PILOT SHOULD BE FLYING !!!

After 2 weeks without touching the plane, I can no longer stand being not airborn..  I asked my good friend Suddat to let me sit in the back and observe his flight training.

the lesson today was one of my least favorite subject- " partial pannel ". you lose your attitude indicator and heading indicator, these two are the most frequently scanned instruments. it makes the flying a lot more difficult and really need to keep your scan going.. 

while I was sitting in the back, I think they were doing holdings near the VOR. 

saw this racetrack for the first time, thought it was an airport at first.. 

 

the landing was really smooth, he had to circle to land after an ILS 17 approach. 

@ youtube link @

here are some more pictures.

gusting 40miles !

few days ago, a friend from Boston came to visit and stayed for the weekend. we went to play some golf one day and the wind was gusting 40 miles!!! 

tree fell beside us, we were less than 1 meter away from the tree..

dead either from the tree or the jumping...

Instrument Rating Training

Today I passed the instrument Ground school final exam, which means I can go ahead and take the FAA instrument exam !! that's great ! IFR ( Instrument Flight Rules), is a rating which would give the pilot the ability to fly even in low visibility, or have no visual reference to the ground. it is precise flying. when flying in the clouds, if a pilot trust his senses ( feel, visual), he might end up upside down and not knowing it ! that's why this rating is required in all the airlines !
a lot of studying is required in Instrument training, but I managed to make it through the class, which means I'm fine ! 
Also today I recieved a not-so-good news. I have to paulse my flight training because I need a "new" TSA clearance for Instrument training, which either me nor my instructor know about. so, I have to apply for TSA, and they will approve, then i will pay them another $130, and they will approve... god knows how long it will take.... so with that said...I think I have a little big of break here! oh ya! summer break! what to do??
here's my STRIPE !

BRAND NEW PRIVATE PILOT ~~~

That's right !! I passed my Private Pilot checkride today. As of 4/21/2010, I'm a pilot, not student pilot anymore. I now have the priviledge to take passengers and be pilot in command. This is one of the best feeling in the world. After all I've come through, it has paid off. the studying, the training, the stage checks. everything is where it's supposed to be right now, I will keep moving and advance in my training. Thanks to my family and everyone who has supported me financially and mentally as well as those providing resources and made it availabe to me. I will upload some pictures when I have some, I haven't flown very much recently. I'm excited to get my first "stripe" on my shoulder. .This is where it begins....

CROSS COUNTRY DTO- DUA

this is my last cross country i need to advance in my training, my destination this time is Eaker Airport in Durant Oklahoma. should take me less than 2 hours for the entire trip, and it should be fun and challenging, since this is my last one for now, I wanna make this a perfect one, which means, I will time my trip, revise my flight plan as I advance through my checkpoints, get Flight Following, and no more mistake !
this is one of my checkpoints, as you can see ! right on the spot. redline is my flight path, circle is my check point.

this picture was taken on the way back, so it's on my left side.

the next checkpoint was a beautiful reservoir with a dam east of it.

very nice scenery.. next up is a class D airport which I will be flying over, I don't have to talk to them because I will be higher than its airspace, but it's always recommended..

very good flight ! had a lot of fun sight seeing, I'm satisfied with this flight for some reasons, first of all, communications with tower was perfect, talking with pilots around the destination airport was also perfect, talking to radar service was perfect, landing was GREAT, executed my flight plan very well, hit my spots and was on time. next on my agenda is to have a couple flights with my instructor and go over some PTS and night take off and landings, make sure i'm ready for the big test.. wish me luck .!!!

SOLO CROSS COUNTRY

This was about a week ago, I was nervous, of course. and a little mistake was taken place, but nothing big.
the flight started from Denton, I was heading east to Graham Airport, one the way there, I will pass a checkpoint south of a lake with a small uncontrolled airport beside it, and the whole point of this training is to see if I can pass the checkpoints on schedule, and if not, calculate why, and revise the plan based on the new information. For example, if I calculate my ground speed will be 85 miles per hour, then I know it will take me 20 min to fly 17 miles. But if the wind that day suddenly changes, and the time it took to fly 17miles changes to 25 min, then I should calculate my NEW speed and apply that to my next checkpoint, how long it will take, how fast, how much fuel, etc..
as you can see, my first checkpoint was pretty much on the spot !

when I arrive at Granham Airport, the wind was reporting gusting to 25NM, and it was almost a direct crosswind, but i still tried to land ! ultimately I aborted landing and kept on heading to my next destination.. the thing with "gust" wind... is that...it's not constant, it's sometimes there and sometimes not, and that is very unstable when i'm trying to land, and a little bit dangerous if you don't know what to do in a gusty situation.
my next airport is Mineral Wells airport, nothing special there except that I didn't expect anyone would listen to my radio as I'm self announcing my position( uncontrolled airport), it was quiet so I didn't think anyone was around that area, but as i'm on final and I made my last announcement  "Mineral Wells traffic, cessna 27705Q, 3 miles final, runway 18, mineral wells" someone answered " Im right behind you" ... haha and he asked me how fast I was going so he could slow down a little bit, it was pretty exciting because we were so close and he was a twin. it was special because that's the first time I made myself useful to others in a uncontrolled airport, I did what I supposed to do, they know where I was and what my intentions were, it was all done very professionally, I was pretty pleased, made me feel almost like a real pilot... hehe...

but the real mistake happened at my own airpot ! when I went back to denton, I miscommunicated with the control tower so for a minute, he was looking for me and I was right next to the airport... he said " cessna 05Q, make a right 270 and enter right downwind for runway 17" it was clear, but somehow I thought he said 720...2 loops ?? ok...if that's what he wants.. so I was there circeling ... and then he said "05Q, are you still circling ? enter right downwind for runway17" haha...and the worst thing is... my instructor was at the airport doing traffic pattern with another student and he heard the whole conversation !  gosh... he had so much confidence in me that I wouldn't make mistake but still I did and it wasn't even difficult ... after that, of course I didn't feel very well about that even though 95% of the flight was great,  I still think I did poorly, it's kinda like a round of golf, you can hit pars and birdies all day, and if you bogied the last hole... dinner taste awful !
i'm sure many people know what i'm talking about..
anyway, I passed my stage II check, and I'm a couple more flights from getting a checkride for a private pilot license ! wish me luck !

1st cross country flight

Today started out great with the temperature up to 13C, very beautiful day with very little clouds and little wind. I have planned our trip from Denton to Addison to Sulphur Spring and back to Denton, it will take us a little over 2 hours to make the trip if everything is where it supposed to be...

I have already anticipate this, I knew the weather would change on me, so I got to the school a lot ahead of the time and re-calculate every leg of the trip just to be safe.
Grant and I went over the details of my flight plan and was quite satisfied with my work, w efiled the flight plan and jumped into our little Cessna 152 and off we go !
My first stop was my favorite Addison Airport, I just had to land here at least once even though it's so close and it's under B airspace we couldn't fly very high. As usual, I made a safe landing and told the tower I want to taxi back and depart~ many jets were waiting for me to land as I SLOWLY approach the runway, haha!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pS3J3szMD_8

After departing from Addison Airport (KADS), we were on our way to our destination- Sulphur Springs (KSLR), I like the airport code, SLR!! yeah~

that is a small airport without a control tower, so everyone that's flying there should talk to each other over the Common Traffic Advisory Frequency to avoid any collisions. 

by the way, on our way back to Denton, the wind changed from what's supposed to be a tail wind to a headwind, which made our Ground Speed slower, and we had to return the plane on time, so we came up with another plan, a direct flight, and it was very close to Frisco !! when I notice it, it was already too late, I've already passed our house ! too bad !!! but I did got some cool photoes !

look familiar ? ?