Night Flight and Basic Instrument Sim

Yesterday was my first T-44 night flight. It was relatively laid back. The IP got delayed, so we didn't take off until it was already late. The night flying environment is always less crowded, and we had the aux field completely to ourselves. It was nice and peaceful. I planted the first one like I was landing on a carrier, but that's pretty common at night. I fixed the problem and subsequent landings were much better. He pulled an engine on a few passes, but the fog started to roll in and we had to head back. The fog got so bad that we barely had the mins to fly the approach. We finally saw the runway approach lights right at the mins (200' - 1/2) when the IP was about to waveoff. Craziest approach yet.

Today I had my first instrument sim. The first four are all just turn patterns and standard highwork on instruments just to get your crosscheck working quickly. I pretty much nailed everything and got a good preview of what's coming. It was a really good sim for me.

Tonight we had a little get-together to hear from the IPs about the different aircraft they fly. Afterward, a few of us cornered the Air Force guy who talked about C-130s and asked him a ton of questions. Very informative.

Contact Check Passed

I passed my contact stage checkride today even though I flew terribly. After waking up to low ceilings and IFR forecasts, our IP decided to press. We had to wait an hour past our takeoff time to get an aircraft...that was broken. Typical checkride day. It wouldn't start because the battery was so low. Maintenance hooked us up to a power cart and we made it happen. THe highwork wasn't terrible, but my stall of all things went badly the first time, so the IP had me fly it again. The pattern work was decent, including the no-flap landing until I got a simulated fire and had to go around because I forgot to lower the gear until the turn to final. I just planted the last one on the runway before we switched seats and the other guy flew his patterns. I was working myself into a hole, but evidently I was safe enough that we both got to solo. Always fun without an IP in the cockpit. It was just 3 landings, but a solo's a solo. Good to have the checkride out of the way no matter how I feel about it.

EP Sim

I flew alright on Thursday. I need to focus on not getting slow in the pattern while single-engine. It's one of the few things that are really bad. It's just a matter of adding in more power and staying coordinated. The highwork was fine. Friday I had the EP sim, which ended up being a little easier than I thought, but the instructor we got was a real cranky old guy. Interesting anyway. Checkride Tuesday morning!

Sports Drink?

Tuesday's flight was much the same as Monday's. We did the same things. I wasn't quite as sharp or maybe the IP was just more demanding, but I still felt improvement. I kept angling in on final, but eventually figured out the significant undershooting winds. Only have to clean up 2 more items for the end of block. I got terrible sleep last night after drinking what I thought was a sports drink but in fact was an energy drink. Should have checked the ingredients. So I called my IP this morning and we canceled. End of block tomorrow, sim on Friday, maybe check on Saturday.

Much better

I flew much better today. I cleaned up everything in my gradebook, but I messed up the break entry to the pattern. We waited for an hour to fly, but eventually got a plane. It was going to be a 3-student sortie, but daylight left wouldn't allow for two contacts to go. My wingman got sent home, so I could catch up. He was one ride ahead of me. We flew the highwork, I took all the IP's techniques and advice to heart for this flight and it served me well. The stall, ditching, and engine cut all went fine. We headed back to the aux field and all the SSE stuff was within limits. In an effort to not get slow on SSE landings I was carrying a little extra power on touchdown, which we fixed as well. On the RTB I was didn't get the flaps and gear down quick enough so we were still high on downwind at the perch. I'll fix that tomorrow.

Saturday Flying

For the first time today, I was on the schedule on a Saturday. It was a little quieter out there, but everything was the same as is during the week besides not having radar coverage of the working areas. I struggled with the power off ditch, but did it a couple more times and got it within limits if not pretty. The pattern was pretty much a disaster. My SSE work just didn't feel smooth, although the rudder control was decent. A few more flights to practice up.

Not the new guy

Today I had my last flight with my on-wing instructor. From here on out, I'll have an assortment of different instructors from flight to flight. The flight went pretty well, the highwork flowed well and I finished in a timely manner, AND with better practice ditches than the previous couple flights. We flew over to Corpus Int'l (KCRP) for the pattern work. They gave us a downwind entry to runway 17 and we did a couple normal patterns before transitioning to the SSE work. The SSE work wasn't really all that bad today, but I had to go-around a couple times just because I wasn't quite lined up due to winds. Holding the rudder in for a whole pattern gets old real fast, but it's better than trying to land a terrible pattern out of parameters. Four more flights to practice before checkride.

The funny thing for the day was a Cessna in the pattern with who I can only assume was a student at the controls, because he had a terrible radio presence. You could tell he was stuggling with SA and radio procedures. It just felt good not to be the new guy.

Slow week

Tuesday's flight was more of the same, single engine practice, trying to trim the airplane out to ditch smoothly, and building up my leg strength with the rudder fully deflected in the SSE landing pattern. We flew over to KCRP for touch and go practice, because of a runway closure at the aux field. It was interesting to see, but a little inconvenient, because they kept switching us from one runway to the other seemingly for no reason at all.

Wednesday we canceled for WX. On instrument ride went up, but they didn't break out of the clouds until 200 off the deck, which is actually minimums for precision intrument approaches. The clouds went up to 9000'.

Today I didn't fly, because I had a flight physical, the annual checkup for military pilots. I was poked and prodded, mostly in the eyes and veins, all morning but there were no med issues thankfully. I was sent home with dilated eyes, which always amuses me.

SSE and a C-17

After the crazy Texas snow and the monstrous storm that swept through the country canceled us last Thursday and a weekend of leave back up in Washington to attend my grandma's memorial service, I was back up in the air today. We did the standard high work, stalls, ditching practice, and a dynamic engine cut. Then we beat up the pattern at the aux field with full flap, normal, and no-flap landings. The IP introduced the SSE (simulated single engine) procedures today. On the downwind leg of the pattern the IP took the throttle of the left engine and brought it back to idle. I had to fly the rest of the pattern and land the aircraft with only one engine providing useful thrust. It's good training for emergency situations, and it builds confidence to know you can still handle the plane if one engine quits for any reason. That said, it's still not comfortable. The aircrafts performance suffers, lots of rudder input is required, and the workload is higher. This upcoming block of training is devoted to practicing malfunctions and dealing with emergencies in the air, so we should be fairly proficient when checkride time rolls around.

When we returned for the full stop, we saw two C-17s parked on the ramp getting refueled. After the debrief we just walked over to see if the pilots would let us check out the inside. They were just waiting for the fuel trucks to finish their job, so they gave us a brief rundown of the cockpit and let us sit in the copilot seat and look through the HUD. It's really a nice aircraft! It's a strategic transport aircraft with a stick and auto-trim! I new it was nice, but seeing it up close was impressive. It was nice to just be able to walk over and be welcomed into the cockpit. This job definitely has benefits.

Good flight

I just had fun today. It was a nice change. The weather was cold and a little iffy, but we got into the area and the winds at the aux field weren't crazy like yesterday, so it was cool. It was the first time in awhile that I just had fun flying, everything flowed, and I even got complemented on my patterns. Today was a good, nay, a great day! Thanks for the support and prayers!

Windy Flight

All I did today was finish my flight from yesterday, which consisted of pattern work. It was really sporty though, because the winds were 22 gusting 35 knots. Thankfully, they were almost straight down the runway. That said, they would still knock the plane around in the flare, and that made landing interesting every time. When we switched back to my wingman flying, we had to wait an extra 30 minutes just leave the pattern because of how congested the air traffic was. Overall it was just a tiring day to fly. You need a few days like that to appreciate the good days.