Luckily, more than 75% of my working life has been lifeguarding at both the beach and pools. Through lifeguarding, I’ve learned about hypoxia, a deficiency of oxygen on the blood stream. Our atmosphere is made up of, generally, 80% nitrogen, 19% oxygen and 1% other gasses. When flying at increasing altitudes, the air becomes thinner, which means we breathe in less oxygen. The higher a plane goes, the less oxygen is available for the body to use. While flying at these higher altitudes, people sometimes experience hypoxia, which, as stated before, is a deficiency of oxygen in the blood stream.

Student pilots learn what the effects of oxygen are and what the regulations are which can prevent hypoxia. There are five different types of hypoxia, but private pilots only have to know about the general form of hypoxia. When I get into instrument and commercial classes, I’ll learn what the different types are. There are many different symptoms of hypoxia, which include headaches, fatigue, shortness of breath, nausea, and a feeling of euphoria. During the class where hypoxia was explained, we learned how cyanosis, a blue coloration of the skin, is also a tell tale sign of hypoxia. However for the purpose of this post, I won’t go into the detail of the hemoglobin and red blood cell distribution. Either way, it’s important to know about the signs and symptoms of hypoxia.

An oxygen supply is a method which the FAA regulations suggest in order to combat the effects of hypoxia at higher altitudes. There are recommendations by the federal aviation regulations, and then there are actual regulations. The recommendations are that during night flight, oxygen should be provided when flying at or above 5,000 feet. During daytime flying, oxygen is recommended to be available while flying at or above 10,000 feet. This rule of thumb is different from the actual regulations about oxygen on board an airplane. The official regulations on supplemental oxygen can be found here at FAR 91.211. Basically they state that an airplane must be equipped with a 30 minute oxygen supply when traveling between 12,500 and 14,000 feet. If flying at or above 15,000 feet, oxygen must be provided for every person onboard the plane. This means that crew and passengers must be offered and have access to oxygen at or above 15,000 feet, but do not necessarily need to use it.

Hypoxia is a topic which I wasn’t expecting to learn about, but in hindsight, it makes sense that pilots need to know about oxygen deficiency. 

Something that took me off guard, is the process of going through checklists and looking at the aeronautical charts while flying. The charts, or maps, are published every six months to ensure that they are current. It would be unfortunate for a pilot to fly to an unknown area and look for a building that has since been destroyed. There are three types of maps, a TAC (terminal aeronautical chart) a SAC (sectional aeronautical chart) and a WAC (world aeronautical chart). The purpose of three is the amount of detail each has. The WAC is used for long travel and has a ratio of 1:1,000,000, or 1 inch to about 14 nautical miles. The SAC shows a bit more detail and covers a smaller area. The ratio for a SAC is 1:500,000 and 50 of them cover the US. Lastly, the TAC shows the most detail and covers the smallest area. The ratio of 1:250,000 allow the TAC to be used in the most heavily populated area. Unlike the WAC and SAC, not every part of the United States is covered by a TAC; only the most urban areas use a TAC. Examples are New York City, Los Angeles, Dallas Fort Worth, Memphis, Atlanta, and Miami.       Aeronautical charts can be a lifeline for pilots. There are numerous invaluable pieces of information on the charts, which pilots can use to navigate to a safe place during an emergency. On the TAC and SAC charts, each airport is defined and has information about it, such as its’ frequencies, the type of fuel available at the airport, the length of the runways, where the airspace starts and ends, and even what type of lighting is used at the airport. It’s important, that pilots carry current charts with them while flying, and it’s even illegal if they do not.

Checklists were something that took me some time to get use to. Flying isn’t exactly what Tom cruise and Leslie Nielsen make it out to be. Pilots don’t simply get into their planes, light the fires, and takeoff. Depending on the aircraft, there are many things which need to be done and checked prior to even getting into the cockpit. For planes like the USAF’s F-22, there are over 300 individual points on the exterior of the plane which need to be checked before the pilot can hop in and start going over the start up procedure. For the plane I train in, the Piper Warrior, there is a walk around process of checking fuel quality, tire pressure, and removal of frost, among other things. Once in the plane, we go through the pre start checklist which is comprised of 20 items. When the plane’s ready for engine start, another checklist is used for that, which has 15 items on it. There is a checklist for almost everything done in an airplane. From taxiing, to the takeoff roll, the pilot goes through checklists to ensure safety. While in the air, pilots go through checklists when they want to climb, descend, change course, and perform maneuvers. The expression “kick the tires and light the fires” comes from aviation. It means a pilot does a poor pre takeoff check of the airplane by simply kicking the tires to make sure they’re ok, then lighting the fires, or engine, in order to start flying quickly.  The main problem I had with the checklists is that I just forgot to do them. I was so concentrated on climbing away from the airport at the right speed and angle, that I forgot the 1000 foot checklist, also called the climb checklist.

It happened again; Farmingdale State College let me fly an $850,000 airplane, alone. My second solo flight was just as fun as my first one. The main point of the second solo flight is that the student does touch and goes instead of taxi backs. The purpose of this is because there is a greater chance of something going wrong during touch and goes than with taxi backs.

Unfortunately, I almost didn’t even get to fly. Everything was great during the preflight and run-up. I did the ground checks on the airplane, did the walk around checks, got the weather and weight and balance data, and made sure to tell maintenance that there was frost on the airplane so they could remove it. Once again, I was ready to fly by myself for the second time. I started the Warrior and did the necessary after start checklists and called to state ops that I was outbound. 3 seconds later I got to the end of the ramp area and called up ground control to request the touch and goes. I called again, and again. I called a fourth and fifth time. After 6 call ups and 8 or 9 minutes of waiting, I radioed back to state ops that I wasn’t getting a radio back from ground control. Just then, another Farmingdale airplane called out “State 88” (me) “use comm. 2, comm. 1 isn’t working.” So I frantically unplugged my headset from comm. 1 and into comm. 2. I repeated my request for ground controls to do touch and goes and finally I heard their response to taxi to the active runway. During the time with no radios, I was sweating and nervous that either I broke something or was encountering a situation I’ve never been in before. Luckily for me, an instructor form my school figured out my problem without being able to even hear me on the radio.

I finally was on my way to runway 1’s run-up area for a pre-takoff check of the plane. This part went smoothly and I taxied to the runway threshold. Because I was using comm. 2 and was sitting in the seat which uses comm. 1, I had to reach over and push that button while flying. After reaching over and calling the tower’s frequency, I got clearance to depart and make left traffic. As the plane rolled onto the runway, I checked the engine instruments, all in the green, and the gyro to make sure it lined up with the magnetic compass on the dashboard. It did, so I advance the throttle full open. The feeling I felt last time swooped over me as the airplane gained speed. I even remember glancing over to the right seat to prove to myself that no instructor was in the plane with me. I was completely alone and it felt amazing. I had already flown solo, last week, but the feeling was just as strong. Pride, nervousness, excitement, and pure joy all filled the cockpit as the plane’s wheels left the ground. I climbed out at Vy and radioed to the tower of my rotation. I went through my call outs

“200 feet. No more available runway”

“600 feet. Return to runway if emergency occurs”

“800 feet. Turning crosswind”

“1100 feet. At pattern altitude, lowering speed to patter speed limits, adding 10 degrees flaps”

Once in pattern altitude and at pattern’s speed, I called tower to tell them I was in the downwind, reaching over of course. I was instructed to follow the traffic in front of me and I was clear for a touch and go. I did as was told and had a smooth landing. As I rolled down the runway, I put flaps to zero and advanced the throttle full once again. Within 6 seconds of wheels touching down, they were off the runway. The second, third and fourth touch and goes were perfect, or at least as good as I’ve ever done them. However, on the fifth landing, I had some excitement. I was lined up with the runway on a 4 mile final, which is enough time to not have to rush things in order to put the airplane in landing configuration. I was cleared for a touch and go at a one mile final, a little closer than I would have liked. The wind was calm all morning, I felt no bumps, and I didn’t have to correct for a wind angle… until right then. A burst of wind shook me off the centerline at only 80 feet. I quickly jerked the yoke to the left to correct for this and accidently over banked the airplane and was almost perpendicular to the centerline. I didn’t know what to do for only a split second, and then it was clear. “Tower. State 88 going around” I won’t ever forget any of the many times my instructor told me that a go around is one of the best things you can do on a failed landing. There’s no reason to risk your life when you can simply gain altitude and try it again. So I added full power and took out some flaps in order to pitch for the best altitude gain speed of 63 knots I was at patter attitude again before reaching the end of the airport’s property.

After the go around, I had no problems with the last three touch and goes. In all, I did seven touch and goes with a full stop landing on the 8th approach. I taxied back to echo ramp, after getting clearance from ground control to do so, and shut the plane down. As I walked in, I got another set of claps from everyone in the briefing room. I got applause after my first solo, but why this one? I was being congratulated because for the first time by myself in the airplane, I encounter a problem, lost communications, didn’t freak out, and was able to continue my flight. Although all I did was change from comm. 1 to comm. 2, I didn’t loose my awareness and didn’t panic. My instructor told me I’m the first student who was cheered after their second solo.

To see pictures from this flight, check out the Media page. 

One thing that I underestimate about flying airplanes is weather. Of course I knew that wind would affect the flight of an airplane, but there are many more things which can alter the performance of a plane in flight. First off, the way a pilot reads weather can seem alien to a person not involved with aviation. There’s an example:

KFRG 120053Z 22011KT23G 10SM OVC056 01/M07 A3063 RMK AO2 SLP374 T10111072

This is the current weather for my base airport. It looks confusing, but after reading and using it a few times, it’s easy to understand. “KFRG” is the airport decoder. K denotes that the airport is located in the US, and FRG is the airport (Republic. FRG because Republic airport is located in the town of FaRminGdale) 120053Z is the date time which the weather report was made. 12 means that the report was made on the 12th of this month, and 0053 is the time in Zulu. Zulu or Universal Coordinated Time (UTC) is Greenwich Mean Time. 22011K23G is the wind information. The first three digits, 220 is the direction from which the wind is coming, so south by southwest. 11 is the strength of the wind. K means the wind is measured in knots. The 23G means the winds are also gusting to 23 knots. 10SM means visibility is 10 statute miles. OVC056 means that the clouds are overcast at 056 feet or 5,600 feet. Next is the temperature. Which is 01 degree Celsius and the dew point is negative 07. The M denotes negative, or minus. There won’t ever be a “-” symbol. The last information in this weather report which applies to pilots is the A3063. A means altimeter and the altimeter is currently 3063 or 30.63 on the barometric sale.

There is an incredible amount of things which weather can tell a pilot. Another important which a pilot must keep in mind is the weather minimums. This will tell a pilot if they should fly Visual Flight Rules or Instrument Flight Rules. There are different regulations which pilots must adhere to in order to fly in either of these conditions. In a very general term, VFR means better weather than IFR. Only pilots who are instrument rated may fly during IFR conditions. For information about IFR and instrument ratings, go to the License page.

Weather itself affects the performance of an airplane. For example, when the temperature is hot, the air is less dense. This means that performance is decreased. The more air molecules there are, the better an airplane performs. Therefore, airplanes perform the best at low altitudes and in cold temperatures. During the summer, an airplane must roll longer to takeoff, and do a longer landing roll in order to slow down to a safe speed for taxiing. In addition, pilots must be careful of engine temperatures during summer months, or when in hot climates.

There are over 20 different types of weather reports. Some are more important than others. The report in the example at the top of the post is an example of a METAR or meteorological aviation report. These tell the current weather, from when the report was made for a specific location. The weather report which shows a forecast is a TAF or terminal aerodrome forecast the forecast is valid for a specific location for up to 24 hours. A PIREP or pilot report is a report which is made by a pilot in flight. These are valuable because they are good ways to knowing what the exact weather is like at the altitude which they are made. Other reports include AIRMETs and SIGMETs which report dangerous weather such as thunderstorms and tornadoes, winds aloft reports, and HIWAS or hazardous in flight weather reports.

Many people feel that weather is the most import aspect to flying airplanes. While it can be insignificant on certain situations, it is something which every pilot on every flight must pay close attention to and plan for. 

Just did my first solo! That was the most amazing feeling I’ve experienced in my life. I had to keep swiping the air next to me in order to prove to myself that my instructor wasn’t in the seat next to me. The second I rotated and was free of the earth, a sense of knowing came over me. The flight felt just like any others I’ve done. While I was doing the run-up I was nervous, but once I got into the air I knew exactly what I had to do.

The first part of today’s lesson, I went up to do three touch and goes with my instructor. This is standard protocol in order to make sure the student didn’t forget how to fly. I did one landing, had to go around on the next because the tower never gave me clearance, and finally landed on the third attempt. Since I did everything correct during the go around, my instructor counted that attempt as a landing. After the third landing, I taxied to the school’s ramp. My instructor and I went back into the briefing room in order to fill out a solo worksheet. This basically just said that I was going for my first solo, ever.

After we got the paperwork figured out and Chris gave me some last second advice, I went back out to the plane. It was go time. I didn’t have to, but I gave the plane a walk around, just in case something serious happened to the plane during my previous three touch and goes. It was fine so I climbed inside, closed and latched the door behind me and there I was; all alone in an airplane ready for a flight for the first time in my life.  I did everything as I would if I was with my instructor, after completing the pre start, and start checklist I began my taxi. When I called up ground control and awaited confirmation to taxi to the active runway, I caught myself grinning from ear to ear. Anyway, I received clearance, taxied to the run-up area to do my last minute checks, and taxied to the runway threshold.

“Republic Tower, Farmingdale State 11 is at the active on Brave, ready for takeoff”

                “State 11, clear to takeoff, make left traffic”

“clear for takeoff, wilco on left traffic, State 11”

Here I go. I taxied onto the runway lined up with the centerline and advanced the throttle to full open. 15 knots, “flaps set zero.” 25 knots, “airspeed alive”. 40 knots, “instruments green”. 50 knots, “we’re a go.” 55 knots, “rotate.” As I increased back pressure to lift the plane off the ground, the airplane responded to my control inputs with precision. I’ve finally accomplished my goal of flying an airplane. Ever since I was 6, and went on my first plane ride ever, I’ve literally dreamt and thought about this moment, a moment that won’t ever be forgotten. It gave me chills as I climbed out at Vy.

The rest of the flight was as if my instructor was next to me. I did three full stop, taxi back landings (I would land, taxi off the runway, and taxi immediately back to the active runway’s threshold and wait for clearance to takeoff again). No wind, no confusion, no problems.

After I got back to Farmingdale’s ramp, and tied the plane down, I headed in to talk about the flight with my instructor. Once I got into the briefing room, everyone congratulated me, then cut up my shirt. Apparently, once a student solos, the instructors all gather around and cut out a piece of the student’s shirt and write the date, “first solo” and which runway they used. I was no exception. As I’m writing this right now, I’m still wearing the shirt I solo-ed in, with a large piece of the back missing.

I cannot describe exactly how I was feeling as I was solo-ing for the first time. It’s one of those experiences where unless you do it for yourself, you’re not going to know what it means to you.

I saw an awesome presentation today during my ground school class. it isn’t anything that has to do with the course but it was a presentation on the future of airspace and navigation. Today, pilots use VORs to travel from one area to another. This means that there can be heavy traffic surrounding one of these VORs. However, NextGen is the future of airspace. It explains how satellites instead of radars will control airplanes. This will eventually allows for more planes to fly over the USA with safer conditions. NexGen has started to be incorporated into a few large airports include JFK in New York and the major airport in Philadelphia. The accompanying video explains the future of aviation navigation much better than me.

Today was supposed to be the day I did my first solo. However, the winds were too strong with gusts as strong as 23 knots. So instead my instructor taught me how to do short field take offs, landings, as well as soft field takeoff and landings. They’re very similar to regular takeoffs and landings; however the plane is configured a little differently for each. For example, for a short field takeoff, 25 degrees of flaps are used. In addition, once I got onto the runway, I pressed the brakes, applied full power and waited for the rpm’s to reach maximums. Once they did, I released the brakes and the plane shot forward. It was an awesome sensation to accelerate so quickly.

However, the interesting part of the flight was when I was in the downwind leg for one of the landings. On the radio I heard “Blue Angel 7 requesting to land on the active runway.” A blue angel form the Navy’s elite pilot corp came to the airport! He shot past me, making himself look like a blue blur. Once I landed and was done with the day’s lesson, I went and got a few pics of the F-18 while it was parked on the ramp.

Earlier today, I finally passed my first stage check. For the past two weeks, I had struggled with the practical. I failed horribly the first time, and during the second time, the ceiling came down to just over 2,000 feet and the visibility was less than 6 statute miles. Because of these past two attempts, I had experience of the mistakes I made. The mistakes left me feeling confident and comfortable this tie around.

The winds were definitely not optimal for a check ride. During the preflight paperwork, the winds were coming 30 degrees off the active runway at 11 knots. By the time I was practicing my touch and goes, 2 hours later the winds were still 30 degrees off the centerline but at 14 knots and gusting to 25. While you might think the winds made it harder, they somewhat helped. My check airman judged my landings more leniently than if the winds were weaker or variable.

Just like the last two attempts, I was judged on both the power off and power on stalls, as well as slow flight. However, this time, I was instructed to a ground reference maneuver. Unfortunately the winds were gusting so my circle around a point wasn’t the best I had ever done. (After the flight, the check airman actually admitted that he was expecting a horrible circle around the point. So I won’t say I impressed him, but he was a little surprised). As for the rest of the maneuvers, they went well. The stalls were satisfactory, as well were my two engine failure procedures. Like I said before, the landings were a little bit dicey. I had to do 2 go-arounds; one because the plane in front of me was going way too slow and I caught up to him, and the other because the tower told me to do so. Other than that, my flight was a success.

Next lesson I can finally do my first solo. The first solo for our school is three taxi-backs. (Which means I’ll land, taxi off the runway, and go back to the active runway to take off again). The only thing I need to watch is the crosswinds. My instructors won’t let me solo unless the crosswinds are less than 5 knots. As for stage 2, I’ll be learning how to plan cross-country flights, as well as flying at night.

Don’t worry if you fail a check ride which would have allowed you to solo. This was my third attempt at it and it finally worked out. Everyone has a little trouble with the first check ride, whether they admit it or not.

Next post will be for my first solo. Hopefully, I’ll have pictures or a video to share.

Today I retook the first stage check for the private pilot course. If you read the last post, than you know how horribly I failed my first attempt at it. I had Bob again; however he wasn’t as intimidating this time. Having done it once, I knew what he was going to be looking for and what things I had to fix.

When I woke up this morning the skies were overcast, and I knew it was going to be questionable whether or not I was going to have the stage check this afternoon. I was scheduled to have the flight at 1715Z (12:15 pm local). So after my first class of the day, I headed over to the airport for the flight.

I checked in with the Air Boss and filled out my dispatch paperwork. The weather was winds of 12kts out of 340 and gusting up to 19kts. More importantly, the clouds were OVC080, or overcast at 8000 feet. These conditions meant I would be flying.

After pre-flighting the airplane I was assigned, I went back to the briefing room and met up with Bob. We both had a laugh about how horribly I had done the last time and how I should do better today. Well it went better, but not as good as I would have liked. From when the engine started until I left the ground, I only made a few mistakes. Forgetting to take the fuel pump off after engine start, and forgetting to retract the flaps after we were both inside the plane are two examples. I was about to radio tower to request permission to take off when Bob radioed the tower and asked to stay in the pattern for touch-and-goes. The weather had gotten bad enough that he knew going out to the practice grounds would be unfair conditions to test me in. I got permission to take off and taxied onto the runway.

The take off went well, as did turning crosswind and then downwind. This time I definitely didn’t forget to do the pre-landing checklists. Bob said he was going to use the radio today so I didn’t have to worry about that. However, I did have to worry about the rain and winds, which were gusting at 1,100 AGL (traffic pattern altitude). The visibility stayed VFR but went down to 5 statute miles at times. The hardest part of the flight was finding the traffic and reporting back to the tower that traffic was in sight. Bob helped me with this because of the deteriorating conditions.

The first landing went well, however Bob had me do a go-around on the second one because I forgot to announce the decent was stabilized at 200 feet AGL. After that one, I didn’t forget it for the rest of the lesson. All in all, I did 5 landings with one go-around. The worst part of my flying was that on most of the landings, the plane wasn’t lined up on the centerline. After 1.2 hours Bob had had enough and I landed for the last time. I taxied back to Echo ramp and shutdown the plane. During our talk, back in the briefing room, Bob had said that the worst part of today was my landings weren’t on the centerline. Other than that my approaches and line ups were good, as well as my traffic pattern maneuvers.

I got an incomplete on the day (because of the weather, not because of my flying) and I will finish up the stage check either tomorrow morning or next week sometime. I’m hoping I pass the stage one check ride before the Thanksgiving break next week.

The first milestone that students pilot will reach is the solo. The solo is the first opportunity the student has to fly the airplane by him or herself. However, no flight school will let a student take a plane up without a check ride. A check ride is simply the equivalent of the road test for an automobile driver. That’s what I did today. It involves 2 test and a flight with a check airman who judges the student on their ability to perform maneuvers, complete safe landings as well as establish communications with the tower and ground control.

The test has 3 parts. The first part is the written test. The written test gives 50 fill in questions. The questions are related to general aviation, FAA regulations and about the specific airport I’ll do my solo at, which in this case is my base airport of Republic. It took me about an hour and I did well, a 95%. The second part is the oral. During this part, the check airman, Bob in this case, asks me questions face to face in order to see how well I know what I’m doing without being able to look it up. Again this is about the airport, general aviation questions as well as specific questions about the plane I train in. This test was harder than the written, but again I passed. Lastly came the practical, the flight portion of the test.

It didn’t go well

First I filled out the pre-flight sheet and checked the airplane. Once that was done I told the check airman, the plane was ready. We walked across the ramp together and got in the plane. From that point on I blew it. It’s embarrassing to admit, but I suddenly forgot what to do. I looked down, got my checklist out and started going through the items. From when I started the plane and got to the end of the ramp where I was to call ground control, everything was normal. Then I called ground and fumbled the entire call. Later Bob would tell me he didn’t judge me too poorly for this, but it messed me up for the rest of what I had to do. Once ground told me I was clear to taxi, I started to roll and Bob pressed the brakes with his feet. I was about to cut off a plane which was to my right and waiting to taxi. I forgot to look right. The plane to the other’s right always has the right of way and I would have broken that rule if Bob didn’t stop me. After I finally got onto the taxi ways I thought I was going to be fine. I was wrong. Bob asked me when I was going to put the wind correction in with the ailerons, and why I was riding the brake pedals with my feet.

Once I made it to the run-up area, I started going through my checklist again. Once I felt I had sufficiently got the plane ready for takeoff, I taxied to the runway. Upon reaching the active runway, I called tower and asked for permission to takeoff, they granted and I rolled onto the runway. I guess I wasn’t rolling fast enough for Bob and he told me to hurry up.

I finally took off.

I was finally in the air, and was feeling good. I had messed up a few ground operations, but my flying had been good in the previous lessons with my instructor. The first thing I did wrong was I forgot the climb checklist. It’s supposed to be done at 1000 feet AGL, but I didn’t do it until about 3000 feet AGL. Bob commented on this while I was flying but it wasn’t anything major, so I headed towards the practice grounds.

My maneuvers were well below average. During slow flight I forgot to put flaps in until I almost stalled the plane, and I forced the pane into secondary stall while I was attempted to recover from the power off stall. My recovery from the power on stall was the only satisfactory maneuver I did the whole day. Perhaps the worst part of the flight was when I busted class C airspace. MacArthur Airport is a class C airport close to Republic, and its’ airspace go up to the edge of the training grounds. As I finished the engine failure procedure (which didn’t go well because I was attempting to simulate a landing on the beach and not a parking lot), I increased full power to go around and recover. However, I forgot about the Charlie airspace and flew right into it. The check airman grabbed the controls and flew away from the area. While he still had the controls, he asked why so much air was coming into the cockpit. I looked up and realized I never latched the door shut while back in the run-up area. It was closed and locked but not latched. This allowed excess air to enter the cabin.

At this point I knew I was going to have to retake the check ride. He told me, in a horribly grump voice, to take him back to the airport. I called the tower control and asked to land. I don’t know why, but I forgot to go through the pre-landing checklist. As I landed, he took controls away from me and taxied to the ramp where our airplanes are kept.

I knew it went really bad. When we got inside, after tying up the airplane, we went through what I did wrong. I don’t remember all of what he said because I was so mad at myself for messing up that horribly. However, I didn’t learn a lot from the flight. Make sure to always go through the checklists carefully, keep situational awareness and be confident.