and had a great landing.

Rick then hopped back in and we did the same over at McMinnville.  McMinnville was busier than Aurora that day, but I did just great.  In fact, I had one of my best landings to date over there on my solo landing what made me extremely happy.

We took off and flew back to Twin Oaks, came in to land on runway 2, but as I was coming in for base, the other traffic switched things up on me, so we had to do a landing onto runway 20 over the trees.  Unlike before, after Monday, I felt just great about landing into runway 20.  Everything kinda just clicked and I came down with ease and had a fantastic landing with how many times I’ve landed on runway 20 (not many at all).

The flight ended on a very positive note, and made me feel great about soloing the entire triangle.  Working on my radios and also working on my entries/exits into/out of the patterns  is something I’ll continue to practice, but I’m feeling a ton better about how my progress is coming.

What a stellar birthday flight!  Here’s to next year when I’ll make my birthday flight as a private pilot.  Awesome stuff!!!

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On a side note, gas prices are getting expensive, therefore costs to rent went up.  Renting a 172 is now $115, while renting a 150 went up to $85.  My plan over the next couple weeks is to get soloed in a 150 with James.  Hopefully that makes things a bit more affordable!

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Logs:

Flight Time: 1.4 Hours
Solo Time: 0.4 Hours
Landings: 5

Friday was such a beautiful day in the Portland area and the winds were so calm. I was hoping I would have a chance to solo that day, but not sure if things would go as I planned.

The plane I usually flew, N2108Y, was out of commission due to the lack of flying it received (it was really just me and one other) and N734KU was booked until later that day, so I had to fly a plane I haven’t flown since September(!), N5440H. This plane, another Cessna 172, only has 150HP, unlike N2108Y and N734KU which both have 180HP. Not a big deal, except that it took a bit to get use to flying in an aircraft that didn’t have the power to climb like I was use to in the other two airplanes. 5440H also has electric flaps which you have to set by watching the LEDs light up next to it. I had to get use to counting how long it takes for the flaps to increase and stop when I glanced to see the correct number of LEDs light up. The design isn’t terrible, just very different; another thing to get use to on a day I was potentially going to solo.

After a couple successful landings with Rick, he said I was ready, and he hopped out and I got things ready for taking off and landing all by my lonesome.

All three take-offs, the pattern work, and my landings all went without a hitch and I was able to finally get signed off with soloing at Twin Oaks. What a great moment that was. With the two airports I soloed at before, Aurora State (UAO) and McMinnville (MMV), I am now signed off to fly between all three airports, titled “The Triangle of Death”! Not that anyone has really died between them, but it is what it is. Now I can really knock out the solo hours!

On top of a great flight, I was able to chat a bit with my former instructor James Boughen.  His knee is mostly healed up now and he is back in the states.  Great to have you back James!

A fantastic ending to an amazing day of flying!

So what about you? What have you been able to accomplish in the last week that has blown you away. Leave a comment below!

Logs:

Flight Time: 1.3 Hours
Solo Time: 0.5 Hours
Landings: 5